The Day the Crayons Quit: A Critical Evaluation

This document provides a critical evaluation of the children's book 'The Day the Crayons Quit' by Drew Daywalt, analyzing its underlying themes and teaching methods. It explores the importance of literature in language development for preschool-aged children and suggests creative ways to engage students with the text. The document also includes a lesson plan and worksheet for teachers.

English
Literature and language arts in English
5/9/2019

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Major features of the Text...............................................................................................................2
Personal reaction to the Text...........................................................................................................4
Teaching Treatment.........................................................................................................................5
Reflection on the implementation....................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10
Appendix........................................................................................................................................11
Lesson plan................................................................................................................................11
Worksheet..................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The aim of the assessment is to critically evaluate the underlying themes that are reflected in the
Children book with the name “The Day the Crayons Quit” written by Drew Daywalt. This book
is appropriate to present the creative conversation or talking to learn that helps every participant
to express his or her views.
The short story book has been selected in order to analyse the literature in the style for a
particular reason that says literary language development is essential from the age group of pre-
reading. I teach as well as search for the short stories with creativity in order to form an effective
manner to expose students with the diverse sort of vocabulary, visual stimulus, as well as rhythm
with the creative imagination and conversation. This book is appropriate for the children with the
age group of 2-6 years. This enhances the development in their brain activities with the motive to
understand the language and identification of the creative thinking. These are the major reason
behind the introduction of the preschool aged children to book that talk about crayons at an early
age, as it is important for them to learn the need of the things in their life (Martin, 2017).
The Day the Crayons Quit book is selected for understanding the language is related to
curriculum unit on “Colours” and sub-theme is “Crayons”.
The aim of the literature is to engage and form connection among the children with the diverse
experiences of the human with the symbolic code of the human experiences. According to Lam,
& Lam, 2018, in the year 2016 Progress in the International reading literacy study shows that
Hong Kong ranked 33rd in the reading enjoyment present among the 50 countries that are
tracked. This statistics shows that attitude of the children when it comes to read for the purpose
of academic. This makes me to include those activities, which makes the student to easy
understand and include their involvement. The activities, which are conducted, are enjoyable
which attract them while reading the books. These efforts are presented in order to develop the
habit among the people in order to read the literature in their life.
Major features of the Text
The book major feature include the creative conversation among the crayons in the pattern of
complain or arguments for being used. This nature of text grabs the attention of the kids and they

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start imagining their own humorous conversations with the crayons. The introduction of the book
is clear when Duncan went to take out the crayons for use and identifies a stack of letters with
his name on them. This shows the character is child who goes to school and to complete the
work he use the crayons.
After reading the book, I found the interesting think in the book is the being the personification
of the crayons which shows their attribution of the personal nature or the characteristics to
something non-human or represents an abstract quality in the form of human. In addition, the
visual presentation of words of crayons amazed me with the fact and remained interesting. The
creative imagination in the form of feelings is presented by the crayons that show the way they
are being treated. For instance, Black colour wants to be used for more rather than just the
outlining. After listening complains from the crayons used for the specific purpose, Duncan find
the resolution for which he prepared the image with the different crayons considering complains
due to which he changed the colouring role in a picture. The crayons were used for different
from their actual colours that made the Duncan to score A+ in creativity.
Storybook language is patterned language with the arguments, complains, diverse thoughts and a
creative conversation that offers the pleasure to readers as well as listeners. This makes them to
form their own creative conversations with different things. In addition, when the reader read it
in aloud with full enthusiasm, animated way, with diverse expression, asking for the reason
attract the listeners to engage and to appreciate the content.
The consistency is maintained by different crayons for being used for the specific or particular
purpose is done that supports the language in the book. The below given are some of the example
of the sentences used in the book which shows the way question is asked and complain has been
done by the crayons.
 I am writing two reasons. One is to say that I like my work-loads of crocodiles, trees,
dinosaurs and frogs. Second reason is that my friend yellow crayon and orange crayon
are not talking to each other.
 I am tired to being called light brown or dark tan because I am neither.
 Red crayon said, ‘I even work on holidays’.
 How about a black beach ball sometime? Is that too much to ask?

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The story has the excellent description of the reason due to which they are complained about
being used for instance red crayon says that I even work on holidays which shows it has been
used for fire engines, strawberries, apple and even at the Christmas.
Thus, it has been found that students might deal with the issues in understanding the overall
moral of story as an image is formed by Duncan that needs a deep understanding for the crayons
that is used by him for just different as suggested by black colour. The black crayon was used for
the clouds and the image depicts the same.
Personal reaction to the Text
I love the book ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ for the very first time when I started reading it as I
love using crayons colours when I was child. According to me, there are different themes of the
story that has win my heart and made me amazed with the fact of being appropriate as well as
interesting in order to explores with the class of more than 3-5 years old people. Thus, the text
could be taken in any of the themes with the motive to get an interesting lesson.
 Humorous conversations: - Doing the humorous conversation with the crayons develop
the way they think when they being used by the people. It shows the creative that how
crayons might be thinking when they are being used. Thus, this teaches the lesson that we
should think for others while being with them. The imagination of these conversations
with the colours shows the sense of creativity that is used to explain the value.
 Sense of initiatives to help others: - Working together and taking the initiatives to help
other people in order to solve their problems shows the corporative activity. For instance;
green crayon write for their two friends that are yellow and orange who fight for being
the colour of sun. The initiative is taken by the green crayon in order to help its friend
problem so that they can talk with each other.
 Saying thank you: - Saying thank you for being used is one of lesson that shows that
helping others and valuing the same is essential. Most of the crayons complain for some
of the purpose but saying thank you for being used is showing that it is essential to make
someone special.
 Accepting complains: - The story shows that Duncan accepts complains of the crayons
and think some idea in order to make their crayons happy. Thus, this teaches the lesson

