Programme:
8.45 AM
Welcome
9.00 AM
Keynote Tatia Gruenbaum: Empty Pockets: Exploring social issues in picturebooks
10.15 – 11.45 AM: Workshops and presentations
Grainne Baker: Irish Myths and Legends
Hanne Bolze: Digging Deeper: Gender, Care, and the Politics of Picturebook Gardening
Marianne Brooks: Developing Storytelling with a Child with Special Needs
Li Ding and Natasha Janzen Ulbrich: Magic and Math in Motion: Using AI and Drama to Bring Stories Alive
Rachel Hall: Dramatising picturebooks
Maria Juko: Graphic biographies in the science class
Natsumi and Tomáš Kos: Storytelling on paper: bringing CLIL to life with
kamishibai
Thekla Mayerhofer: Generating movement tasks out of picture books
Susi Sahmland and Renata Dimowa Meet the artist and tell your story
Break: Poster presentation, publishers‘ exhibition, lunch at the green house
1.15 PM: Keynote Grit Alter: And what about language?
2.15 – 3.45 PM: Presentations and workshops
Renata Dimowa Participants´ favourites: Bring your own book
Charlott Falkenhagen: Water sounds - From story to concerto
Ariane Födisch: Pocket-Sized Diversity – „Mixed“ by A. Chung
Tatia Gruenbaum: Picturebooks and The Holocaust
Heike Hagelgans and Jaqueline Simon: Bridging the gap between primary and secondary maths
Tomáš Kos: Learning to Mediate Concepts in CLIL Classrooms
Franziska Müller: Assessment in CLIL
Pierre-Héli Monot: Picturebooks as Literature: On Pranks
Jannis Noack and Max Steinecke: The Whispering Town
Anne Schrader: Fostering Social Learning through Picture Books
Lea Wichmann and Linda Müller: Paddington’s herbal rescue
Vanessa Wildenauer: Exploring science through a storybook
4.00 PM: Wrap-up and prize-draw
Keynotes
TATIA GRUENBAUM: EMPTY POCKETS: EXPLORING SOCIAL ISSUES IN PICTUREBOOKS
Join Dr Tatia Gruenbaum for this keynote, which will focus on exploring social issues in picturebooks such as experiencing homelessness, relying on food banks and turning to crime to survive or save face. Children might encounter unfamiliar social situations for the first time in the classroom. However, relevant picturebooks can offer children an opportunity to observe the lives of people different to their own. Others might see themselves represented and learn that they are not alone and that their situation does not define them. During her talk, she will draw on work for the British Council on picturebooks and economic disparity (Ellis & Gruenbaum, 2023) and also present Home by Lippert and Stegmaier (2022). This picturebook tells the story of two children who are thrown into homelessness. The words nowhere, somewhere and anywhere recur throughout this story as nowhere becomes somewhere, which is better than nowhere or anywhere. These simple, yet impactful, words illustrate the power of using picturebooks that might be considered 'challenging' in order to foster tolerance and respect and to open up philosophical discussions about inclusion, belonging and hope.
References:
Ellis, G., & Gruenbaum, T. (2023). Picturebook lesson series: Exploring social issues.
British Council.
Lippert, T. K., & Stegmaier, A. (2022). Home. Magination Press, American
Psychological Association.
Tatia Gruenbaum is a visiting researcher at the department of Anglistik & Amerikanistik of TU Braunschweig (Germany). Her current research focuses on the inclusion of pictorial children’s and young adult Holocaust literature (picturebooks & graphic novels) in ELT to support Global Citizenship Education.
GRIT ALTER: BUT WHAT ABOUT LANGUAGE? PICTUREBOOKS AND COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT
In recent years, the picturebook market has seen a remarkable increase in diversity-sensitive publications that address topics such as gender and sexuality, racism and migration, and physical or mental differences—even for very young readers. Although many of these titles seem useful for primary English language teaching (ELT), their linguistic demands often exceed the competence descriptors for learners at the pre-A1 level. This tension between the pedagogical value of picturebooks and the realistic language affordances for young learners prompted a critical re-examination of how picturebooks are chosen for primary ELT and what kinds of linguistic and sociocultural competences they can genuinely support. In this talk, I invite the audience to reflect on selection criteria with a particular focus on their potential to foster language development. Drawing on concrete example texts and classroom activities, I will show how picturebooks can open pathways for linguistic learning while still offering sociocultural explorations—thus meaningfully connecting English language learning with cross-curricular content.
Grit Alter is Professor of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) at the University College of Teacher Education Tyrol, Austria. She is currently engaged in projects on picturebooks for advanced learners, critical textbook studies, and playful learning approaches from primary to tertiary education.
