Professional Development
These programs are available at the Museum or at your site. Programs that take place at the Museum include Admission and a 10% discount in the Museum Shop (Members 20%) on the day of the program.
Target Audience: Teachers, librarians, children's literature instructors, graduate and undergraduate classes, homeschooling parents, and artist and writer groups. (Programs can also be adapted for older students.)
To arrange for your own group’s professional development opportunities please contact the Education Department at 413.658.1113 or programs@picturebookart.org.
Professional Development Brochure
Click here to download the full Professional Development Brochure (PDF)
An Introduction to The Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS)
$80 / participant
Learn about VTS, an approach developed by cognitive psychologist Abigail Housen and museum educator Philip Yenawine which supports the viewer’s ability to find meaning and pleasure in works of art. Participants will discuss and analyze the strategies, experiment with the method, and learn how these strategies can enhance teaching.
(6 PDP) (10 min / 20 max)
InFORMed Reading of Children's Literature: The Whole Book Approach across Children's Literature
$40 / participant
What distinguishes a picture book from a beginning reader, an illustrated book, or a graphic novel? This half-day program examines some forms that children's books take and explores how they support verbal and visual literacy. A related hands-on activity in the Art Studio will further explore the relationship between materials and form.
(3 PDP) (10 min / 20 max participants)
Picture This
$80 / participant
This full-day program centers on the work of award-winning illustrator Molly Bang and her book, Picture This: How Pictures Work. The day includes an exploration of approaches to “Reading Pictures,” a review of Bang’s core visual literacy principles, and the opportunity for teachers to apply this information in the creation of cut-paper collages.
(6 PDP) (10 min / 20 max participants)
Show Me a Story: Reading Wordless Picture Books
One Day Option - $80 / participant
Two Day Option - $150 / participant
Learn how to “read” a wordless picture book. Through presentations, discussion, and hands-on activities this program explores wordless picture books and their connections to visual and verbal literacy.
(6 or 12 PDP) (10 min/20 max participants)
Sowing the Seeds of Visual Literacy
$80 / participant
This full-day workshop offers an overview of An Introduction to The Visual Thinking Strategies and The Whole Book Approach, the Museum’s pedagogical method for understanding the art and design of the picture book.
(6 PDP) (10 min / 20 max participants)
Art Studio Programs
The Art Studio’s Professional Development programs support the Museum’s mission by encouraging making, appreciating, and thinking about art. Designed to engage participants in hands-on art making while fostering creative and critical thinking, these programs draw upon the Museum’s exhibitions, VTS, and the Reggio Emilia Approach to Education.
Bookmaking in your Classroom
$40 / participant
Bookmaking is an excellent tool that can be used in the classroom to connect visual and verbal literacy. Learn the origins of bookmaking, create unique bookmaking structures, and gain the knowledge to incorporate these structures into your classroom.
(3 PDP) (10 min / 15 max participants)
Eric Carle Tissue Paper Workshop
$50 / participant
Are you fascinated by the tissue collages of Eric Carle? Learn about the origins of collage, discover the creative process involved, and explore Carle's paper painting techniques. Participants will create unique collage papers and make their own picture.
(4 PDP) (10 min / 15 max participants)
Book-Centered Programs
The Whole Book Approach is the Museum's critical framework and pedagogical method for understanding the art and design of a picture book and expanding its use as a tool for learning. Drawing upon Visual Thinking Strategies, whole language instruction, and the child-focused discovery methods of the Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education, this critical engagement with the picture book as an art form places emphasis on reading with children rather than reading to children and engages the group in a collaborative experience of the picture book. It is the foundation for the following programs:
Beginning with Books: Babies, Toddlers, Preschoolers, and Picture Books
$80 / participant
This full-day workshop is designed to support home daycare providers, parents, and teachers in their efforts to engage young children with picture books and support early literacy. Topics include: the Museum's Whole Book Approach, building a board book library for children 3 and under, exploring links between visual and verbal literacy, picture books and Vivian Gussin Paley's storytelling approach, and helping young children to connect literature to life. Sites may choose to break this program into a series of short sessions.
(6 PDP) (10 min / 20 max participants)
A Book in Hand: Multiple Copy Storytimes for Babies, Toddlers, and Preschoolers
$40 / participant
Explore how using multiple copies of a single picture book during storytimes and/or classroom circle-times can benefit babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and adults alike. Through this innovative approach to looking, listening, learning, and communicating, connections will be made between visual and verbal literacy while examining the picture book as a visual art form and a physical object.
(3 PDP) (10 min / 20 max participants)
Framed: Picture Book Art and Page Design
$40 / participant
In addition to choices about color, line, shape, and composition, illustrators must decide whether art will bleed off some or all sides of the trimmed page or be contained on the page and if so, whether it will be within a frame or border. Through the examination of many fine picture books, participants will explore this crucial element of picture book design and how it influences the viewer’s experience of the art.
(3 PDP) (10 min / 20 max participants)
From Cover to Cover: The Whole Book Approach to Evaluating and Using Picture Books
$40 / participant
This workshop is designed to give educators the tools to evaluate the picture book as an art form and to encourage the critical engagement of students during picture book reading experiences. The program can be based on the work of numerous contemporary picture book artists (Survey Program), or selected works of one artist in support of an illustrator study. You may request program development for an artist not listed below for an additional fee.
