ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the important place for drawing in beginning to write, and explores how teachers might better support the student writers through understanding the role drawing plays. Drawing is one primal way that beginning writers represent and understand meaning. Most young children come to school knowing how to draw, and, in most cases, they enjoy it. Drawing is a way for children to be heard. A student who has difficulty recognizing letters, perhaps even the letters in his name, can often draw what he knows, thinks, and feels. Drawing is a medium through which children can develop language. Drawing allows children to go deeper into their stories. Through drawing, children are learning about the craft of writing. Because drawing is writing for young children, providing opportunities and guidance in drawing helps children “to learn to use one's eyes to see more intensely”.
