Exploring the Wonder of David Wiesner

I have been teaching for two-thirds of my life, and I am now looking back over those years and thinking about how we learn and what makes some of us life-long learners.  I am especially interested in how some people love to read and some do not.  I can’t imagine my life without stories.  Since before I could formally read, I loved to listen to stories. I loved to watch strangers and make up stories about their lives.  I loved to look at pictures and put myself in the middle of the scene.  I was primed for wonder.  I loved to dream and think about the “what if’s.”  

When I was an early elementary teacher, I became acquainted with David Wiesner.  He is a brilliant children’s book writer and illustrator.  His art tells amazing stories that keep his readers wondering and more and more curious. His subjects are a bit zany, which piqued my students’ interest and kept them wanting to hear more.

One book of Wiesner’s that I really loved was June 29, 1999, which is amazingly 25 years ago! This book weaves a fascinating story about a young student, Holly Evans, who launches a science experiment with surprising results. I thought the book would be perfect to teach kids about how to generate questions while reading.  Certainly, Wiesner’s stories make people think, wonder, and question.  

I told my  students that they would be practicing their questioning skills using the book, June 29, 1999.  I proceeded to read the story aloud, and modeled my thinking by generating some questions for the first couple of pages. Then,  I asked students to think about questions they had as I kept reading and showing the pictures.  I gave them a sheet of paper to record any questions and stopped periodically to give my students time to share their questions.

At the end of the read aloud, I asked students to reflect on three key questions:

• Does David Wiesner answer all our questions?
• Why do you think he ended his book the way he did?
• What questions do you still have about the events and characters?

I wanted the students to understand that questioning is an essential part of learning.  The more questions you have, the more you will learn.

After I had read the story and the students had time to think about their questions, I asked them to write a news article about the events in June 29, 1999.  First, they had to think of a question and use it as their headline.  They retold the story choosing major events and shared their articles with their classmates. Below is a sample story I wrote.

If you want a fun and thought-provoking way to start the new school year, I highly recommend exploring wonder with the work of David Wiesner!

Wonder-Filled Books by David Wiesner

• Art & Max
• Flotsam
• Free Fall
• Hurricane
• I Got it!
• June 29, 1999
• Mr. Wuffles
• Sector 7
• Tuesday