Visualizing to Write

As we think more about helping kids visualize as they read, we should be helping them see that authors and illustrators think about them as they write and create.  They are thinking about their readers will "see" what they are imagining.  They paint with words and with colors what they want the reader understand about their idea.  This seed, planted in the mind of the student as reader, can them begin to grow into the idea of student as writer; a young author/illustrator who keep their readers in mind as they create images in words and colors.

The professional books The Power of Pictures and Notebook Connections have sparked a number of new strategies and ideas that I look forward to trying with students as they move from visualizing their reading to writing.  The first was the strategy of "Reading the Picture" (see anchor chart below).  Beth Olshansky, author of The Power of Pictures, makes a strong case for having young writers create their art work before they write.  She suggests this activity for helping them read their picture to develop a bank of words and ideas and a sense of story before the compose.  Using the mentor text Snowmen at Night, I developed a lesson that would get students to generate their own ideas about how snowmen really spend their time when we are all snuggled in bed.  Kids illustrate their thoughts (Olshansky has some specific ideas about how to do this artwork worth checking out.) and then we use the anchor chart to work through the process of reading their pictures. 

Olshansky suggests having students begin by picking the four most important things in their artwork and then describing those things (See blackline below.)  This is a great concrete way for kids to begin this process and is backed up by the research of Jeff Wilhelm in his book Reading is Seeing.  But, once kids become more comfortable with the strategy and the process, what if we aligned what they are reading in their picture to the writing learning targets.  What if they were thinking of dialogue to begin leads?  How about if they focused on the elements of setting?  What if kids moved from the concrete objects in their illustrations to incorporating more of the senses and empathy? 

Playing around with this idea, I've created some graphic organizers below.  But a CAUTION!!  Even with our gifted and advanced kiddos, don't forget to model!  Don't forget that moving to visualizing for your writing is a BIG step.  Use lots of the I do-We do-You do model.  They need to see you reading your illustrations and finding those nouns, active verbs, adjectives and adverbs that will create images in the mind of your reader.

My goal is to try some of these visualizing for reading and writing with my 2nd and 3rd graders with nonfiction.  Nonfiction in and of itself will be a big leap.  Here we go!