DRAWINGS AND DIALOGUE Word Solving in Early Literacy

578 TEACHING TIP DRAWINGS AND DIALOGUE Word Solving in Early Literacy Belinda S. Zimmerman Reading is a message-getting, problemsolving activity that includes a broad range of skills that need to be explicitly taught and rehearsed with scaffolded support and independent practice (Clay, 2005). For readers to be successful, they must possess a strong sense of print awareness, phonological and letter-sound knowledge, and an ability to notice and use information sources in the text and employ various strategies to decode, pronounce, and understand words (Dorn & Soffos, 2012). When skilled readers encounter an unknown word, they draw from three sources of information to achieve word resolution: (1) meaning, (2) language structure, and (3) visual cues (Dorn, French, & Jones, 1998). They are able to flexibly use word-solving actions based on their understandings of language and cueing systems during reading of connected text (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996). However, struggling readers, as Pinnell and Fountas (2009) suggested, find themselves at a loss when faced with an unknown word. In particular, some readers equate reading with sounding it out and become over-committed to using visual/phonetic cues to word solve, finding it challenging to crosscheck one information source against another (Clay, 1991, 1998). This problem is compounded when students mental energy is exhausted decoding words, resulting in the sacrifice of word knowledge and meaning (Rasinski, 2003). Students who struggle require intervention and explicit instruction that teaches them how to problem solve when reading for meaning (Pinnell & Fountas, 2009). Thus teachers need to understand the repertoire of strategies that competent readers call upon at points of difficulty. By comparing competent and struggling readers strategy use, teachers may infer in the head processing (Pinnell & Fountas, 2009). These inferences can inform instruction, allowing teachers to differentiate. Drawing for Learning Learning to read is hard for many students. For struggling readers to stay motivated in the face of difficulty, they need a vivid and compelling vision of themselves learning. Such an image provides a sense of possibility. As students imagine themselves successfully reading, they are more likely to believe they can succeed (Cambourne, 1988). Envisioning allows children to imagine reading in ways that exceed their current level (Denton, 2007; Langer, 2011). As Denton asserted, When children believe in themselves they are more likely to work hard [at reading] and to enjoy the process (p. 19). Drawing helps children figure out what they know and how they know it (Horn & Giacobbe, 2007). Drawing provides opportunities for struggling readers to organize and communicate their literacy knowledge. Belinda S. Zimmerman is an assistant professor of Literacy and Early Childhood Education at Kent State University, Ohio, USA; e-mail bzimmerm@kent.edu. The Reading Teacher Vol. 65 Issue 8 pp. 578 583 DOI:10.1002/TRTR.01085 2012 International Reading Association

579 When drawing is accompanied by an instructional conversation, students are positioned as active participants in creating new understandings about reading. Drawing can act as a bridge from one symbol system to another (Dyson, 1992; Sidelnick & Svoboda, 2000). In this way, drawing is writing. As Kendrick and McKay (2004) noted, Children naturally move between art... and language as ways to think about the world (p. 109). Drawing provides children the opportunity to communicate how they approach reading. When struggling readers draw their thinking and wordsolving processes, teachers are provided insights concerning the resolution of tensions and difficulties as students transition into more competent reading (Dyson, 1986). Often, when faced with explaining what they do not understand, struggling readers cannot get past their frustration to actively participate in instruction. Asking a student to draw the process(es) used to make meaning of the words and text creates an opportunity to carefully focus on what happens when word solving. Drawing allows struggling readers to step outside of frustration and reflect on what they know about successful word solving and meaning making. The information provided in the drawing assists teachers in linking the child s previous learning to new reading situations while strengthening and expanding the child s problemsolving repertoire. When drawing is accompanied by an instructional conversation, students are positioned as active participants in creating new understandings about reading. Instructional Conversation Instructional conversations are a form of shared teacher child inquiry based on the notion that learning is interactive and social (Vygotsky, 1978). Instructional conversations facilitate and mediate learning. The instructional conversation establishes what the child already knows about learning unknown words. Once the student s prior knowledge is activated, the teacher can select prompts that will steer the child toward next-step problem-solving behaviors. Instructional conversations prepare teachers to teach for the transfer of skills and strategies. The goal is for the teacher to gather important formative assessment data while working together with the child to develop a selfextending system for more independent word learning. As the teacher reflects on each instructional conversation, the teacher is empowered to make informed decisions to assist the child in subsequent lessons. The Lesson The drawing process complements a strong literacy program. Teachers begin by providing an introductory lesson that explains how drawing can assist students in figuring out new words. This 15-minute activity should be used bimonthly so that students are familiar with drawing as a way to make visible their in the head thinking (Pinnell & Fountas, 2009). The drawing prompt What do you do when you come to a tricky word? provides a clear, intentional starting point. In the picture, students should include themselves, the reading environment, and a caption that identifies the strategy they are using to word solve. As students draw their word-solving strategies, the teacher should explore the child s thinking by engaging in the instructional conversation. This joint productive activity optimizes teaching language, literacy, thinking, and problem-solving skills (Tharp & Gallimore, 1988, p. 158). When used as formative assessment, the drawing and dialogue process reinforces what the student already knows and has yet to learn. Unlined paper is preferable so that students can learn to negotiate space on the page and make choices about picture placement and directionality of the caption. An elaborative picture suggests that the student is gaining intellectual maturity, which usually coincides with improved reading and writing (Horn & Giacobbe, 2007). Finally, the drawings may be briefly reviewed before the reading of new texts. In this way, students are able to remember what they have learned and immediately apply it to the text at hand. Pause and Ponder How can you tap students creativity to motivate them to read? How can you easily generate formative assessment data concerning students word-solving strategies? How does envisioning oneself as a competent reader engage students in developing and applying word-solving strategies? How can instructional conversations scaffold the literacy development of struggling readers? www.reading.org