Workshops and Presentations
HANNE BOLZE: DIGGING DEEPER: GENDER, CARE, AND THE POLITICS OF PICTUREBOOK GARDENING
Gardening is a popular theme in picturebooks, often providing hopeful endings to stories about loneliness, grief, poverty, or environmental degradation. In these texts, gardening becomes a productive activity that empowers child characters to improve their situation. Yet gardening is frequently linked to passive qualities: making do with what we have, following instructions, and waiting for things to grow. When it is framed as care – for the self, the community, or the environment – it often relies on stereotypically feminine traits such as diligence and patience. But can this idealised model of care address the characters’ actual problems and their systemic roots? This presentation examines a range of gardening picturebooks to explore their potential to practise critical literacy, reimagining gardening as an opportunity for exploration rather than instruction.
Hanne Bolze is lecturer of British Literature / English Literary Studies at the University of Rostock.
MARIANNE BROOKS: DEVELOPING STORYTELLING WITH A CHILD WITH SPECIAL NEEDS
When you call a child non-verbal, you fix the mind set to the idea that the child does not and cannot speak. This, in turn, suggests that a child cannot communicate. The natural assumption, if a child cannot speak or communicate, is that they do not understand verbal communication. Adults will talk over the child, speak about her and not to her. Adults will do things for her instead of inviting her to do them for herself. Patience and understanding can be limited as the need to function takes over.
Shoes need to be tied, bags packed, unpacked, coat put on and taken off, toilet needs to be done, food needs to be eaten, clothes need to be changed, safety needs to be ensured. The child learns that they do not need to communicate because their needs are met. They are safe, fed,
warm and loved.
For our study, we did not accept the term non-verbal and worked on the premise that communication is a need for all living creatures in some form. When I began this work, I had never heard the term pre-verbal, but I like it. For this paper, our subject is called Ruby. Ruby now has a vocabulary of over 100 words and can tell a story.
Marianne Brooks teaches at the American School of Douala, Cameroon.
RENATA DIMOWA: PARTICIPANTS´ FAVOURITES
Would you like to share your favourite story? You are welcome to spontaneously join us and to present it to people who are as enthusiastic about storytelling as you are. Or would you just like to listen, or to learn about recently published picturebooks? We are happy to have you here with us.
Renata Dimowa is a classroom teacher and visiting lecturer at Halle university.
LI DING & NATASHA JANZEN ULBRICHT: MAGIC AND MATH IN MOTION: USING AI AND DRAMA TO BRING STORIES ALIVE
This interactive workshop demonstrates how storytelling, AI, and movement can engage primary EFL learners in math and literacy learning. Following Ada, a young girl whose mother is ill, participants will meet a wise old woman who sets them on a quest involving dragons, treasure boxes, and magic potions. Through AI-supported input, as well as kinaesthetic and action-oriented activities, learners explore concepts such as quantities and patterns in concrete and fun ways.
Li Ding is research associate at the English Didactics Department at the Brandenburg University of Technology.
Natasha Janzen Ulbricht is lecturer at the Institute of English Language and Literature at the FU Berlin.
CHARLOTT FALKENHAGEN: WATER SOUNDS – FROM STORY TO CONCERTO
This interactive workshop invites participants to explore the expressive world of water through storytelling, listening, and creative sound-making. Beginning with the picturebook Watersong by Tim McCanna, participants engage with the musical quality of language and nature, especially sound words like “drip”, “drop”, “whoosh” in combination with the aural characteristics of water in stories. Through guided activities, they experiment with producing and shaping water sounds, discovering their musical potential and emotional impact. The workshop further expands listening practices through an introduction to the Chinese composer Tan Dun´s Water Concerto, offering insight into how water sounds can function in contemporary composition. In the final phase, participants create their own stories using water sounds as a central expressive element. By connecting narrative, sound exploration, and active listening, participants gain a deeper understanding of how stories can be translated into music. The workshop fosters creativity and encourages participants to rethink the boundaries between everyday materials, narrative, and musical performance.
Charlott Falkenhagen is lecturer and head of the Primary Music Unit at Halle University.
ARIANE FÖDISCH: POCKET-SIZED DIVERSITY
This workshop introduces pocket-sized diversity, a creative and hands-on session designed for educators and conference participants interested in inclusive storytelling. The workshop is built around the picture book Mixed by Arree Chung, which explores themes of diversity, identity, and belonging in an accessible and engaging way.
