Children’s use of drawing as a pre‐writing strategy

Abstract

In this study the writing products of 60 third‐grade students, who drew before writing a story on a self‐selected topic, was compared with the writing products of 59 third‐grade students who wrote without drawing. The students in the group which drew before writing tended to produce more words, more sentences and more idea units, and their overall writing performance was higher than the students who wrote without drawing. These findings were consistent for boys as well as girls. Implications for writing research and instruction are discussed.