Beyond Scribble: Teach Your Students to Draw

Beyond Scribble:

Teach Your Students

to Draw

64 Directed Drawing Lessons

Easy and fun to give

Repeatable

Can be completed independently

Self-explanatory and self-correcting

Buy This Book

64 Directed Drawing Lessons

Easy and fun to give

Repeatable

Can be completed independently

Self-explanatory and self-correcting

Buy This Book

Here are a few lessons

…and a few helpful tips

CONNECT the Cute Animal with a story, a theme, a process, or other curricular content.

USE whole group, small group, or at an independent learning center.

TEACH a few Directed Drawing Lessons to the whole group before students try new lessons independently.

DISPLAY the Directed Drawing Lesson for all to see. Optional: keep it out of view as you model.

MODEL drawing procedures step by step. Talk through the steps as you draw.

USE math language such as rectangle, direction, curve, angle, semi-circle, above, below etc… as you model drawing.

SET EXPECTATIONS for quality student work. Show student work from a previous lesson.

CIRCULATE around the room to monitor progress. Give individualized help as needed.

COMBINE with sight word sentences for high quality written work that will increase literacy.

CHOOSE a question to prompt a written response.

KEEP a folder of previous lessons at the Art Center for students to choose from and try again.

MAINTAIN a selection of exemplary student work for other students to read, copy, and be inspired by.

CELEBRATE student work. Pause the class during tabletime to present some student work in progress. Use such pauses judiciously and infrequently.

All of the directions for these lessons are wordless, except for the animal name. They are purely graphic and easy to give to students who cannot yet read.

USE whole group, small group, or at an independent learning center.

CONNECT the Cute Animal with a story, a theme, a process, or other curricular content.

TEACH a few Directed Drawing Lessons to the whole group before students try new lessons independently.

CHOOSE a question or a sentence starter to prompt a written response.

KEEP a folder of previous lessons available for students to try again.

USE math language such as rectangle, direction, curve, angle, semi-circle, above, below etc… as you model drawing.

COMBINE with sight word sentences for written work that will increase literacy.

SHOWCASE student work. In a binder, on a bulletin board, assembled into books.

SEND home to share with families.

Have a look at some student work

… from the 1st semester of kindergarten

Have a look

at some student work

… from the 1st semester

of kindergarten

They vary in accomplishment because kids are different.

nice, eh?

I LOVE to Teach Art

I love the paint and the clay and the pastels. I love the various printed and textured papers we use to make collage. I love the compositional and expressive aspects of art made in the primary classroom. I love the stories my students tell with their art. I love to help my students through the difficulties they encounter. I love to look at their finished products. I try my best to fit collage, watercolors, pastels, and clay into an already jam-packed instructional schedule.

I LOVE to Teach Writing

I love art for its own sake. But the fact remains: the vast majority of art in the classroom is done with pencil and paper and crayon, as illustration, usually in combination with some form of writing.

The goal of all writing instruction is for students to produce strong meaningful written passages. In primary, this invloves training your students to come up with a strong initial idea or a strong initial sentence and then to follow it up with further sentences in elaboration.

In my classroom I use Directed Drawings with Sight Word Sentences to teach sight word recognition, as a precurser to creative writing.

You can read more about Sentence Starters, inventive spelling, creative writing, and written storytelling HERE.

Often I Teach Them Together

How I use Directed Drawings

along with Sight Word Sentences

I combine Directed Drawings with Sight Word Sentences both as a whole group lesson and as a stand-alone lesson at an independent learning center.

It is one way I give my students one of the most important foundational tools they need to begin to read and write: sight word recognition. Learning sight words as whole chunks primes students for the later skill of recognizing chunks in larger words to aid word reading – ing, er, all, tion etc…

This is somewhat separate from invented spelling and creative writing, though once students have entered the invented spelling stage Sight Word Sentences can be easily followed by sentences of your students’ own creation using invented spelling.

I use Directed Drawings in combination with Sight Word Sentences to give my students sight word practice. Sight word practice with drawing. Fun practice, yes, purposeful practice, yes, but essentially it’s just practice and practice and more practice in recognizing sight words. Practice and more practice. And without the tedium of worksheets.

We are trying to teach our students the foundations of reading and writing. This requires giving students plenty of exposure to sight words. Again and again and again. In reading and in writing. It also requires the teaching of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) decoding strategies. For more on how to teach CVC words look HERE.

