Monday, April 5, 2010

Meet My Neighbor the Artist

This is a wonderful book for ELL students. It belongs to a series authored by Marc Crabtree. The simplicity of the language and the telling about this neighbor is particularly valuable, mostly for Beginner and Intermediate level students. The pictures are wonderful and to the point.

Additionally to the simplicity of the language and the great pictures, you have a succint vocabulary list that is clearly depicted both in the pictures and in the story. Words like palette, painting (both as a noun and a verb), mixing (colors), as one of the things artists do, for example.

The book lends itself not only as a visual example but also as an introduction to several subjects, like being a visual artist, mixing colors, and introducing people. The title itself is a great example of how you introduce someone formally. This is the kind of book that I recently discovered it and I've used it for all the purposes mentioned. The children like it and have learned from it. My biggest vote of confidence to the success of this text was when last week, one of my students wanted a different shade of green than the ones in his 12 color pencil box. Another student encouraged him "to mix" the colors like Daniel Scott - the artist featured in this book.
Click on the title to view this book.

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