ABSTRACT
This activity (which asks pupils to look at images and write down or discuss what they notice) is self-differentiating and can be undertaken with any age group. The only differences between a Year 1 and a Year 6 version of this activity are the images used. While it may be more straightforward to use a page from a picture book with younger children, older pupils can develop their visual literacy skills through studying paintings and photographs. Images of suitable paintings can be found by searching online or in art books and can easily be displayed on the whiteboard while the children note down and discuss their observations. Try to encourage the children to relate their observations to narrative and character, concentrating on the facial expressions and emotional states of the people or animals in the images and considering what story the pictures might be telling. With older children, you may wish to ask them to look at an image and develop their observations in different ways:
„ Write a first person monologue, expressing a character’s inner thoughts „ Write a short story explaining the events which happened after the ones shown in the
image „ Write a playscript detailing the dialogue between the characters „ Write down what the figures in the image could be saying or thinking (in the form of
speech bubbles), then come and place them on the whiteboard by each character as if it were a giant comic.
