Picture Comprehension and Sequences

The Expressive Writing 1–2 instructional design includes the use of pictures and picture sequences to build writing skills. These pictures and picture sequences are carefully designed in the Expressive Writing exercises to help students have a concrete referent to write about.

The advantages of having concrete picture referent:

• Students can report and express exactly what is in the pictures.
• Teachers can correct errors in picture descriptions more efficiently.
• Students only use the provided vocabulary to describe the pictures, enabling them to learn the vocabulary more efficiently.
• Students learn to write simple declarative sentences by naming something in the pictures and then describing it more.
• Students are helped to make inferences based on evidence from the pictures.