How to Use Picture Clues to Aid Story Writing

Teaching children to write factually and clearly is only one part of teaching them the writing process. As a teacher, you will also want to teach them to write creatively. However, as you introduce students to writing their own stories, you may be confronted by the roadblock that many of them have a difficult time thinking in a detailed and sequential way. One way to address this is to use picture stories and picture clues.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Crayons

Instructions

1. Divide your class into teams of two. Give each of the children three sheets of paper and crayons.

2. Instruct the children to create a story on the first sheet in words. Then have them draw the story as a series of objects in a line on the second sheet of paper. They are allowed to use conjunctions and possessive pronouns, but otherwise everything should be images.

3. Have the team members exchange the picture stories they created. Then, without speaking to each other about the pictures, each child should try to write out the story in words on the third sheet of paper.

4. Have the team members exchange the third sheet when they are done. Each student can then compare the story that results with the one he originally wrote on the first sheet of paper.

References

• University of Illinois: Picture Story Writing