Nikki Meyer

Emergent Literacy
Professor McKool

Talking, Drawing, Writing: Lessons For Our Youngest Writers

Come along with us as we observe children in classrooms, listen to their stories,

study the work they put on paper and use what we learn to inform our teaching” (Horn

and Giacobbe 1). The book, Talking, Drawing, Writing: Lessons For Our Youngest

Writers, by Martha Horn and Mary Ellen Giacobbe is an informational book for aspiring

or seasoned teachers to help shed some light on the benefits talking, drawing and writing

have on students academic progression. This book talks about everything ranging from

storytelling to drawing and writing a book, he craft of drawing, assessment, introducing

booklets to students and how to forward students in their writing, talking and drawing

careers. Through this book, teachers can view real lesson plans and read about classroom

situations where an effective mini lesson, interactive read aloud or drawing and writing

workshop took place.

The first chapter starts off by explaining and en example all teachers can relate to,

the task of asking students to tell stories through words and pictures, it’s important to

remember for teachers to encourage students to write and draw based off of what they

know. It is also crucial that teacher, look and listen to their students to that they develop

a better understanding of their student which in return will help the teacher help the

student. I enjoyed the personal aspect of this book because it gave a lot of examples and

scenarios in which teachers often find themselves and it gives educators ideas on how to

advance a lesson plan and get students excited about the lesson. For example, in chapter
one, we find a kindergarten teacher, Ms. Danita, introducing a story to her students about

planting a garden of Chinese vegetables.

Danita goes on to say that the author and illustrator, Grace Lin wrote about

planting Chinese vegetables because it’s what she knows and that all good authors and

illustrators write and draw what they know. Ms. Danita starts explaining a personal

experience of her own that was triggered by reading Grace Lin’s story, “Danita is

teaching writing. She is teaching her kindergartners that we all have stories to tell, that

we tell stories about what we know, and that the most engaging stories are often about

ordinary, everyday things” (Horn and Giacobbe 8). Since everyone has stories to tell and

children love to tell stories, any child can produce a successful story in their classroom.

Telling stories also acknowledges talk and helps children orally learn about elements of

craft before they even start writing on paper. Through telling stories, children learn that

writers are specific in their information, order and organization is important, the audience

matters, talking helps students talk their way through a story, and composing involves

revising. I believe that story telling and listening to other tell stories is an effective jump

start for children when it comes to creating stories of their own because the students are

able to gather ideas and learn new strategies about writing that they can apply to their

own narratives.

In each chapter after introducing the purpose of the chapter, the text includes the

full copy of a lesson plan performed by a teacher, which is extremely helpful for teachers

because they can use that lesson plan as a guide for their own lessons and introductions

about reading, writing, drawing and talking. In the second chapter, I appreciated that the

authors gave scripted text on how to introduce the drawing and writing book to the
students. It gave me some useful ideas on how to approach a similar lesson with my

students, I believe that teachers should use a “drawing and writing” book because the

format is inviting, appropriate, organized and manageable, this will allow students to

establish routines, expectations, and procedures.

In chapter three and four, the authors help teachers understand the craft of

drawing and how they can approach a lesson to introduce their students to proper drawing

techniques to really bring their story to life. For instance, when children draw, they learn

about objects and as their understanding for the object increases, their drawing becomes

more accurate or detailed. Drawing helps students gain awareness about their thinking

and is important because it is the beginning stages to demonstrate that children

understand meaning, and drawing is a way in which children develop language. I

especially appreciate this component of the book because being an art major, I understand

the importance of drawing and the power and influence it has when it comes to teaching

children how to write. Not only does drawing help illustrate a story, but children get

excited about their drawings and are eager to share them with their teachers, and when

they describe their drawings to other, their strengthening their oral language ability.

Chapters five and six discuss writing words and assessments. Students can learn

words just by labels in the classroom; teachers should label words around the classroom

like the clock, desks, bookshelves and much more so students can start to gain an

awareness of objects and how to pronounce their name. It is also important for teachers

to encourage students to put words to their pictures to describe what’s going on in the

picture and not only encourage them to write u create a running record of their students to

understand how they’re advancing with writing. “For example, “The goal in looking at
children’s writing is for us to be informed and instructed by our students: who they are as

writers, what they know, and what they need to learn” (Horn and Giacobbe 130). The

purpose of chapter six is for teachers to understand the importance of assessing their

student’s work. Every time teachers talk and reflect with students individually, it gives

the teacher a better understanding of their thinking process.

Chapters seven and eight introduces booklets to students, discusses how to move

students along as writers and how to engage students in the classroom. Introducing

booklets are important because these booklets are effective because it’s familiar to the

students, they invite playfulness, it has a built in expectation that you have a lot to say on

a topic, it offers a logical structure for teaching elements of craft, it makes revision easy,

and it lends itself to writing sentences and paragraphs. After students have been

introduced to the booklets, they need help being motivated and encouraged to write and it

is important to observe students writing to make sure that their stories make sense, to see

if they are writing about what’s important, and to see if they’re writing about a time and

place and being specific with their stories.

Chapter nine discusses the importance of mini lessons that focus on the craft of

writing and reading ad how teachers should be enthusiastic while teaching students about

narratives. It’s important for teachers to educate students on the important parts of

narratives so the students gain an understanding of how narratives are written. The

important parts of the story should be important to the author, events that affected them in

a negative or positive way; those are the events that should be focused on in detail. In

order to understand this concept, the teacher should use an abundant amount of example

to ensure that every student grasps the point of the lesson. Teachers can do an interactive
read aloud, stopping at certain points in the story to demonstrate the language the author

used to convey the importance of the story.

The book, Talking, Drawing, Writing: Lesson For Our Youngest Writers, is an

amazing book for upcoming teachers and even seasoned teachers. It explains the

importance of reading, writing and drawing, and gives lesson plans and examples to

reinforce the purpose of the chapter. The book gives an abundant amount of teacher’s

experiences and stories for the reader to engage and relate and in addition to the

experiences and lesson plans, the book also shows examples of students work to show

how effective the lesson was. I would recommend this book to any teacher or aspiring

teacher for it’s in depth content and examples of effective lesson plans toe demonstrate

proper teachings of reading, writing and talking.