If you’re teaching a children’s literature college course, then it makes sense to assign picture books as part of your readings. But, what if you’re teaching a non-children’s literature course. Is there still a place for picture books with these college-level students? Yes, there definitely is!

One Way to Approach Teaching Literary Analysis to College Students

In this video, I describe how I approach teaching literary analysis to my college freshman students. I don’t start with picture books, but they are definitely part of the early days of the semester. If multimodal writing is part of your lesson plans, then including picture books at the beginning of the course is a no-brainer.

Picture books are a great way to teach literary terminology and important class concepts. Simile, metaphor, metafiction, pathetic fallacy, etc. So many terms can be taught using picture books. Plot structure, the Rule of Three, characterization, etc. All concepts that can be taught with picture books.

By including these texts, you give students the chance to get confident with their analysis skills before throwing longer and more complex texts their way. And really, picture books can be quite complex themselves, if you take the time to deeply analyze them.

So, these are just some brief thoughts on teaching picture books to college students. In my literature courses, I also offer writing a PB as an extra credit activity. Great way for students to apply what they’ve learned while also giving them a chance for creative expression.

My go-to picture book? The Paper Bag Princess (affiliate) by Robert Munsch and illustrated by Michael Martchenko.

How do you use picture books in your classroom?

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