Experts from Drawing, Writing: Lessons for Our Youngest Writers

by Martha Horn and Mary Ellen Giacobbe. Stenhouse Publisher, 2007.

By telling stories orally, members of the class immediately become known to each other.  This self-revelation helps build a climate of respect and a culture where each member is known as “one who…” Carlos has told a story, but more than that, he has been introduced to his classmates as “the one who knows about riding his bike and his scooter.”  John as the expert at Game Boy, Angelica as one who loves to wear clothes with flowers on them.  It is quite possible that some children will learn for the first time that they have something to say…

“Would you show us how you’re going to find your Drawing and Writing Book, take it carefully from the yellow file, and bring it to a table where you think you might work?”…

Because young children usually tell their stories through drawings first, they need the best materials we can afford to give them so they can craft their stories well: colored pencils, which makes it possible for them to draw the smallest of details, which is necessary to make drawings look life-like; multicultural pencils, so they can make the skin of the people in their pictures look real; and felt-tip pens, for writing letters and words, as well as for outlining and putting fine details in the drawing…

Instead we say, “I notice how…” or “I see you are remembering…” which acknowledges behavior we expect and reinforces a way of being that will allow us to move forward in the work we want to do with them…

If we really believe that drawing is writing, then we need to give our students information about how to draw well, just as we do with writing words…

“You know boys and girls,” I say as I begin to draw a large oval covering half the page in my sketchbook, “when I was a little girl, I used to draw a circle for the head. But when I began looking more closely, I began to see what you’re seeing, that a face is not a perfect circle like the smiley faces we see everywhere. A face is more like a long circle, which some people call an oval or egg shaped…

As a way of celebrating this work, we sat in a circle and they held their sketchbooks in front of them, their drawings facing outward. We looked around the circle and marveled at what they had done…

Most important, drawing is part of writing because it is what young children do naturally and playfully. And playfulness that energizes, challenges, and engages is essential in our classroom…