After a brief introduction to the book and its core message, the focus will shift to practical classroom application: Mixed will be used as an example for a post-listening activity that encourages reflection, creativity, and discussion. As a central hands-on element, participants will create a pocket book. This activity demonstrates how simple, low-threshold materials can be used to deepen comprehension and support conversations about diversity after listening to or reading a story. Actionable ideas are offered that can be adapted easily for different age groups and learning contexts. By the end of the session, participants will leave with a ready-to-use activity and inspiration for integrating pocket-sized creative tasks into their own teaching practice.
Ariane Födisch is a classroom teacher at Hohenmölsen primary school and teacher trainer at the State Institute of Teacher Education Saxony-Anhalt
TATIA GRUENBAUM: PICTUREBOOKS AND THE HOLOCAUST
This presentation will focus on pictorial children’s and young adult Holocaust narratives through three current, open-access educational projects. Based on picturebooks and graphic novels, these projects have been developed for children in upper-primary and lower-secondary education (ages 10-14).
The presentation will also offer insights into book selection criteria, objectives, and materials development.
Tatia Gruenbaum is a member of the advisory group for the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education Kindertransport Educational Programme.
HEIKE HAGELGANS & JAQUELINE SIMON: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY MATHS THROUGH STORYTELLING
This presentation reports on the implementation and evaluation of a fifth-grade bilingual lesson integrating history and mathematics within the thematic context of Hannibal's crossing of the Alps. The lesson focuses on developing student's arithmetic competencies and problem-solving strategies. The project follows a Design-Based Research (DBR) approach that combines iterative design, classroom enactment, and evidence-based refinement of both content tasks and language support. A detailed analysis of student-generated work produced during the lesson will be presented. Drawing on a corpus of handwritten and oral student artefacts, the study examines how learners engage with contextualized arithmetic tasks, and the linguistic resources the employ while working in English. The findings highlight the potential of a historically embedded problem-solving task to foster mathematical thinking and bilingual language development simultaneously.
Heike Hagelgans is senior lecturer and head of the department of practical school studies at Halle university. Jaqueline Simon is lecturer at the department of practical school studies at Halle university.
RACHEL HALL: DRAMATISING PICTUREBOOKS WITH YOUNG CLIL LEARNERS
Young learners love listening to stories, and storytelling provides many opportunities for learner participation. From using gestures to give a personal reaction to the story, to expressing their opinions verbally, learners can be drawn into the storytelling world with picturebooks. They can also actively participate in the telling of the story through drama activities. Dramatising a picturebook is a fun and motivating way for learners to engage with a story, its characters and their emotions. A wide variety of picturebooks are available, and a story can be chosen to cater to various interests or to fit a particular subject of study. In this presentation, the choice of picturebooks and associated dramatisation to promote young learners’ motivation, participation, and interpretation of the story and characters will be discussed. We’ll see how creative ways can be included to allow learners to retell their own version of the story using drama while also practising their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. I’ll use the adventure story Hey Grandude! by Paul McCartney as an example to explore the topic holidays and travel.
Rachel Hall is postdoctoral researcher at the TEFL department of the Institute of English and American Studies at the Goethe University Frankfurt.
MARIA JUKO: GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHIES IN THE (BILUNGUAL) SCIENCE CLASSROOM
Building on the 2024 conference Teaching (With) Picturebooks: Context, Competences, Criticism in Rostock, where I talked about graphic biographies in the ESL classroom (with a focus on political figures such as MLK or artists such as Taylor Swift), this time I want to focus on graphic biographies in the context of science lessons. A wide range of graphic biographies on scientists can help young learners to both become familiar with important historical figures from the fields of Biology, Chemistry, or Physics, and also improve language skills, such as students’ vocabulary and understanding. I want to use the notion of Ingrid van der Heijden and Helma van Lierop - Debrauwer’s observation on art biographies, that “Instead of being overtly didactic biographies for child readers,” these “are a challenging form of life writing for readers of all ages.” (2014: 79). Stories about Marie Curie, Jane Goodall, or Albert Einstein engage students in an entertaining manner, while introducing them to new words and ideas.
References:
van der Heijden, Ingrid and Helma van Lierop-Debrauwer. 'A Threefold Hybridity. Picturebook Art Fantasies as Life Writing’ in: The European Journal of Life Writing, 3 (2014), 63–81. doi: 10.5463/ejlw.3.119.
Maria Juko is an author, teacher and independent researcher in Potsdam.
