Drawing Your Own Conclusions: Graphic Strategies for Reading, Writing, and Thinking

Hundreds of English teachers throughout the nation have used the strategies Fran Claggett and Joan Brown bring together in this new book. Its premise is that graphics are ways for students to make meaning as they read, write and think. Graphics encourage students to read more closely. And when they draw in response to reading, students typically make visualized connections between the reading and their own lives, which is the essence of reader response theory. Graphics also encourage students to respond holistically to what they read-to record initial global responses, to perceive and create pictorial metaphors. Graphics are a rich way of learning, not only in response to literature but as a way to understand ourselves and how we come to know. Drawing Your Own Conclusions offers abundant examples of student graphics and a wealth of strategies are drawn from secondary classrooms, the undergirding concepts of the work make it readily applicable to virtually any age or ability level, from Advanced Placement to Learning Disabled. Drawing Your Own Conclusions speaks to teachers who understand that "whole language" includes the full spectrum of color, symbol, and word; that art and language are inextricably bound together; and that drawing a picture in response to a reading can mark a legitimate and exciting involvement with literature.