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Talking, Drawing, Writing Chapter 4: The Craft of Drawing {Freebie!}



I know I'm late again- I swear I have a good excuse!  (More about that later this week... my new header might give you a clue! )  But this morning I got a chance to catch up on my reading and am excited to share what stuck with me!

  • Explicit Connections: The connection between drawing lessons and illustrations in children's work must be made explicit!  "Remember how we learned how to [insert drawing mini-lesson]?  I'm going to do that today in my Drawing and Writing Book..."
  • Notice the Craft of Drawing in Mentor Texts: I LOVE the list of different things you can notice about illustrations in children's books!  I totally missed the boat on this one last year.  The only teaching point I ever really made (but which I believe is the most important one) was that writers use illustrations and words to tell the story.  Check out the full list in the freebie below- I'm going to stick mine in my writer's workshop/conferencing binder for reference!

Luckily, last year I had a great class of kiddos that really picked up on the craft of illustration quite naturally.  They learned to focus on illustrations quite a bit after one of our first lessons on ways to read a book- one way is to read the pictures!

Check out the book below.  Me and My Daddy Went to Toys R' Us was actually written by one of my kiddos that struggled with a lot of reading foundational skills, but when it came to writer's workshop he was a wizard!  My favorite part of the story is the thought bubble- what a sophisticated concept for a four year old!


This chapter really got me thinking about mentor texts for illustration craft study.  I definitely want to start compiling my own list, but in the meantime I found some other resources:

Funky First Grade Mentor Text Linky!

Mrs. Wills Kindergarten In Pictures and In Words Book Study
And I know I mentioned this before, but Mo Willems is quite possibly my favorite author for illustration study!  He's got so many great things going on (speech bubbles, movement lines), but best of all his style is easy for young artists to imitate.

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  1. Regina BernsJuly 9, 2013 at 7:05 PM

    I have nominated you for the Liebster Award! Check it out on my blog! :)

    ✿ Regina
    Keepin It Krazy

    ReplyDelete

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