Friday, January 5, 2018

The Mind of the Seeker


Friends,
Today, I'm reflecting. Sitting here with my 3-year-old, who's home from school recuperating, and looking through through this seek and find book.  We'd purchased just three of them last week, in order to take my kids' love of that format in Highlights Hive Five and Puzzle Buzz to the next level. It's really interesting what I observe in my children when we engage with these books, and I wanted to post about it while the ideas are still fresh.  There are several ways I think these books can aid the work of parents and educators in producing hard-working thinkers and scholars.  Look and find books--or seek and find, or whatever they may be called--will just be called "seeker books" in this post, just for the sake of ease. Allow me to explain:
  • Seeker books give children who are not yet readers, authentic opportunities to confidently interact with books. If you think about it, turning pages is accessible to all. But confident, reader-led interaction? This is the domain usually reserved for "real" readers (who understand the printed code) OR for kids confident in inventing text based on pictures. 
  • There is an unspoken assumption about the job of a reader that emerges from studying these books.  Their whole purpose is to cause readers to find pictures that are purposely obscured or made challenging.  What is the reader to take from this?  "My job as a reader is to dig out hard things from the text in order to get the prize." Isn't that exactly the message we want our readers to have about their engagement with printed text? 
  • It's amazing the kind of focus that kids put into finding these images. Of course, you have to.  It wouldn't be Where's Waldo?, for example, if Waldo were jumping out at us.  But I am inspired by the kind of detailed searching I see my kids doing.  I have been intrigued by this idea for some time, so much that I decided to see how they could benefit my school.  Late last year, I asked my principal to let me initiate a school-wide time of fun reading prior to teacher pick-up in the mornings.  The goal was to bridge the space between home and the classroom with light reading such as poetry, magazines, graphic novels and seeker books.  Graciously, she said yes, and I was able to purchase a few thousands of dollars worth of fun reading for students.  My theory?  Training our eyes to pay close attention to detail in images translates into attention to detail in text, as in, looking past the first letter, looking at parts in words, and all of that other stuff we pull our hair out trying to get readers to do.  (No, I've never read research that there's a correlation between these two. It's just my theory.  But it makes sense to me! I'm sticking with it.  I like the work I see learners doing...)
  • I watch my children taken on initiative when using these books.  After the satisfaction of finding a picture, they'll declare, on their own, "I'm gonna look for THIS!" pointing to their next conquest and setting off to find it.  As a teacher and literacy coach, I can say that initiative in taking problem-solving action while reading is a real challenge, particularly for struggling readers.  But the success of one find fuels the desire for more success, and the child takes the lead!
  • I've noticed that in a really non-assuming way, seeker books give me an opportunity to teach strategy to my children.  Today, I showed my daughter my use of process of elimination.  We wanted to find a brown bunny image wearing a blue shirt.  She got to watch me take my eyes to (only) each brown figure, then move on if the second criterion of the blue shirt was missing. Valuable strategy lessons there, with few words exchanged!  I'm like my mother. I love lessons that just teach, without announcing themselves loudly.  Thanks, seeker books!
  • Looking into the future, I envision my children and those I teach being all the more solutions-minded, seeing themselves as problem-solvers who can figure tough things out.  I have not yet seen my kids cry or throw a fit because they can't find something (or at least I don't remember that happening), and I admire them for that. I think these seeker books help to build up mental toughness and stamina. 
  • The other thing I like about these books is that there is room to graduate up in complexity, without the task getting old.  For example, when my kids were at about 18 months, we did books like the one below to the left, then moved on to Highlights Hello, High Five and Puzzle Buzz. Now, my younger one is on to books like the Pooh book below, whereas my 5-year-old is intrigued by Waldo and I Spy.  Different levels for different ages.  And can I tell you that in my school, students at K-5 love the task?  They don't outgrow it! :-) 

  • Finally, I love that my little ones feel confident in taking Mommy on in a challenge:  We will be looking for a picture and either I will challenge to beat them, finding it first, or they will arise to take me on first.  Either way, this is the kind of competition I think is fun and not harmful, where we push each other to stretch our wits and skill with speed.  And even when we're trying to beat each other, we are in all ways still becoming a team.
So there you have it, friends! Lots of value, as I see it, in these little simple books.  Seek on, seekers! :-) 

Love & light,