Composing Through Illustrations When Writing

Starting with the illustra

Earlier this year, I had the great opportunity to speak with Amy Young, the author and illustrator of the series A Unicorn Named Sparkle. During our conversation, she discussed the importance of having elementary students draw as much as they would like before moving into the print writing in their writing pieces. The idea here is to get kids to compose in a detailed manner through their illustrations before moving into the work of writing.

Writing can be challenging for young kids. They need to think of an idea and then once they have the idea, they need to move to put their idea into words. As they are writing the words, they have to consider spelling, spacing, and punctuation. This can be a lot to manage for a younger student. In order to support our younger learners, we can have them draw their stories and add many details to their illustrations. Over time and with some coaching, the students will begin to transfer those details from their illustrations and into their writing. It may take time, but it is doable work for elementary students.

Last week during the literacy clinic, one of my students who is working with kindergarten students decided to try this strategy out. She asked them to draw pictures about what they did over the weekend. She had them add color and details. Once they were pleased with their illustrations, she coached them to move on to writing a sentence about their illustrations. As they were working on their writing, she was amazed at how much more engaged the students were when they were writing. They were able to stay focused on the illustration and she was able to challenge them to add more details into their drawings. When it was time to do the writing, the students were excited to discuss what their illustration was about and really worked to implement the sound-spelling patterns that they had been learning.

I have been thinking a lot about how to keep young kids engaged in the writing work that they are doing. We want them to feel like they are capable writers and in order to get there it takes time. We have to meet the kids where they are – and with younger students, they need to start with the skills that they already have, which includes making illustrations. It’s important to remember that writing and composing involves more than just putting a pencil to the paper – it involves discussing with others, drawing, and lots of playing with ideas.

If you would like to listen to the conversation with Amy Young, you can find it here. She gives so many wonderful ideas for getting young kids engaged in their writing. I hope you find some of them helpful!