TOMÁŠ KOS & NATSUMI KOS: STORYTELLING ON PAPER: BRINGING CLIL TO LIFE WITH KAMISHIBAI
This workshop will introduce participants to kamishibai, a traditional Japanese paper-theatre form that brings stories to life through illustrated cards and live narration. After experiencing both a traditional (Japanese) and a CLIL-focused (English) kamishibai performance, participants will explore how the genre's visual, rhythmic, and embodied features can support understanding, engagement, and language learning in primary CLIL classrooms and beyond. The session highlights how kamishibai can combine content, art, music, and foreign language learning while providing strong scaffolding for young learners. Participants will discuss how to adapt or create short kamishibai stories and will have the opportunity to try kamishibai out, leaving with practical strategies, templates, and classroom ideas. No prior storytelling experience is needed; just curiosity and a willingness to learn about kamishibai.
TOMÁŠ KOS: LEARNING TO MEDIATE CONCEPTS IN CLIL CLASSROOMS
This study investigated how pre-service teachers develop their ability to mediate concepts in primary CLIL classrooms through a collaborative action research approach. Conceptual mediation, understood as helping pupils grasp subject matter through linguistic, visual, and interactional support, is a key aspect of classroom discourse competence. It is, however, often underdeveloped in pre-service CLIL programs. To strengthen this area, two university instructors implemented a two-cycle action research design in which insights from the 2024 cohort informed the redesign of a targeted training module for the 2025 cohort. Across both cohorts, fifty-two pre-service teachers in a Primary English Language Teaching program taught CLIL-based lessons to 180 pupils aged 9 to 10. Audio-recorded classroom discourse and observation notes were analyzed using an eight-principle framework capturing the pre-service teachers’ conceptual mediation strategies, each rated on a four-point scale. Quantitative comparisons, supported by qualitative discourse analysis and instructor reflection journals, showed that the trained 2025 cohort mediated concepts more effectively than the 2024 cohort. These findings indicate that concept mediation is an essential dimension of CLIL expertise and that iterative, research-informed course design can meaningfully support teacher learning. The results of this study will be presented and discussed at the conference.
Tomáš Kos is Junior Professor at the Department of English and American Studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
THEKLA MAYERHOFER: GENERATING MOVEMENT TASKS OUT OF PICTUREBOOKS
Meaningful tasks have great value in the process of learning – just like authentic language material has in terms of foreign language acquisition. While connecting language learning inspired by picture books to movement tasks (Neuber, 2014) young learners will be given the chance to enrich their language in ways where non-linguistic tasks take over the centre of attention. CLIL offers a great way to bring physical tasks and learning and language learning together. In this workshop we will experience how picture books can provide an outstanding foundation to develop movement tasks in the foreign language. Action and fun will determine the process of developing and realizing movement tasks while reflection will bring up potentials and challenges in terms of integrating these tasks in elementary school context.
Thekla Mayerhofer is a classroom teacher, teacher trainer, author and syllabus designer at the State Institute of Teacher Education Saxony-Anhalt.
PIERRE-HÉLI MONOT: PICTUREBOOKS AS LITERATURE: ON PRANKS
In recent decades, the profile of picturebooks has risen both in book history and literary history. Historians of literature and book historians alike are increasingly keen to expand their canons and include picturebooks as part of their material. This presentation discusses what such a change of status implies. Focusing on “pranks,” it examines how picturebooks subvert expectations through visual-textual play and irony. I want to argue that picturebooks represent an important part of literary history, especially of its more interesting side: the fostering of emancipation and autonomy, and the attention to individuals, their perspectives, and their capacity to question authority.
Pierre-Héli Monot is a Professor of Transnational American Studies (Political Theory, Aesthetics and Public Humanities) at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
FRANZISKA MÜLLER: ASSESSMENT IN CLIL
CLIL is slowly gaining more importance in German elementary schools. While it can offer many advantages for both foreign language learning and subject knowledge, there are still many unanswered questions regarding this topic. One of them being: How are teachers supposed to assess in bilingual settings? Right now, there are no official guidelines addressing this problem. This presentation sets the spotlight on different assessment approaches and how they can be implemented in elementary school CLIL. I am going to give you an insight into my research topic, in which formative, summative and self-assessments were tested with children from grade three. Based on this empirical approach, you will be able to explore what is actually possible in CLIL assessment, where it has its limits in young learner groups and how teachers can overcome its challenges.
Franziska Müller is a student teacher of primary English at Halle University.
JANNES NOACK AND MAX STEINECKE: THE WHISPERING TOWN
This presentation is set to show an example of a lesson, including lesson plan and feedback of actual primary school students concerning the book The Whispering Town by Jennifer Elvgreen. The book itself revolves around a girl which hides fleeing people in her and her parents cellar. They want to help them flee but have to pass up the right opportunity which only becomes harder as the nazi oppression in this little Danish village becomes more and more thorough even with their investigations.
