Running head: THE EFFECT OF PICTURES BOOKS ON READING COMPREHENSION

The Effect of Pictures Books on Reading Comprehension

Rebecca Turner

Franciscan University of Steubenville

Introduction
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Reading is an enriching and fruitful act. It fosters imagination and creativity in addition

to promoting intellectual growth and subject exploration. It encourages further communication in

both an oral and written form and therefore it is clear that it provides crucial benefits to learning

and proper development. Semiliterate children, on the other hand, are more restricted than those

children who have been properly taught to read and comprehend literature. It is without a doubt

that learning how to read is often seen as a daunting task for young students, specifically, in

Kindergarten. The pressure to read has drastically impacted the classroom environment and has

lead to a new level of stress in the classroom. A grade that was once based on improving social

interactions and learning life skills (e.g. tying shoelaces), is now primarily focused on learning

how to read according to the Common Core State Standard regarding fluency in Kindergarten --

Students will be able to… “Read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding”

(National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School

Officers, 2010). Although reading comprehension is typically more of a concern with young

students, older students cannot be neglected. Reading comprehension, like learning, is a lifelong

process.

Many researchers have been striving to make reading comprehension an effortless task

for students. There has been research ranging from the creation of reading programs, to the

implementation of various instructional strategies, but the key to reading comprehension may be

much more straightforward. Lysaker & Hopper (2015) conducted a study that suggested the

solution to long-term comprehension may be found in the use of picture books. Another study,

conducted by Mantei & Kervin (2014) indicated that students were able to make personal

connections through the use of picture books. If this were true, then it would only be logical to

then increase the incorporation picture books in the classroom.

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From personal experience, I have found that picture books have had a positive impact on

my reading. It is much easier for me to comprehend a book with pictures and visuals (i.e. graphs

or charts) than it is to comprehend a text-only book. This is what sparked the thought, “What if I

am not the only one who benefits from reading through the use of picture books?” With the

combination of my own personal experience and from what I have seen students struggle with, I

wanted to further explore the possibility of greater reading comprehension with the use of picture

books.

Purpose

In Elementary school, many students tend to struggle with reading comprehension.

Students focus so much on decoding the text that they forget that the text is about. Through

research in the classroom, I hope to answer the question: What effect does the use of pictures in

books have on reading comprehension?

One of the goals I hope to accomplish through this research is to find whether or not

picture books improve reading comprehension. In brief, this will be accomplished by having a

group of students read a book with pictures and another group read the book without pictures.

After reading, I will ask the students several comprehensive questions about the passage that was

assigned. These questions will be asked one-on-one because I want each student to give an

authentic answer to check for comprehension. Through observation and informal assessment, I

will see indicators on whether or not the picture books helped to improve comprehension.

I am conducting this research because I want to help students comprehend on a more

thorough and efficient level. My hypothesis is that students will be able to comprehend more of

the material through the use of picture books. This hypothesis is based upon what I have read

(e.g. literature reviews) and what I have also personally experienced. Pictures or visuals in books
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typically give students a more concrete idea of what is being read or spoken. Again, this

hypothesis is primarily based on personal experience rather than research and I desire to do this

research to see if my experience is similar to that of others.

Review of Literature

Literature reviews have been helpful in discovering how to approach this topic of reading

comprehension. These articles have also been useful to implement a strategy to carry out this

research. These reviews include valuable information regarding how picture books effect

comprehension.

Picture books are often used by teachers to pique the interest of young students. But what

happens when words are removed and it becomes a wordless picture book? Lubis (2018)

conducted a study researching the response of a young child when reading a wordless picture

book. Lubis hypothesized that children respond better, and produce more narrative, through the

use of wordless picture books. In this study, a six-year old boy named Daniel was the participant.

Daniel can communicate well, but he is not able to read yet.

