Craft Lesson 9

Resource Materials:
Banyai, Istvan. Zoom. New York: Puffin Books, 1998.

Target Audience:
First Grade

Discussion:
In wordless books like Zoom by Istvan Banyai, details in the illustrations are extremely important to notice. Just before a major setting change, Banyai gives the reader a hint of what is to come. In this lesson, students will focus on finding clues in the pictures that indicate impending change. Such attention to detail is important to develop in young readers because it aids in comprehension of the story.

How to Teach It:
Show students to first picture in Zoom, and let them talk about what they think it is. Then move to the second picture and talk about whether or not they were right. Move on to the third picture and talk about whether or not they think their answer is correct. Follow this pattern of look, think, evaluate and talk through the seventh picture. Then ask the students what they think of the picture now and why did or why did they not change their answers. On the ninth picture, ask the students if they notice anything that indicates a change might be coming. Keep looking, thinking, evaluating and talking throughout the book, being sure to guide students to visual clues in the fourteenth, seventeenth, and twentieth pictures. At these pictures, allow each student to predict what the new setting will be.

1st Grade Standards Taught:
1) connect personal experiences and ideas with information and ideas presented in print, 2) make and explain inferences from texts such as determining important ideas and causes and effects, making predictions and drawing conclusions, 3) identify the importance of setting to a story’s meaning.