Drawing
Overview
When young children draw and are encouraged to explain their drawings, they are sharpening the cognitive and motor skills involved in conventional writing. Research has shown that over time, having students draw to express their ideas and later label their drawings, even if spelling phonetically, serves as a precursor to conventional writing.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch as these elementary teachers use drawing activities with students to support emergent writing. By allowing unstructured drawing time and later using drawings in literacy activities, teachers support both Foundational Writing Skills and early reading.
Teachers and parents can engage even the youngest learners in drawing activities to help them express their original thoughts. These drawings can be fantasy or reality driven. By having young children explain their drawings, they are building their Narrative Skills and learning that they can express themselves in symbols as well as orally. As children grow, they can begin to label their drawings, beginning with phonetic spelling, to further their communication. Drawing activities can also be done with peer groups, with small groups, or pairs of learners communicating their drawn ideas.
Design It into Your Product
Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.
Learn how Draw and Tell HD, a digital platform, can help early elementary and pre-K students draw and narrate their creations using their own voice recordings. This app also allows students to decorate their drawings and animate them to tell their story.
Products with features that allow children to draw with their fingers or a mouse can facilitate digital drawings in young children. Features that allow children to draw letters and words or type labels for their drawings, depending on their age and ability, can further engage them in emergent writing.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Active Learning Strategies
Creating and acting out texts or original narratives can enhance literacy for young learners, solidifying their comprehension and building Narrative Skills.
Students activate more cognitive processes by exploring and representing their understandings in visual form.
When students explain their thinking process aloud, they recognize the strategies they use and solidify their understanding.
Visiting places connected to classroom learning provides opportunities to deepen understanding through firsthand experiences.
Free choice supports learner interests and allows more complex social interactions to develop.
Games help students visualize new information and immerse themselves in the learning process.
Imagining allows students to step back from a problem or task and think about it from multiple angles.
Reading aloud allows students to hear and practice reading and fluency skills.
Playful activities, including pretending, games, and other child-led activities, can support the development of learners' Metacognition and also inspire their narratives and writing.
Project-based learning (PBL) actively engages learners in authentic tasks designed to create products that answer a given question or solve a problem.
Response devices boost engagement by encouraging all students to answer every question.