580 Regular graphite pencils should be provided for the drawing process. The use of pencils reinforces the instructional nature of the drawing and lets the students know they are drawing to learn rather than drawing for fun or artistic merit. Schmoker (2011) asserted that art projects are overused in the literacy classroom. By using plain unlined paper and simple pencils, clear directions, and the instructional conversation, the art project aspect of this strategy is diminished and the instructional purposes are elevated. Figure 1 shows how Timothy (all student names are pseudonyms), a struggling first grader, word solved during a beginning lesson. Timothy has drawn himself solving a word with the only strategy he knows. He captures his strategy in a simple threeword sentence. He has confused the word she for the word stretch. On the bright side, stretch it out is a viable strategy, and his sentence expresses a complete thought. A teacher also might want to note conventions such as spelling, word spacing, capitalization, and punctuation. These observations provide a starting point for instruction. Ricardo s drawing offers an example of a struggling second-grade reader (see Figure 2). Ricardo s statement indicates he that realizes that context clues and meaning can be used to figure out unknown words. When reading about a giant cake, the word slice challenged him. After a period of hesitation, he was able to figure out the word. Here is a portion of the instructional conversation Ricardo had with his teacher about how he word solved for slice. Teacher: Yes, that s the one. How did you figure that out? Ricardo: On the other page they were going to cut the cake so I used the words on this page to figure out the word. Teacher: Tell me more about that. Figure 1 Figure 2 Stretch It Out Ricardo: Ms. W (his first-grade teacher) says if you skip the tricky word and think about what makes sense you can get the word. Teacher: Wow, you did two really important things. First, you understand that reading has I Think About What the Other Words Mean to Get the Tricky Words Teacher: I noticed you figured out a tricky word on this page. Ricardo: [pointing to slice] Here it is. The Reading Teacher Vol. 65 Issue 8 May 2012

581 to make sense. Then you used what was going on in the story, plus the other words to help you figure out the tricky word. That s called using context clues. Let s draw about that. Figure 3 Skip It Then Go Back to the Beginning Although both boys are struggling readers, they grapple with different word-solving issues. At this point, Timothy has not developed meaningbased strategies, and he relies primarily on phonics to inform his word solving. Ricardo is able to draw from a wider range of options. In this example, he uses meaning-based cues to identify the correct word. In each case, the drawing and dialogue process provides formative assessment data from which the teacher can tailor future instruction. Furthermore, the picture provides a concrete tool to remind students what good readers do at points of difficultly. Drawings also provide an ongoing record of how word-solving strategies are developed. In Figure 3, Timothy is climbing a hill. During the dialogue about this picture, Timothy shared that he thinks about reading even when he is away from books. By offering this explanation, it indicates that he is responding reflectively to the interactions, conversations, and instruction he has experienced with his teacher about word-solving strategies. In his speech bubble, Timothy identifies a multistep process for word solving. By identifying several steps to solve an unknown word, Timothy has surpassed emergent word solving and has advanced into the early-reader stage. Teacher: Tell me about your picture. Timothy: It shows me taking a walk. Teacher: I like that you re taking a walk. How does that connect to reading? Timothy: I think about reading not just in school. Teacher: So you re going for a walk and you re thinking about strategies to figure out tricky words? The drawing and dialogue process provides formative assessment data from which the teacher can tailor future instruction. Timothy: [nods] Like today, I didn t know the word beautiful so I skipped it and kept reading. Teacher: What did you do next? Timothy: I was still stuck so I went back to the beginning. And then I figured it out. Teacher: You learned the word beautiful today. You know how to try different things and use strategies to figure it out all by yourself. Like Timothy, as the year progressed, Ricardo s understanding increased. In Figure 4, Ricardo has drawn how he cross-checks words to be sure that when he word solves he attends to phonetic cues and meaning. When reading, Ricardo confused the word small for the word little. He has drawn a dragon who has captured a small fish. His caption acknowledges that he understands that small means little, yet they have different letters. Through cross-checking www.reading.org

