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2nd Grade OWI – Who Draws It?
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12 thoughts on “2nd Grade OWI – Who Draws It?”
Yes, sixth and fifth graders love OWIs and the stories connected to them.
But Udo do the fifth graders do as well as the sixth graders in drawing their own art? (I’ve never taught fifth graders.)
Ben; as you’ve always stated, you need wonderful artists for the job. In last year’s grade five the class voted two girls for the Job and everybody just loved their drawings bc they were really cute.
I’m not sure I’d take the risk with fourth graders though.
My 5th graders are auditioning to draw our OWI now – I’ll let you know how it goes. Up until now I’ve been drawing them, and it probably can’t get a whole lot worse…. ‘ )
Ben, the link in the post doesn’t work for me.
I experimented with 3-4 grade kids drawing while establishing the character – it was too hard for them. When I assigned an artist pair, I could feel lots of disappointment in the room. So I abandoned that right away and have been doing the initial drawing ever since.
To be clear – the elem kids do get opportunities to draw – but it’s only after the initial drawing/character is established.
3 drawing extensions things I often do – maybe not all every time – depends on the class’ wishes – 6-panel storyboards with captions;
Look, Listen & Draw (the video guy at artforkidshub.com – MovieTalk style on Dry Erase boards);
Class-made illustrated books, where we chop up the text over several pages, and kids volunteer to draw an illustration that matches their page.
These class-illustrated books are celebrated and read to the class then go to the FVR shelves. I usu make multiple copies to keep all illustrators busy and allow for multiple kids to read at once. We don’t do FVR too often – and it starts later in the year.
When I do OWI with the younger ones, I sketch it on a whiteboard while we create the character. I then write up the character description to use in the next class. We the description, then everyone draws the character. I have had class artists in the past for 3rd grade and up, and the artists have done well, but like Alisa mentioned, there is a lot of disappointment in the room. This year I asked my upper grades what they wanted to do and in each class an overwhelming majority chose to have everyone draw.
I also remind them several times that they need to draw what the story says or their picture will not be considered to be hung on the wall (I hang up about 6-7 pictures out of each class of 20). This helps me with those younger ones who color their character purple, even though the story says he is red, just because they think he looks better purple:)
That’s so funny – they draw it purple bc to them it looks better. Kids!
So Jenny just to clarify:
1. You draw the image as it is created.
2. Then how do you write it up? In class? Overnight? And how do you process, if at all, the reading?
3.Since they are young and drawing is so integral to their young hearts, you let them draw – great idea that probably wouldn’t work w older kids. And you narrate the image while they draw, is that correct?
4. Then good drawings get into the wall gallery instead of just the original that you drew. Good idea as a motivator.
Do any kids who don’t draw well lose interest?
I write it up after class due to time constraints. We write other activities in class, but not this one. I read through the writing (asking questions of the yes/no, either/or type or asking them to do a bit of TPR to check for understanding) and then I let them loose to draw. I don’t talk to them as a class while they draw, but I do talk to individuals as I walk around the class (or loudly comment on how I love that Susie is drawing big wings on her monster).
As for kids who don’t draw well, I haven’t had any yet 🙂 Just kidding, but I haven’t had a problem with this in elementary school. I can see how secondary students may be more self conscious though. The younger ones just love to draw! I’m also not the best drawer and make it clear to them, very clear, that we don’t laugh at others’ drawings. We are all trying our best. (And I make fun of my own drawings quite often to let them know it doesn’t have to be perfect). I let them know that they do not have to copy my drawing (my picture is erased from the whiteboard by the time they draw), but they do need to get the details in. For example, if a monster has 3 eyes, I might draw my monster with 2 eyes on antennae on top of his head and one on his face. They can put their eyes wherever, as long as there are 3. This helps them have that creative outlet while showing me they understand. Also, when they make their suggestions, I may or may not usually pick the item that I think may be the easiest to draw…
Jennifer you hit on something very important when you said this:
…while showing me they understand….
I find it very interesting that we can use drawings by students to show language gains where so many other ways of doing that don’t work, esp. with those younger kids. All teachers at every level should explore this relatively untapped assessment idea.
Yes I also prefer writing the story out after class. I used to write it up in class years and years ago and the air always went out of the balloon.
Not having taught elementary kids, I now get what you say about how they’re not so self-conscious about their drawing at that age. It’s too bad that kids lose their confidence as they get older. I would think that any system of educating kids would have as its main goal the student’s confidence and then design the curriculum around that. That’s what I did with the Invisibles. My main concern has always been how happy the kid is in class. That’s what should drive the curriculum, not fake language gains. (Fake because testing is always to some degree false, esp. if the kids don’t care about the class as much as we want them to, and, as is almost always the case, they think that learning means memorizing, which doesn’t work in our field.
I had similar experiences -with the air going outta the balloon if I try to write up the story in class. So I do most of it afterwards, and then when I project it, ask the Ss if I need to change any details, any order, any dialogue – as a way to dig deeper into the reading.
With the 20 Reading Options, I could literally spend a week on the reading. It is during the reading that the real gains happen. The students heard the story being created but they didn’t see it. When we arrive at the reading (I usually skip Options 1-3 unless being observed to get those boxes checked), I start with Options 4 and go through Option 7. I only do Option 7 if something very physical in the story line lends itself to that option. But yeah, the feeling as you say of digging deeper into the reading as we wish (no planning, no set curriculum) brings wonderful spontaneity – spin out comparisons, etc. – and fun and then, following the star sequence, we just end it when it’s not fun anymore but usually not without a rollicking game of WCTG on Friday based on the story. I love reading class, but wouldn’t be able to really rock it without the earlier work on the star sequence (the real curriculum based that allows spontaneity, which is the essence of language*) without the story creating process based on images created uniquely by the kids first. New people if confused, it’s all in ANATS.
*see https://benslavic.com/blog/lart-de-la-conversation-and-tprs/