The book tells a great story about compassion and trust, even to people who you don’t really know but are your peers, if you think about it. As did the children in the class: you will find out how exactly they helped the fleeing people and how the story portraits that, by visiting the presentation and learning about how two upcoming and still learning teaching students constructed a lesson to be empathetic and aware of the harsh truth of the topic.
Jannes Noack and Max Steinecke are student teachers at Halle university.
SUSI SAHMLAND & RENATA DOMOWA: MEET THE ARTIST AND TELL YOUR STORY
We are going to introduce you to the artist Frank Bowling and discover his map paintings which are part of his own story. Inspired by his work, we invite you to meet the artist inside you and would like you to create your own map painting relating to the maps of the places connected to your life and your story. We are going to share our stories and compile a toolbox of how to work with this or similar topic in a primary CLIL classroom. Bring along your curiosity and 1-3 maps of the places of your choice printed on a DIN A4. If you like you could also bring a couple of pictures you attach to these places or things you found in nature to work with (like leaves, bark, moose, feathers, little stones or shells etc.) or some wool or fabrics. Or you just choose from the materials we provide.
Susi Sahmland is a Visiting Research Fellow in the Centre for Arts and Learning at Goldsmiths, London and looks after educational outreach for the Frank Bowling studio.
ANNE SCHRADER: FOSTERIN SOCIAL LEARNING THROUGH PICTURE BOOKS
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has been at the centre of pedagogical debates over the past two decades (Bergner, 2025). The presentation examines the potential of picture books to foster social awareness and empathy in a primary school CLIL setting. After outlining curricular requirements for Primary English Language Teaching and science, the talk outlines how storytelling can support the teaching of kindness as a social value. Particular attention is given to the picture book Frank and Bert – The one where Bert plays Hide and Seek by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros. Drawing on the story of Frank and Bert, the presentation illustrates how learners can develop an understanding of unselfishness and what everyone can contribute to a kind classroom environment. Concrete suggestions for pre-, while- and post-listening activities demonstrate how this storytelling module can be implemented in practice.
References:
Berge, P. (2022). How kind of you. In Grundschule Englisch 78, 28 - 30.
Bergner, G. (2025). Englisch- und Sachunterricht verbinden. Gabriele Schäfer Verlag.
Botz, L./Frisch, S. (2016). Fachliteralität im bilingualen Sachunterricht der Grundschule. In: Böttger, Heiner/ Schlüter, Norbert (Eds.). Fortschritte im Frühen
Fremdsprachenlernen. Tagungsband zur 4. FFF-Konferenz. Braunschweig: Westermann, 240-251.
Naylor-Ballesteros, C. (2022). Frank and Bert. The one where Bert plays hide and seek. Nosy Crow.
Anne Schrader is a research fellow at the department of Primary School Didactics of English at the University of Leipzig.
LEA WICHMANN AND LINDA MÜLLER: PADDINGTONS HERBAL RESCUE
Imagine: You're visiting a foreign country and get sick. What is the best thing you could do in this situation? Well, you could go to the doctor's. But Paddington asked a bunch of children for help. Now, you are probably interested how the children helped Paddington! A small hint: lemonade. Stay tuned!
Lea Wichmann and Linda Müller are student teachers of English at Halle university.
VANESSA WILDENAUER: EXPLORING SCIENCE THROUGH A STORYBOOK – WILDLIFE CONVERSATION IN NEW ZEALAND
The storybook Manukura: The White Kiwi (Cowley 2012) as a teaching resource within a CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) approach in primary education will be presented. The project was implemented in a third-grade bilingual setting and combines English language learning with content from science and geography, focusing on biodiversity and species protection in New Zealand. The true story of the rare white kiwi offers an emotionally engaging starting point for young learners. Through scaffolded CLIL activities, pupils explored factual knowledge about the kiwi’s habitat, characteristics and threats while developing basic English skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing. Visual support, storytelling, vocabulary gain and creative tasks ensured age-appropriate access to both language and content. The approach demonstrates how picture books can serve as effective CLIL tools by increasing motivation, intercultural awareness and environmental responsibility. Learners acquired subject-specific vocabulary and developed an early understanding of conservation. The presentation illustrates how bilingual science lessons can be successfully implemented in primary classrooms with limited English proficiency.
Vanessa Wildenauer is a classroom teacher at a primary school in Halle and visiting lecturer at Halle university.
[Quelle: Konferenzen, Tagungen und Seminare]