This is about getting your students pleasantly engaged in learning what they need to know before they can begin to read and write. This is about giving your students adequate exposure to sight words, in reading and in writing.

Directed Drawings in combination with thoughtfully written combinations of Sight Word Sentences can help you do this.

But of course, Directed Drawing lessons can always be given as stand-alone art lessons. There are plenty of opportunities in these lessons alone to teach a variety of drawing techniques.

I LOVE to Teach Art

I love the paint and the clay and the pastels. I love the various printed and textured papers we use to make collage. I love the compositional and expressive aspects of art made in the primary classroom. I love the stories my students tell with their art. I love to help my students through the difficulties they encounter. I love to look at their finished products. I try my best to fit collage, watercolors, pastels, and clay into an already jam-packed instructional schedule.

I LOVE to Teach Writing

I love art for its own sake. But the fact remains: the vast majority of art in the classroom is done with pencil and paper and crayon, as illustration, usually in combination with some form of writing.

The goal of all writing instruction is for students to produce strong meaningful written passages. In primary, this invloves training your students to come up with a strong initial idea or a strong initial sentence and then to follow it up with further sentences in elaboration.

In my classroom I use Directed Drawings with Sight Word Sentences to teach sight word recognition, as a precurser to creative writing.

You can read more about Sentence Starters, inventive spelling, creative writing, and written storytelling HERE.

Often I Teach Them Together

How I use Directed Drawings

along with Sight Word Sentences

I combine Directed Drawings with Sight Word Sentences both as a whole group lesson and as a stand-alone lesson at an independent learning center.

It is one way I give my students one of the most important foundational tools they need to begin to read and write: sight word recognition. Learning sight words as whole chunks primes students for the later skill of recognizing chunks in larger words to aid word reading – ing, er, all, tion etc…

This is somewhat separate from invented spelling and creative writing, though once students have entered the invented spelling stage Sight Word Sentences can be easily followed by sentences of your students’ own creation using invented spelling.

I use Directed Drawings in combination with Sight Word Sentences to give my students sight word practice. Sight word practice with drawing. Fun practice, yes, purposeful practice, yes, but essentially it’s just practice and practice and more practice in recognizing sight words. Practice and more practice. And without the tedium of worksheets.

We are trying to teach our students the foundations of reading and writing. This requires giving students plenty of exposure to sight words. Again and again and again. In reading and in writing. It also requires the teaching of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) decoding strategies. For more on how to teach CVC words look HERE.

This is about getting your students pleasantly engaged in learning what they need to know before they can begin to read and write. This is about giving your students adequate exposure to sight words, in reading and in writing.

Directed Drawings in combination with thoughtfully written combinations of Sight Word Sentences can help you do this.

But of course, Directed Drawing lessons can always be given as stand-alone art lessons. There are plenty of opportunities in these lessons alone to teach a variety of drawing techniques.

Learn Your Sight Words and Draw at the Same Time

This is how I set up Directed Drawing at a Sight Word Center

Model Drawing

Teach a few lessons whole group. Show your students how to follow the directions step by step. Demonstrate as your students draw along with you, at their desks.

I use a black marker for better visibility when modeling. My students use pencil. Later in the year I teach my students to trace over their pencil lines with black crayon for a bolder look.

Or you can model the chosen drawing first as your students just watch, and then send your students off on their own. This will work in some teaching environments right off the bat, but for most it will take a few lessons before your kids are able to simply go off on their own.

Later, you can expect to just give the assigment and your students will just know what to do.

Combine with Sight Word Sentences

Choose one Sight Word Sentence combination for all students to copy and fill in the blank.

Post the Directed Drawing alongside your model at the learning center.

Or, you can

Chart a list of Sight Word Sentences for students to read and copy.

Combine Directed Drawing lessons with sight word sentences to give students practice writing sight words. Sight words obtain their meaning in the context of sentences; leading to faster sight word learning.

Sight Word Sentences are effective practice for letter formation as well.

TIP!

Color every other sentence group to help students see what to copy. I rubbed the paper with the side of a crayon – it looks nice and it’s quick.

Learn Your Sight Words

and Draw at the Same Time

Learn Your Sight Words

and Draw

at the Same Time

This is How I Set Up Directed Drawing

at a Sight Word Center

This is How I Set Up

Directed Drawing