Students should also be taught sequencing skills in describing their monster to make the original monster easier to see in another student's imagination so the drawing becomes as close a picture to the original as possible. The print copy of the description, original, and redrawn monster can become part of a student's portfolio for language arts. When students see their original monster and description with a redrawing that is so different from their original, it helps them see where they need to improve in the descriptive and sequencing process. The real difficulty is putting into words what the student can see with their own eyes so that another person can draw a close duplicate. The third-grade class of Tryna Morton at Murphy Ranch School, in Whittier, California, has enjoyed the Monster Exchange Project since its start.
Young children have a tendency to state the facts without any description to embellish their piece.
Morton is the author of the lesson Shapo on the Monster Exchange Web site. I printed a copy for each child and had them draw my creature. We compared drawings and discussed how the piece about Shapo was written and how he was drawn. I then had the children create their own creature with a partner and write a description. We exchanged descriptions within our class and drew someone else's creature.