Elementary+Writing

Elementary Writing


This section will cover 2 types of writing strategies. The first section will cover paragraph writing. The second section will cover the writing of graphica. While traditional writing tasks in a school setting have been almost exclusively either poetry (not addressed here) or paragraph writing (whether a single paragraph or an essay or a short story), there is also benefit to be gained from children's writing of graphica.

__Age Limits__: This whole section deals with the elementary years. However, there is a wide range between the abilities of Kindergarteners and the abilities of 6th graders! It is my personal feeling (having taught throughout the range - Kindergarten, 2nd grade, 3rd grade & Jr. High) that all children at all ages should be involved in the writing activities covered below. Kindergarteners will do better with the graphica (& better with some of the web sites which provide support for graphica writing) than with conventional writing, but it really varies with the child. These activities can build the writing skills of both our top students and our struggling students. Certainly, the average 6th grader should be able to write a longer paragraph with more vocabulary than a first or second grader, but even first graders can write a 2 or 3 sentence paragraph.

__Paragraph writing__:As mentioned earlier in this presentation, each panel should be seen as a paragraph. All information that would appear in a chapter book with NO pictures should be included in the paragraph that the children write. Ask children to determine the big idea in the panel; that becomes their topic sentence. All visual information found in the panel should first be listed. Then attention can be given to sentence structure and the order in which the information should appear in the paragraph. Dialogue should be added last. Dialogue conventions in conventional print are just as difficult for children (if not more difficult!) than dialogue conventions in graphica.

Look at the sample pages above. The first panel does not contain dialogue but will be simply a narrative paragraph explaining who the green guy is and what he is doing. In the comic, he is not given a name. Children may want to name him as well as describing him (remember that a chapter book will not give the picture of him) and describing what he is doing. Children may look at the second panel and add information about WHY he is picking up the sack of garbage out of the garbage can or that may be reserved for the second paragraph which will describe the second panel.

__Sample Paragraph From Page 1, Panel 1:__ Howie is a barefoot green monster wearing short purple pants. He has a dark green crest on top of his head instead of hair! He just loves garbage. Anytime he sees a garbage can, he takes off the lid and checks to see how many sacks are inside. As he grabs the top sack, he wonders what might be in it. Is it good to eat? Howie thinks so!

The last panel on the first page shows the two little girls making a number of comments. Again, since the chapter book would not have __any__ picture, it is necessary to describe the girls, their facial expressions, and their emotions (some inferencing is required here) as well as the dialogue. The last panel on page 2 requires another inference for dialogue. Since the animals can't talk (at least in this story), it is necessary for the reader/writer to figure out what they are asking the green guy and to decide how to put that information into text rather than just a picture of the girls' logos.

__Sample paragraph from Page 1, last panel__: Supergirl and Batgirl are shocked and disgusted by Howie's eating habits! "EEEOOOWW!" they both shriek. "That's gross!" says Batgirl. "Yuck!" exclaims Supergirl. "Disgusting!" hollers Batgirl. "Nasty," moans Supergirl. Howie just looks at them. He doesn't understand why they are upset. Don't they like to eat garbage?

As you probably noticed in the sample paragraph from the last panel, this type of exercise also gives children some practice in vocabulary-building. Prewriting activities should include a class discussion of the pictures as well as a listing of possible verbs and adjectives. The amount of required teacher support will vary with the children's experiences in paragraph writing. A good teacher strategy is to do a paragraph with the class as a whole using think-alouds (see comprehension strategies section) to explain what he/she is writing. Follow that with a whole class paragraph-writing activity that lets the children come up with the sentences. Then put them in small groups to write the next paragraph. Have the groups read their paragraphs and the discuss which paragraphs have the most information and which follow the conventions of paragraph writing. Let them get back into their groups to revise.

__Graphica writing__: Since the samples provided show a comic book format, that is what will be discussed here. This is an activity that most children find enjoyable. At the same time, it provides them with another means of developing the mental imagery that is so important to reading comprehension. Begin with a chapter book that is new to the children. You can use a familiar chapter book but children may overlook information because of their familiarity with the story. As with the class activity above, you will want to begin with a whole class demonstration where you, the teacher, draw the panel while providing information to the children through the think-aloud process. While comic panels tend to be quite small, I would advise that y ou use a bit larger panels. It's easier to draw in a larger space & easier for the children to see what you are doing. A document camera or overhead projector can be useful, but you can also use chart paper taped to the chalkboard! Don't worry about picture-drawing ability. The goal is to get as much information down in a visual format as possible - NOT to create great artists! Stick figures are fine!

DO review the conventions of graphica and try to follow them. Just as we expect children to learn the conventions of print for paragraph writing, we should expect the conventions of graphica for panel creation. There are some websites that will allow you (and the children) to create comic panels. An excellent one is [|professorgarfield.org]. This is an excellent site with many activities for children. One page on the site (Comics Lab) allows children to create comics by choosing backgrounds, characters, props and bubbles (balloons). Children place the characters & props on their choice of background & write text in the bubbles. The advantage of such sites is that you don't have to worry about artistry and at least some of the conventions of graphica are clear and don't have to be remembered by the children. The disadvantage is that it is difficult to use just any book and as educators, our preference (I think) would be to use good children's literature.

For published examples of chapter books written in graphica format, see The Babysitter's Club: Claudia and Mean Janine by Raina Telgemeier. Ms. Telgemeier took the original book (written by Ann Martin) and put it in graphica form. All pictures are in black and white. The Tale of Despereaux is also available in the original chapter book format as well as in picture book and graphica formats (picture book & graphica formats use color pictures from the movie). Most bookstores should have both (all) versions. These will provide a comparison for both you and your students.