The Big Picture

There is a growing body of evidence to support picture books and comics as powerful tools for enriching classroom practice and enhancing literacy. Visual texts provide a route into targeted book talk, one of a number of oral language interventions, which the EEF suggests can provide "an additional six months’ progress over the course of a year".

Picture books "have the potential to promote children's conceptual development while simultaneously opening their worlds in fun, engaging, and compelling ways." (Early Childhood Education Journal, 2023). They provide an effective source of inferential discussion, an important part of reading comprehension. And, because they rely mainly on pictures to create a narrative, they can be used across a range of reading abilities.

Comics and graphic novels are a dynamic, rich and inclusive reading format which can engage keen and reluctant readers alike. Our research has found that children who read comics are "more engaged with reading, regardless of their age" than those who don't (Children and young people's engagement with comics in 2023, National Literacy Trust), showing that they provide a potential route into reading for pleasure.

This CPD will provide strategies to maximise the use of picture books and comics in the classroom.

• To develop professional knowledge of the power and importance of visual texts in developing literacy
• To explore the evidence base for the use of picturebooks and comics with a wide range of children and young people
• To gain confidence in embedding visual texts in the literacy curriculum, planning, teaching and learning
• To take away strategies and techniques to support the implementation of immediate, impactful approaches