Lubis conducted four different data collection sessions with Daniel with a total of six

different wordless picture books. Daniel was asked to read his interpretation of the story aloud

and then share his understandings based on visual elements presented in each book. Lubis found

that Daniel was able to draw upon his past knowledge to interpret these books. Daniel was also

able to show different perspectives and he added noise (sound effects) to the descriptions of the

books. Daniel was able to comprehend various textbooks without decoding the text in them. This

study showed that despite popular belief, reading does not begin with words.

This article changed the perspective on the idea of comprehension. It suggested that

pictures are essential to accompany the journey of learning how to read. It was wonderful to
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follow along and envision the creativity of Daniel. He was truly able to express his thoughts and

imagination all while learning to comprehend the material. I believe the sample size could have

been bigger. Though the results were outstanding, it does not seem appropriate to only test one

student. This article is relevant to my Action Research Project because it shows the importance

of picture books in comprehension which is exactly what I will be studying. In the future, I

believe this study could be expanded upon by using more participants and more methods of

testing their comprehension in the wordless picture books. It would also be very intriguing to

compare wordless picture books to regular picture books and see the difference in

comprehension.

Though wordless picture books are valuable in showing how pictures can tell a story and

convey a topic without the use of text, it is also important to see the impact of combination of

text and pictures has on comprehension.

Teachers often try to make connections between students and material to help make

learning meaningful. Researches Mantei and Kervin (2014) used picture books and artwork to

connect the students to the educational material and to help them discover their own creativity.

The purpose of this article is to indicate the strong connection between literature and artwork and

how that connection can help develop literacy. They chose sixteen different students (ages 9-10)

from three different schools as participants in the study. Each child was asked to read a wordless

picture book and make personal connections with the selected book. They were then asked to

draw about the book and create a piece of art. Finally, they were asked to complete a worksheet

with a series of questions to promote higher level thinking about the wordless picture book. This

research suggested the importance of connecting literacy and art. The students were able to
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demonstrate their comprehension visually and they were also given the opportunity to make

more text-to-self connections because of that.

This study took a different approach which I found very refreshing. They did not depend

on tests to demonstrate their point, instead, they offered authentic artwork produced by the

children themselves to show their understanding of the material. It is wonderful to see a different

form of assessment. I found the methodology to be difficult to follow at first, because this article

was of a different format, but after a little while the article flowed naturally and things were

much clearer. This article corresponds well to the Action Research Project that I am working on

because it indicates how vital pictures and artwork are to reading and comprehension, which

supports my hypothesis. For further research, I would love to see more students of different ages

try this same approach. It is important to see a variety of factors in order to come to an accurate

conclusion.

Learning how to read can be a difficult task for students. Unfortunately, teacher

instruction and low motivation are factors that add to this difficulty. Roslina (2017) writes an

article to see what can be done about this disconnect in learning to read, and she conducts

research to see if picture books help with reading comprehension. Roslina believed that pictures

in books can make reading comprehension more effective and decided to discover the extent of

this effectiveness. Thirty students were chosen to participate. Fifteen students were chosen at

random to test this topic and the remaining fifteen were in a control group. The author acquired

data in various ways including an interview, a questionnaire, a reading test, and observations.

There was a pre-test and a post-test to show the improvement. After the research was completed,

it was shown that out of the thirty students participating, those that read picture books improved

their test scores significantly compared to those students in the control group.
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It was very impressive to see the amount of effort that went into this research. The

sample size was suitable and I think it was the right amount of participants to suggest the

hypothesis of the author. The statistics were very clear and straightforward. There were many

different statistics displayed in this article that made it difficult to read. It was not the statistics

themselves, it was how they were displayed. This applies directly to my Action Research project

because I will also be testing comprehension skills in relation to picture books. For further

research, I would personally add more participants in different age groups and grades to

demonstrate the essentiality of pictures in reading books.

