Deliver 10 pictorial writing lessons with sentence-building benefits

Teach young writers how to draw with details. While students are learning language foundations and concepts of print within guided writing exercises, deliver a second daily writing lesson that teaches them how to express and develop their own ideas, opinions, and stories via pictures.
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These lessons not only teach students how to communicate with readers before they can write words, but these are also the same types of details that will later enhance their sentence writing.
Here are 10 ways early writers can add pictorial details.
#1 Layer shapes
Encourage young writers that they can draw any topic by seeing it as several layered shapes (e.g., a school bus is a rectangle with four circles for the wheels). Knowing how to break down objects into small, layered shapes broadens the pool of topics that students feel equipped to write about.
#2 Introduce color
Emphasize that coloring isn’t just an activity; it’s a tool to communicate. Before students write color words within labels and sentences, they can tell the reader the type of ball (orange = basketball, black and white = soccer ball, etc.) that they are playing with or the flavor of ice cream (brown= chocolate, pink= strawberry, green=mint, etc.) that they are enjoying. Adding color details is one way to tell the reader more information within a picture.
#3 Color accurately
Although color can add details, using unrealistic colors confuses the reader. A blue banana or green sky might seem fun, but they send the wrong message. Readers might not recognize an apple if the circular object is colored blue.
#4 Depict people
Writing topics don’t just include events, concepts, and activities-people are a common topic, too. This may include real people (e.g., family members, community helpers, school friends, etc.) or even characters from reading. In order to communicate who we are writing about, we have to learn how to draw people. Teach students how to depict an individual by drawing and layering the same basic shapes.
#5 Magnify details
Explain that writers look at the world closely-like through a magnifying glass. They study things to see the tiniest details to include within their writing in order to give the reader more precise information about the story or topic. Show details in picture book illustrations to help children see how close-up details add to the text.
#6 Convey feelings
Writers don’t just share who the writing is about; they also show how the individual feels. Review picture book illustrations where the character is happy, sad, mad, scared, etc. Explain that the illustrator changed certain details in the faces of their subjects to convey different emotions.
#7 Reveal action
Study the characters depicted within the illustrations of recently read picture books (e.g., characters sitting on the bus, jumping rope, eating, etc.). Emphasize that people/characters don’t just stand still with their arms to their sides-they are doing something. They walk, run, throw, catch, wave, jump, cheer, etc.
#8 Capture speech
Students need to know how to add speech bubbles near people/characters who are drawn with their mouths open. Even though the bubble may be blank, it reveals that the young writer is beginning to grasp the concepts of dialogue and/or expert quotes.
#9 Provide setting
Teach students to put their characters in a setting, environment, or habitat to give the reader more information. The addition of setting details around the main topic communicates when and where something is happening. Such setting details may be added in front of, behind, or next to the main subject.
#10 Size proportionately
Setting details must be sized and proportioned accurately. Items that are larger should be drawn larger. Items that are smaller should be drawn smaller. This will help the reader better understand the writer’s ideas. If a character in a picture is taller than the house, the reader might wonder if the house is a doll house. Help students learn to draw proportionately to convey accurate meaning.
Just as young readers are learning to decode and comprehend, young writers need direct instruction on both language foundations and language composition. We don’t need to wait until they are writing sentences to begin teaching students how to develop persuasive, informative, and narrative topics. This can be taught at the pictorial-writing stage.
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