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that Duncan is capable of taking the challenge of accepting complains and they work on
it. In the end, Duncan created pictures that adhere to complains of the crayons as this
gives them happiness of being listened and brought solution that involved every
character. Thus, person should accept the complaint and work in order to resolve the
same with the motive to make the other happy with the solution.
 Valuable and inspiring for others with no biasness: - The pink complain to the pink
Duncan for not being used me once in the past years because of thought that Pink colour
is Girls color. However, the little sister of your make use of mine for colouring the little
princes as well as book so please communicate a thank you for being fabulous job of
staying inside the lines. Thus, this shows that things are valuable and inspiring for the
other and they do not keep any biasness while making the use of crayons.
In the kindergarten, it is essential to provide the effective learning to the children as this is
considered as there first learning through which they can interact socially as well as responsibly.
Thus, it becomes essential to communicate about the lessons and to apply them in the near
future. This will develop the friendly and caring nature among the children for helping as well as
it allows them to put complains in front of them as it is essential to be vocal in classroom.
Teaching Treatment
The Curriculum Development Council in Hong Kong has a clear understanding that teachers at
school must focus on “Enhancing learning and teaching through greater use of language arts to
promote creativity” (CDC, English Language Education KLA Curriculum Guide p.6). I decided
to use pictorial method to expand and explore the things that is given in the literary text is
creative communication or talking to learn among students.
I have decided to develop a lesson plan through creative communication method so as to develop
a deeper understanding of the theory and hence underpinning of this innovative method of
teaching and hence better I should familiarise myself with it. This method allows the text to
become a person and hence student can easily visualise. Students can explore themselves under
the guidance of the teacher. The students whom I will teach are very small and hence they
understanding that they develop about any text are through the teacher. This makes it important
for them to create filter between authentic text and them (Edutopia, 2015).

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The method of creative communication or talking to learn allows a person to be a part of the
story where they understand themselves as a character of the book where they say dialogues of
that character. A script will be given to the each student portraying any particular colour. This is
done to give an artistic experience to see through the text. I hope this might reduce the chances
that students skip any part of the book. Each student will have the colour badge of the colour that
is assigned to it. As the book requires an emotional connect hence students must take an
ownership of representing a particular colour. This method will give them an emotional connects
with the students which they can reflect afterwards. The text will act as a building block and
students can add their own ideas for creating opportunity for the recollection of the prior
knowledge relating them to crayons.
This method is widely used in different schools and it is widely documented in the areas of
academic research. According to different scholars, communicating with each other helps the
students to understand what the text wants to depict as they will understand themselves as a part
of the story. It is seen that talking to learn method allows the students to make learning a team
game where they develop the skills of speaking in front of others and also interact with each
other. This will build confidence in them. This allows them to improve their vocabulary and also
allows them to narrate the story as a part of that character and develops a learning that remains in
their minds forever.
In this teaching method teachers will just act as facilitator and will see the smoothness in the
conversation. Teacher will help the students who are unable to express themselves. Selection can
be done on the basis of the fact that which student likes which colour. This will improve their
emotional attachment about the colour. This methodology acts as a tool for language
development, conversation technique development and also allows understanding the story
which was the primary objective of the learning methodology.
This method will allow students to be creative and understand the value of colours and which
colours to choose while dealing with which picture. There will be race that every individual as a
colour will try to depict them better than others. This will allow the students to think more
creatively while representing themselves. Creative language skill will be developed in the
students and challenges them to think more while depicting the colour. This will challenge the

