Theywere amazed at what could be
achieved and this drove themon to become
more adventurous and skilful in their work.
Throughout this process, the teacher’s
modelling of excellencewas paramount.
Strand2
STIMULATING THE SENSES
The second strand focused on inspiring
children to discover an authentic love for
writing. I read to themdaily, immersing
them in excellent stories, prose and poetry.
They enjoyed learning at first hand and as
practically as possible. This fuelled in thema
desire towrite as experts and they flourished
quickly aswriters, finding their own voice and
appreciation for the nuances of language.
64
TEACH READING & WRITING
A
fewyears ago, while I was still
teaching regularly, our school
set out on a thrilling journey to
help children develop a genuine
excitement about writing
–we
wanted their eyes to light upwhen they knew
theywere going towrite, to come in and ask,
“Will we bewriting today?” Our solutionwas to
introduce three elements centered around
one key component: embedding art – the use
of watercolour painting – intowriting.
Strand1
CREATING ILLUSTRATIONS
First, children learned how to usewatercolour
to produce vibrant illustrations. Each child had
a box of paints, a thin sable brush and a small
pot of water. Startingwith only one primary
colour andwhite, the challengewas for them
tomake asmany variants and tones of that
one colour on a 2cmx 2cmsquare of good-
quality paper as they could. Some of the
patterns and designs they producedwere
wonderful: thin, wispy linesweaving across
the paper, lines of paint that varied in tone
almost imperceptibly and blocks of finely
graduated colour.
Once they had practised this for awhile,
theymoved on to try it with two primaries.
Theywere enthralled and discovered a love
and respect for watercolours, which they
found could be full of surprises and pleasures.
Next came the challenge of producing
illustrations. Somewanted to copy pictures.
Otherswanted to branch out and draw from
real-life plants or artefacts. Still others
wanted to use their imagination.
Resourceswere plentiful so that all
children couldfind something to help them.
At the same time, I showed pupils some
watercolour work I had done using exactly
the same techniques I was teaching them.
brilliant
Theartof
Children suffering fromwriter’s block?
Ask them to put down their pens and pick
up a paintbrush, says
BruceWaelend
...
BRUCEWAELEND
is an education consultant and former headteacher
WRITING