582 Figure 4 I Can Cross-Check. I Check the Meaning and Letters to Fix Up Tricky Words. Small Means Little. They Have Different Letters. he hadn t before I guess the biggest thing is that he doesn t rely on me or [his father] or one of the other kids to read things to him. He is so proud of himself and believes that he can read and that he is a good reader. That s so important. one source of information against another, Ricardo was able to self-correct. Ricardo initiated the instructional conversation by asking, Do you want me to tell you what I did? Teacher: Sure! Ricardo: I had to make it match. Small and little mean the same thing, but the letters for small are different than the letters for little. So I cross-checked and I got it. Teacher: So you checked the meaning and the letters and that s how you fixed it up? Roberto: Yea, cause I can do the crosscheck now. In each of these later examples, Timothy and Ricardo demonstrated that they had grown in their ability to word solve. During instructional conversations, they started to take on more of the work of word solving and were able to incorporate the language of teaching (i.e., cross-checking) into their drawings and dialogues. As they became more successful readers, they began to internalize and initiate word-solving strategies independent of outside help. Final Thoughts When students experience reading success, others observe their emerging strengths and newfound motivation. The power of using drawings and dialogue was recognized by Timothy s parents, who explained to the teacher: We were very worried about him. He didn t know all of his letters and sounds. He would forget things so quickly. Once he [drew and talked with his teacher] everything seemed to change. He started to pick up and notice things The statements of Timothy s parents reflect not only an observation of Timothy s improvement in reading, but also an increase in his self-efficacy, self-regulation and independence. As many teachers can attest, when students are confronted by a word they do not know, they become frustrated and less focused on the reading process. The drawing provides a buffer in the word-solving process that allows students to step back and think about the strategies they know and can use. The instructional conversation serves to reinforce what students already know and can offer the teacher time to prompt for new strategies. As a result, students learn to envision themselves as confident, competent readers, able to tackle challenging text and make better sense of the world around them. The power of this process cannot be underestimated. REFERENCES Cambourne, B. (1988). The whole story: Natural learning and the acquisition of literacy in the classroom. Auckland, New Zealand: Ashton Scholastic. Clay, M.M. (1991). Becoming literate: The construction of inner control. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Clay, M.M. (1998). By different paths to common outcomes. York, ME: Stenhouse. Clay, M.M. (2005). Literacy lessons: Designed for individuals, part one: Why? When? and how? Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Denton, P. (2007). The power of our words: Teacher language that helps children learn. Turners Falls, MA: Northeast Foundation for Children. Dorn, L.J., French, C., & Jones, T. (1998). Apprenticeship in literacy: Transitions across reading and writing. York, ME: Stenhouse. Dorn, L.J., & Soffos, C. (2012). Interventions that work. Boston: Pearson. The Reading Teacher Vol. 65 Issue 8 May 2012

583 Dyson, A.H. (1986). Transitions and tensions: Interrelationships between the drawing, talking, and dictating of young children. Research in the Teaching of English, 20(4), 379 409. Dyson, A.H. (1992). The case of the singing scientist: A performance perspective on the stages of school literacy. Written Communication, 9(1), 3 47. Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S. (1996). Guided reading: Good first teaching for all children. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Horn, M., & Giacobbe, M.E. (2007). Talking, drawing, writing: Lessons for our youngest writers. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. Kendrick, M., & McKay, R. (2004). Drawing as an alternative way of understanding young children s constructions of literacy. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 4(1), 109 128. doi:10.1177/1468798404041458 Langer, J.A. (2011). Literature: Literary understanding and literature instruction (2nd ed.). New York: Teachers College Press. Pinnell, G.S., & Fountas, I.C. (2009). When readers struggle: Teaching that works. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Rasinski, T.V. (2003). The fluent reader. New York: Scholastic. Schmoker, M. (2011). Focus: Elevating the essentials to radically improve student learning. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Sidelnick, M.A., & Svoboda, M.L. (2000). The bridge between drawing and writing: Hannah s story. The Reading Teacher, 54(2), 160 171. Tharp, R.G., & Gallimore, R. (1988). Rousing minds to life. New York: Cambridge University Press. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. MORE TO EXPLORE ReadWriteThink.org Lesson Plans Draw a Story: Stepping From Pictures to Writing by Renee Goularte Literature Response in Primary Classrooms by Renee Goularte IRA Book Finding the Artist Within: Creating and Reading Visual Texts in the English Language Arts Classroom by Peggy Albers IRA Journal Article Picture It! by Victoria M. Naughton, The Reading Teacher, September 2008 www.reading.org