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thinking skills and linguistic ability of the students and will also improve the human interaction
ability of the students.
Once the students will start reading about the text, they will start thinking about the challenges
that might be faced by the company. There will be different sections to this conversation where
they start together as a crayons colour and then they will display their individual roles by doing
conversation with each other and one person will play the role of Duncan. At last, Duncan will
give his perspective about those colours as he want that his crayons remain happy. At the end of
this teaching plan, question will be asked to every student about which colour they can choose to
represent which thing in picture. Teachers will ask verbal questions also where they will interact
with students to understand what students have learned (Hawkes, 2012). Since the students are of
smaller age group hence they might not raise their hands for answering the question hence
teachers can ask them individually. It should be open style conversation everyone must be given
freedom to express themselves.
The actual role play requires a lot of training where they must be able to express themselves and
they do not feel hesitated (Juzwik, Borsheim-Black, Caughlan & Heintz, 2013). First as a teacher
I will have to show that how the roles will be played. They need to follow, discover, lead,
respond and improvise all at the same time. The teacher that will be the part of this role play will
allow other students also to show their view point and they can ask question to the students that
are playing the role of crayons. This will help them to bring their creativity at top and they can
add to the character dialogues. It is important to connect to whatever the students are saying and
hence they have been instruction about how they will have to express. It is to be noted that in
order to understand the text it is crucial that fun remains in the core of the drama. This is crucial
because it will help them in understanding the things in a joyful manner. If the situation gets
tensed then the students will not be able to learn what they have been taught with. It is crucial
that teachers understand that any failure in making coordination among the students will lead to
improper understanding about the story. Since everyone is in character hence it essential that no
one misses the theme of the story and remain in the story. This will help others to understand the
challenges they might face. Coordination is also essential as if everyone starts to talk at the same
time, it will lead to chaos and nobody will understand anything. It is the role of the teacher to see
this.

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In the mean while when the students are displaying their communicational skills in the form of
role play they can easily notice the communicational efforts made by the students and check the
expressions they are giving at the time of their dialogue delivery. This will help the teachers to
identify the challenges that are faced by the students. Teacher can make future plans according to
this only. Teachers also need to ensure that they know when other students are losing their focus
and hence they could make immediate plans for reinstating their focus by asking some question.
Reflection on the implementation
I have been able to understand the challenges that a teacher might face while teaching their
students. By doing this I was able to meet my objectives such as explaining the whole story to
the students without much effort from my side. I understood how verbal text was not able to
meet my requirements and I was unable to explain the story in a realistic manner. I understood
that why students lose their focus while they were narrated a story. This is because they start to
forget all the characters as there is nothing real. Since the imagination level of the students at this
stage is not so good hence narrating the story won’t work. I also understood the way in which
any student need to be selected for any particular role play. The selection of that particular
student will help the teachers in making the conversation in a better manner as everything
depends on the way how the students will communicate with each other. The better the
communication, the better will be chances to succeed in the aim.
As a part of the team I understood the challenges that come in making coordination among all
the students of young age. I learned about the implementation challenges that are faced by any
teacher while training the students. I also understood that how the use of teaching program and
learning plan will help the teachers in transferring the knowledge to the students in an
appropriate manner. I also learned the challenges that particular students are facing and will use
it for teaching my student in the future. I also learned the way in which a teacher should try that
everyone remains focused while the conversation is going on. This method helped me in
developing my teaching skills and the way I should interact with other students. I also
understood the way in which I will have to train the students before they actually play their role
as a colour.

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References
Edutopia, 2015. Talking to Learn: Harnessing the Power of Student Conversation. Retrieved
from: https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/talking-learn-harnessing-power-student-
conversation
Hall, C., & Thomson, P. (2017). Creativity in teaching: what can teachers learn from
artists?. Research Papers in Education, 32(1), 106-120.
Hawkes, R. (2012). Learning to Talk and Talking to Learn: How Spontaneous Teacher-learner
Interaction in the Secondary Foreign Languages Classroom Provides Greater
Opportunities for L2 Learning (Doctoral dissertation, University of Cambridge).
Jahani, R., & Akbari, A. (2015). Philosophy for Children (P4C): Integrated Approach to
Teaching Thinking (Process Approach and Content Approach). Environment
Conservation Journal, 16(Special Edition), 487-493.
Juzwik, M. M., Borsheim-Black, C., Caughlan, S., & Heintz, A. (2013). Inspiring dialogue:
Talking to learn in the English classroom. Teachers College Press.
Lam, W.L. & Lam, P. F. (2018). How Hong Kong children can read their way into excellence in
a globalised world. Retrieved from:
https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/2150961/how-hong-kong-children-can-
read-their-way-excellence-globalised
Martin, J. R. (2017). Changing the educational landscape: Philosophy, women, and curriculum.
Routledge.
Siddiqui, N., Gorard, S., & See, B. H. (2019). Can programmes like Philosophy for Children
help schools to look beyond academic attainment?. Educational Review, 71(2), 146-165.

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Appendix
Lesson plan
Opening to lesson
Teacher distributes role plays to every student and tells them which colour they are.
Body of lesson
Training
Everybody will be trained about their role and teacher will suggest who will speak after whom so
that clarity remains.
Guided practice
Teacher will introduce the story and will introduce who is who and then the conversation will
start.
Independent practice
Teacher will see what is lagging in the learning process and he will ensure that all the students
remain attentive while the learning process is going on.
Closing
At last Duncan will express his feeling about colours and teacher will conclude the session by
asking question from the students so that he gets assured that everyone learns from it by
interacting in an open conversation.
Worksheet
The worksheet will be used by the teaching in order to conduct the teaching lessons for the
children.

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