Although comprehension is typically discussed in relation to elementary grades, it is

imperative that older students are not overlooked. Picture books are well known in preschool and

elementary classrooms as useful tools to improve reading and comprehension, but what about

older students? Can picture books be a functional tool for them as well? Author Gwyn W.

Senokossoff believes so! In her 2013 article, she emphasizes the importance of picture books

across all grades and ability levels. The purpose of her study is to discuss the benefits of picture

books and to describe strategies that could be implemented in the classroom. The strategies given

in the article are Think-Alouds, Interactive Read-Alouds with Facilitative Talk, Visual Literacy,

and Vocabulary Development. For the purpose of this article, these strategies are to be used

specifically with picture books. There is no sample or participation in the article, but the author

does mention that she has done research in the past. Again, there is no method, per se, but in the

article Senokosso references several research articles and she used them to solidify her

viewpoint. This article is concluded by mentioning how students of all ages need authentic

literacy experiences. Picture books not only can improve a literacy experience but it can actually

form an authentic experience.

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I really admired how much time and attention went into gathering these resources for

future educators like myself. At the end of the article, there are two appendixes - picture books

for older readers and online resources for finding appropriate picture books. These are both

incredible resources. What I found to be difficult was the lack of a sample or participation. I

know some texts are purely for information and resource, which I can appreciate, but I do

typically like to read articles with some sort of implementation involved. This article relates to

my topic by looking at the advantages of picture books. This research only emphasizes what I am

studying because it demonstrates the value picture books hold far beyond elementary school.

This article would be greatly improved through the use of a methodology. Without a

methodology, it is hard to see the factual benefits of the strategies presented in the article.

Methodology

I conducted my research in a Kindergarten classroom located within a rural town in the

midwestern region of the United States. I was placed in this classroom through the Franciscan

University of Steubenville Field Experience course. I spent a total of 60 hours in the classroom

throughout the semester and I choose students from this field placement to be the participants in

this research project. I specifically selected students who were beginner readers or were very

close to being able to read. These students are not a representation of the overall population

because only eighteen students were used to conduct this research.

The method of collecting data began with the idea that the students would read the text,

with or without pictures, in a small group setting. I decided to do six groups with three students

in each group totaling eighteen students in all. Day one of observation and data collection, I

presented the first group of students with the picture-version of the book “The Rainbow Fish”

(Pfister & James, 1992).

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In the first group, only one student could read. She could not read well, but she showed

evident signs of the ability to decode words. She would sound out each individual letter, but she

had a difficult time connecting the letters to make a word. For instance, she would say, “F-I-S-

H” but she had a difficult time saying the word “fish.” This lack of the ability to read concerned

me, but I decided to try again with the second group. In the second group, two of the students

could not read. They could pronounce some letters but not all of the letters.

After reflecting upon this problem, I decided to change my methodology. The majority of

the students were not able to read themselves, so I decided to conduct a read-aloud session for all

of the groups. Though the format changed, the concept remained the same. I read a book with

pictures to three of the groups (i.e. nine students), and I read a book without pictures to the other

three groups (i.e. nine students).

When I read the book with pictures, I had a physical copy of the book (i.e. The Rainbow

Fish) and it was faced towards the students so that they were able to see both the words and the

pictures on each page. When I read the book without pictures, I just had the words printed on

blank paper. No pictures or visuals (i.e. graphs or charts) were provided.

After reading the book, I would ask the same questions to each student:

- What was this book (or story) about?

- What was your favorite part of the book (or story)?

The students would respond individually, and I recorded each response in a notebook I carried

with me. These responses are located in the appendix.

Findings

Through the process of observing and informally assessing the students, along with the

literature that was reviewed, it is very clear the use of pictures has an impact on student
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comprehension. This is not to say that all the students were impacted, but many of the students

who participated in this research demonstrated to me that pictures do have a strong influence on

reading comprehension. The research, both literary and personal, has suggested that pictures tend

to engage students, therefore helping them to retain information and comprehend the material.

