Critical Reflection: Creating a Picture Book for Education

This assignment is a critical reflection on the process of creating a picture book. The student details the steps involved, from planning and story writing to adding illustrations and assembling the book. The reflection includes observations on the conventional process, noting the absence of digital versions and peer review. The student discusses the importance of picture books in teaching and learning, highlighting how illustrations aid in summarizing, synthesizing, and connecting with prior knowledge. The student also critiques the traditional method, suggesting improvements such as balancing illustrations with words and reorganizing pictures for better engagement. References to academic sources support the analysis, providing insights into children's cognitive development and creative thinking. The reflection concludes with the student's personal insights and suggestions for future improvements in picture book creation, emphasizing the need for critical reflection and continuous improvement in the process.

Critical Reflection 1
CRITICAL REFLECTION
by (Name)
Course
Professor
University
Date

Critical Reflection 2
A picture consists of illustrations meant to educate children on a particular subject. The
diagrams appear on each page or on one side of the facing pages accompanied by a few words.
Researchers explain that the books inspire creative thinking; improve the child’s vocabulary; and
enhance their visual skills. This paper reflects on the process of creating a picture book.
Reporting and Responding
I found out that the process involves a number of steps. The first step involves planning
the picture book. At this stage, I reviewed some picture books to gain inspiration. A book’s
success depends on its idea (Sun, C. 2016, 100). At the second stage, I wrote the story and
planned the book’s layout. Additionally, I created the characters and a rough draft of the story.
At the third step, I added pictures to the storyboard. For the last stage, I assembled the block by
bidding the pages and creating a cover.
One of my observations is that the process does not involve the creation of a digital
version. Today, students are increasingly using the digital platforms such as the internet for
learning. I also observed that the process does not have a provision for peer review. Notably,
peer review allows other individuals to preview the work before publication (Horsman, Y. 2014,
330). Personally, I think that process is erroneous in that it omits these crucial steps.
Relating
I found out that the process of creating a picture book is vital for teaching and learning.
The illustrations allow an instructor to summarize, synthesize, make connections and activate the
learner's prior knowledge. Psychologists suggest that the importance of early education is to
model and guide the student's initiative in learning. Personally, I think that the process improves
my experience in teaching and expands my knowledge base. Another benefit is that the process

Critical Reflection 3
expands my inferences about the use and meaning of new words. However, I think that the
psychological development of the child is low.
Reasoning
During the process of creating a picture book, I learned that the underlying concept in
creating a picture book is to “simplify” the learning process. Scientists suggest that it is difficult
for children to soak up knowledge and retain it for long due to their limited brain capacity (Lin,
R. 2012, 41). The context is important in that I must employ an interesting idea or simplified
illustrations. Additionally, my choice of vocabulary must be simple for the student to
comprehend. Teaching using picture books requires little prior knowledge.
Reconstructing
From my experience, the conventional process of creating picture books is wrong.
Although I agree with the majority of the ideas, there are a number of steps I argue against. For
instance, in the first stage reading other picture books is unnecessary. Before publishing any
book, an author must expand their knowledge to become more critical, reflective and inquisitive
(Hsiao, C. 2016, 39). In most cases, professional authors consult other scholars on an idea, rather
than read picture books I could have skipped the first stage (Lin, R. 2012, 42).
In the future, I would create a balance between the number of illustrations and the
corresponding words. One idea that might work is reorganizing the pictures well – this will make
the book more interesting. Additionally, it captures the reader’s attention (Horsman, Y. 2014,
324).

Critical Reflection 4
References
Horsman, Y. 2014. The infancy of art: comics, childhood and picture books. Journal of Graphic
Novels and Comics, 5(3), 323-335. Available from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21504857.2014.914962 [Accessed 16
September 2018]
Hsiao, C. 2016. Exploring the effectiveness of picture books for teaching young children the
concepts of environmental protection. International Research in Geographical and
Environmental Education, 25(1), 36-49. Available from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10382046.2015.1106203?src=recsys
[Accessed 16 September 2018]
Lin, R. 2012. A Study of Creative Thinking for Children's Picture Book Creation. ELSEVIER,
pp. 36-42. Available from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275195515_A_Study_of_Creative_Thinking_fo
r_Children%27s_Picture_Book_Creation?origin=publication_list [Accessed 16
September 2018]
Sun, C. 2016. The value of picture-book reading-based collaborative output activities for
vocabulary retention. Language Teaching Research, 21(1), pp. 96 - 117. Available from
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1362168816655364 [Accessed 16
September 2018].