In Pictures and in Words Chapter 2 Summary

In Pictures and In Words
Summary of Chapter 2
Building Stamina for Writing by Supporting Children’s Work as Illustrators

Proficient writers need to build stamina. It is essential for teachers of writing to understand the kind of stamina writers need.

Understanding the Work of Writing
Writing work asks individuals to go from nothing to something all on their own over and
over again. Writers often know their topic and key ideas, but don’t know how their writing will take shape until they start writing.

The Curriculum of Time
Katie Wood Ray tells us “that for children to grow up as writers under the care of teachers, those teachers must teach them how to show up and move forward, how to be both the boat and the wind for their forward motion as writers.”
In order to build creative stamina children must fill time with work they’ve made for themselves. They must build stamina to sit for a long time and work on something over time.
Composing with illustrations is a good starting point for young children to begin to build the stamina it takes to become effective communicators.

Picture Books Invite Stamina
A single, simple instructional decision, the invitation to make picture books makes more difference in helping young writers build creative stamina than anything else.. Katie Ray Wood suggests that blank paper invites children to work for a very long time at filling it up and the verb “make” suggest many ways to fill up those pages. Children don’t have to “write” the book.
NAEYC cites research that has shown, “children with more positive learning behaviors, such as initiative, attention, and persistence, later develop stronger language skills”