Stages of Implementing Picture Books in Writing Narrative Text Instruction
children‟s literature, especially fiction and non fiction picture story books as a teaching tool to support writing instruction. The study was conducted in their
school, Curtis Fundamental Elementary School in Clearwater, Florida, USA when they taught the kindergarten and the fourth-grade peer writing workshop. The
method used in the study was classroom action research. In the study, they found important information that children‟s books could
be a bridge for connecting the target skill with the reason for thinking, speaking, and writing like a writer. During conducting the study, they made a list of
children‟s books which was matched to the target skills including brainstorming, focus, elaboration, organization, and convension necessary for developing
effective writing. Then, in each meeting, they read aloud the children‟s books to their students. After reading aloud ended, both classes the kindergarten and the
fourth-grade peer writing workshop discussed about the auth or‟s technique of
focusing on an object through the use of specific details. Moreover, the result of the study showed that children‟s bookschildren‟s literature helped students to
generate and develop their own writing topics. The other result also showed that children‟s literature facilitated the students to develop their writerly thinking and
language which then they applied in their own writing. The other previous study came from Kelly Booker, Literacy and Numeracy
Field Officer, ACT entitled “Using Picture Books to Empower and Inspire Readers and Writers in the Upper Primary Classroom”. This study used classroom
action research methods and conducted at the beginning of Term 3, 2011. She took over a year 5 classes which had experienced a very disruptive start to the
year including a series of relief and short term contract teachers. The objective of the study is to apply picture books to empower and inspire
students to love reading and writing. The study appeared because Booker strongly believed that through the use of picture books, children are able to critically
engage in author‟s message and consider what it will be meaningful for their own texts. Before she started teaching writing, she had engaged students first in guided
reading program which involved reading aloud picture books and book talks. The guided reading had function to lead students in deep thinking about authorial
details and persuade them to love reading. During doing guided reading program, Booker found that the students interested and began to love reading. The students
always asked the new picture books in the first few weeks and Booker was successful in engaging them in reading.
After the guided reading program succeeded, the next step Booker did was to try to support the students‟ enthusiasm for reading and transfer it to their
writing. When she took the students to writing process, Booker used The Writing Process
– a Ten Stage Plan that Works written by Frank as her guidance to engage the students in writing process. The writing process included the
motivation, collecting impressions, organizing, the rough draft, author‟s review, sharing for response, editing and revising, the mechanics check, polishing, and
presenting. In addition, the result of the study showed that through the use of picture books, the students could be interested in reading process, writing process
and how reading and writing could be connected to create their piece of writing more meaningful and to provide them with literary experiences. More
importantly, the study revealed that the notion of how the text and the illustration interact or against each other in picture books could challenge and focus the
students‟ thinking. In other words, picture books led the students to read, explore, and connect the stories in picture books to their own experiences or interests
which could help them to generate and develop ideas in their own writing. Based on the two previous relevant studies explained above, the researcher
inspired to conduct a quasi experimental research using picture books as a tool or instructional media in teaching narrative writing because the two previous studies
showed that there were positive effect of the use of picture books in students‟ achievement in writing skill. However, the researcher would not apply reading
aloud picture books but silent reading due to the condition of the students‟
classroom and the larger sum of the students who became the sample of the research.