The students were very happy to participate, as they enjoyed read-alouds regularly in the

classroom. The first thing I noticed while reading the picture book and the non-picture book was

the difference in the level of attention I received from the students. When there were pictures, the

students were actively engaged (e.g. pointing to the pictures, repeating words that I spoke, eyes

focused on the book). When there were no pictures, the amount of attention decreased

significantly (e.g. looking out the window, fidgeting with their hands, talking with their

neighbor).

While reading-aloud, I took time to notice where the students were looking and how they

reacted to the pictures or lack thereof.

I have inserted a pie-chart below to demonstrate what my research concluded:

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How to read the Pie Chart:

There are eighteen students in all. Nine students were read-aloud a book with pictures

and the other nine were read-aloud a book with no pictures. Overwhelmingly, the students who

did not have any pictures incorporated into the story had a very difficult time recalling what the

story was about. Some students made up an answer (e.g. “Bouncy ball”) but many of the students
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did not answer at all by either remaining silent or saying “I don’t know.” Only two students (i.e.

18.2%) had an idea of what the book was about (i.e. sharing, making friends, etc).

On the other hand, the students who were read-aloud the picture book seemed to

comprehend much more. The majority of the students (i.e. 5/9 or 55.6%) understood the basics

of the book. Only one student did not know anything about the book when asked the

comprehension questions.

With these results, it is reasonable to suggest that students improve comprehension

through the use of pictures. Even the few students who were not able to recall much information

about the text were, at the very least, engaged in the read-aloud due to the use of pictures.

Recommendations

To start, I would recommend conducting this research on students who are able to read.

That was my original plan which, unfortunately, was unable to be carried out. The reason I want

students to read both pictures books and non-picture books on their own is because the read-

aloud that I conduct may modify how they interpret the book. Even the fluctuation in my voice

can be a variable that will be inconsistent among each of the groups. For the research to be

consistent and accurate, the students will need to be able to read on their own.

Having a broader study with more available students and larger time frame could help

extend the study and provide more useful information. If possible, this study should be

completed on more students, varying in age and ability. It should also be studied over a more

extensive period of time because this will offer a better representation of the general population

as a whole.
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The purpose question was not answered due to the students not being able to read. I was

able to find indications that picture books do improve reading comprehension, but not to the

extent that I hoped to.

I believe that it would also be beneficial to conduct research on the effects of picture

books on students with disabilities. I would be very interested to see if picture books help

students who struggle from intellectual disabilities or dyslexia. Overall, this is a well-researched

topic but more extensive studies could improve our manner of teaching and therefore better aid

those struggling with reading comprehension.

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References

Lubis, R. (2018). The Progress of Students Reading Comprehension through Wordless Picture

Books. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 9(1), 48.

Lysaker, J., & Hopper, E. (2015). A Kindergartners Emergent Strategy Use During Wordless

Picture Book Reading. The Reading Teacher, 68(8), 649-657.

Mantel, J., & Kevin, L. (2014). Interpreting the images in a picture book: Students make

connections to themselves, their lives and experiences. English Teaching: Practice and

Critique, 13, 76-92.

Martinez, M., & Harmon, J. M. (2012). Picture/Text Relationships: An Investigation of Literary

Elements in Picturebooks. Literacy Research and Instruction, 51(4), 323-343.

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, & Council of Chief State School

Officers. (2010). Common Core State Standards (English Language Arts). Retrieved from

http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RF/K/)

Roslina. (2017). The Effect of Picture Story Books on Students’ Reading Comprehension.

Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 8(2), 213.

Senokosso, G. W. (2013). Picture Books Are For Little Kids, Aren’t They? Using Picture Books

with Adolescent Readers to Enhance Literacy Instruction. Reading Horizons, 52(3), 211-

232.

Pfister, M., & James, J. A. (1992). The rainbow fish. New York: North-South Books.

Appendix
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