Dava Brewer

Dr. Love
October 25, 2015
TTH 9:55-11:10
How Can You Teach Young Writers Using Pictures Books?
It can be quite a task getting young children in lower grades such as
kindergarten and first grade to write. Models such as picture books are great for a
young child to start out using. Picture books can help out in a number of ways such
as assisting students with vocabulary, colors, shapes, numbers, and letters. Picture
books can also help with names of people, animals, and places by providing
students with context for comparison. Picture books are a positive tool for teachers
because they can assist students with basic skills such as analyzing information and
oral communication.
Seeing images in picture books lets children make connections and use them
to form their own ideas. I believe that picture books have to be relevant and
relatable for students to be fully engaged in the learning process. I also believe that
picture books inspire children to write creatively because they are able to reflect on
their own ideas and create their own interpretations of the images to draw a
conclusion.
One way to unify a classroom could be to create a student-based book. This
project would consist of every child creating their own illustration, which is related
to a specific subject, on a blank piece of paper. Once the students have complete
their individual illustrations the teacher would then be able to collect them and

combine them into a final product that would be a picture book. As a class, students
would make turns discussing their interpretation of the others students illustrations.
This shows how students might have different perspectives based on different life
experiences. Every child has a different imagination and is exposed to different
experiences. These differences can influence the students preferences in picture
books as well as their interpretations of other students drawings.
In the book, Reading Picture Books with Children: How to Shake Up Storytime
and Get Kids Talking About What They See, Megan Dowd talks about how picture
books are a great visual form for undeveloped children because they are able to see
what is happening. When undeveloped children see pictures it helps them process
what is going on visually and be able to align pictures and words. Seeing the same
character on pages that face one another can provoke this sort of confusion as
children work to master the picture book as a sequential art form. It is hard for
children to understand why facing pages look similar, so it is in fact confusing for a
lot of children because it is so easy to form misperceptions. Megan Dowd talked
about how a three year old asked her why this woman had so many arms in the
picture book he was reading, but an older child explained that the woman in the
picture book was in motion waving her arms around because she was upset. The
picture book was creating a visual illusion, meaning it is expression emotion through
imagery. It is much easier for an older child to understand this concept in the books
they see because they have had more experiences dealing with these situations to
reference.
Writing could be a better option to lead childrens literacy development than
reading. When children begin writing they tend to write letters that could
symbolize something. An example of this might be BT meaning boat. There are

some other typical kinds of development weve seen as children grow into the
understanding that texts are focused (Ray, Glover 59). Some children find interest
in writing whenever they see people around them writing. If children see teachers or
parents wiring it could make a child want to write more because young children look
up to older people. If teachers and parents encourage their children it could help
them in many ways. Young children sometimes ask you to write certain words and
by doing that it gives children a great start to learning how to write.
I have noticed that throughout this past year some children like to make
picture books. Picture books and making picture books are a great way to capture
thinking skills of young children. Children can draw illustrations and even add words
to describe the illustrations. Children engage in making picture books and use their
wild imaginations when they draw. Extending the making of picture books to three
and four years olds can help children work together to help their thinking strategies
grow. Creating a book with plenty of blank pages gets your mind thinking.
Making picture books can help children read like writers. As stated Smith and
Ray, As children make picture books, they develop an insider stance when it
comes to looking at picture books, and this stance is what helps them read like
writers (qtd. In Ray and Glover 32). If you read like a writer, it means you go into
deeper context to what its meaning really is. You realize what the context actually
means.
Picture books can help with building stamina. It is hard to sit down and only
worry about a certain task such as writing. The older you get the more stamina you
will have. For a child to sit down for a long time, they need something that will grab
their attention. Having blank pages for a picture book may not grab a childs

attention, but I believe when children see other picture books it can encourage
them to assemble their ow. Making picture books in classrooms and at home can
push a young child towards writing. I made picture books when I was growing up
and I think that it helped me. I asked a couple of kids in a kindergarten class I was in
and they talked about how much they enjoyed it. To most children, picture books
are amusing. While picture books are amusing, I think they do help educationally
because you can learn from them.
As I look back on my years of school, I remember making small books in third
grade from empty cardboard food boxes. It would always excite me when my
classmates would bring boxes in so that we could have a variety to choose from.
After we chose a box we wanted as our cover page, we would then cut it to the side
of the book we wanted. When making a picture book you do not necessarily have to
have words. When children make books they tend to do a variety of different
pictures on each page. Pictures could range from what their favorite food is to their
family. As you get older you will learn that picture books should all connect
somehow.
Reading aloud to your class on a regular basis is an effective way to help
young students in grades such as kindergarten and first grade develop better
literacy skills. Picture books can also help build vocabulary if reading picture books
with a teacher or parent. The teacher or the parent can show them what a certain
thing is if they did not know what something was. Picture books can encourage
conversations between young readers. Reading a picture book out loud with your
students will let you see where a childs imagination goes and what is going on.
Children tend to talk about books after reading them. When reading with your

students in class you should tell your students to pay attention to the illustrations in
the books and improve a childs visual skills.
Picture books can be handy to most children. Picture books can help with
reading and writing skills Teachers and parents cannot go wrong with letting a child
make a picture book. When making picture books you are continuing to learn.
Picture books are key for helping with developing ideas, so therefore picture books
are a mentor text for writing.

Works Cited
Baghban, Macia. You Can Help Your Young Child with Writing. Newark, DE:
International Reading Association, 1989. Print.
Calhoun, Emily. Teaching Beginning Reading and Writing with the Picture Word
Inductive Model. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development, 1999. Print.
Dowd, Megan L. Reading Picture Books With Children: How to Shake up Storytime &
Get Kids Talking About What They See. Horn Book Magazine Nov.-Dec. 015:
27-32. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.

Ray, Katie Wood, and Matt Glover. Already Ready: Nurturing Writers in Preschool
and Kindergarten. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008. Print.