Available Programs: Survey Program, Margaret Wise Brown and Her Illustrators, Eric Carle, Alice and Martin Provensen, Chris Van Allsburg, or Margot Zemach
Fee for alternate program development: $200
(3 PDP) (10 min / 20 max participants)
Mining the Picture Book: A (Whole) Book Group for Educators
$40 / participant
Reading picture books with attention to art and design can set the stage for a dynamic and rewarding book group experience. Grounded in the evaluation stage of the Museum's Whole Book Approach, these facilitated discussions will give participants the critical framework to assess the merits of picture books in general and to appreciate their full potential in the arts. Books considered in this program include: Trina Schart Hyman's Little Red Riding Hood; Christopher Myers's Wings; Allen Say's Grandfather's Journey; and Eric Carle and Bill Martin, Jr.'s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Your site may request a focus on other picture books for an additional development fee.
(3 PDPs)(10 min / 20 max participants)
(Please note that this program can be a 1-day workshop or a series of one-hour sessions at staff meetings, team meetings, or other curriculum building times.)
Optional Program development fee: $200
Multicultural Children's Literature: A Critical Framework
$40 / participant
Rudine Simms Bishop's seminal text, Shadow and Substance: The Afro-American Experience in Children's Literature (1982) establishes a critical framework for evaluating children’s literature from a multicultural perspective. This workshop will provide an overview of her framework, with a particular focus on its application to illustrated children's literature across cultures.
(3 PDP) (10 min / 20 max participants)
A Novel Idea: Connecting Picture Books and Novels in Middle and High School Curriculum
$40 / participant
The picture book form is traditionally viewed as the domain of children ages 8 and under. This discussion-based workshop explores how to link novel reading with picture book reading in order to support critical engagement with texts and to extend the range of the picture book through upper elementary school, middle school, and high school classes in Language Arts.
(3 PDP) (10 min / 20 max participants)
Picture Book Texts: One Part of the Whole Book
$80 / participant
What makes a good picture book text? This full-day workshop explores the hallmarks of good picture book writing and offers resources for aspiring writers.
(Please note that the Museum does not offer editorial support or connections to publishers for manuscript submission.)
(6 PDP) (10 min / 20 max participants)
Using Picture Books to Address State Education Frameworks
Fee dependent upon program's design.
The Museum's Education Department has worked with several Massachusetts public school districts to design and implement professional development workshops exploring possibilities for using picture books to fulfill state requirements across the curriculum. Contact Instructor of Children’s Literature Programs, Megan Lambert, to discuss your school district's needs in this area.
The Whole Book Approach Meets Social Studies:
Biography in Children's Literature
$40 / participant
This session explores varied literary, design, and artistic approaches to biography in contemporary children's literature. Participants will pay particular attention to the strengths and merits of picture book biographies as resources for students of all ages.
(3 PDP) (10 min / 20 max participants)
From Cover to Cover with Brown Bear
$250
This PowerPoint presentation is designed for large audiences interested in learning about the Museum's Whole Book Approach to evaluating and using the picture book as an art form. This interactive presentation examines the art from Eric Carle and Bill Martin, Jr.'s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and allows the audience to discover the full potential of this deceptively simple concept book. Ideal for professional groups, groups of older students, and can be adapted to engage young students.
Silly, Subversive, Serious Stuff: The Work of Dr. Seuss
$250
This lecture-style presentation focuses on Theodor Seuss Geisel's lasting contributions to children's literature, with a particular focus on To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, The Cat in the Hat, The Lorax, and The Butter Battle Book.
Paint That Funky Music White Boy: The Jazz Picture Books of Chris Raschka
$250
This lecture-style presentation explores Raschka's work as a picture book artist who crosses lines of race, medium, and expected intended audience. It also touches on multicultural criticism of children's literature, child studies, and the potential of the picture book across the curriculum.
Residencies
Schools may contract with the Museum to have a member of the Museum’s education staff work with teachers and students over an extended period of time. An individually designed residency might include onsite professional development; Museum visits; classroom visits featuring art making, Whole Book Approach storytimes, “reading pictures,” or team-teaching with the classroom teacher; and bibliographic research support for teachers. A limited number of residencies are available and can often be funded through grants written by schools. Fees are determined on a case-by-case basis.
The following sites have hosted Museum residencies:
- Jackson Street School, Northampton, MA (2003)
- E.N. White Elementary School, Holyoke, MA (2003)
- The Common School, Amherst, MA (2003)
- Egremont Elementary School, Pittsfield, MA (2004)
- Mohawk Trail Regional School District, Franklin County, MA (2005)
Consultation
A fee of $100 / hour will be charged for professional consultation efforts which are clearly aligned with the Museum's mission to increase visual and verbal literacy, provide the tools to enjoy and appreciate art of every kind, and to celebrate the art of the picture book. Ongoing consultation can also be arranged to support the development and implementation of your lessons employing the methods outlined in these workshops.
Additional Fees
Mileage
The Museum will charge a fee of $.48/mile for roundtrip travel between its Amherst location and the hosting site. The Museum will calculate this fee using an internet map source.
Distance
The Museum absorbs one hour of roundtrip travel for outreach programming. Any additional time will be rounded to the nearest half-hour, and the rate will be $30/half-hour of travel time outside of the one hour roundtrip radius. This radius is determined by the Museum through an internet map source.
Accommodations
Any site outside of a four hour roundtrip radius from the Museum will be asked to provide overnight accommodations for the outreach consultant/presenter at his/her discretion. A per diem rate of $45 may also be applied to cover meals and incidental expenses incurred by the consultant/presenter.