Writers Draw Visual Hooks

Drawing and writing in response to picturebook read-alouds, elementary children construct varying “visual hooks” in their sketches as effective visual devices for extending ideas for writing: the bubble hook, the zoom hook, and the group hook. This article reports on a 12-week qualitative study in which children in second grade develop as writers in a classroom where art and language have equal importance. The author and classroom teacher, collaborators in a dissertation study on art and language as ways of knowing, continued their research by looking more closely at children’s drawings as part of the writing process. Analysis of students’ visual/verbal responses, audiotaped talk in group shares, and interview data suggest that children were able to create visual hooks as meaningful pathways for supporting writing and thinking about writing.