Looking
- The students are
invited to figure out what is going on in one of my illustrations.
- It is a good warm
up; students become comfortable talking with me, and they gain confidence
in the validity of their observations and opinions. I use a technique
called Visual Thinking Strategies.
Thinking
- Everyone has their
own unique interests, families, friends, and experiences, and so
each student will have their own unique story to tell.
- Where do my ideas
came from? I talk about what my brothers and sisters and I did in
elementary school in order to introduce The Grand Old Tree.
Brainstorming
- I
ask the students to name different kinds of trees. We list them.
- I talk about
techniques for brainstorming. Sometimes it helps to think of categories.
Sometimes a thesaurus or
other kind of research aid is helpful.
Research
- Library research
- Field research
- Interview an expert
"Pretend
you are there"
- I write
the phrase” A Grand Old Tree” on the board.
- I then draw on
the board four different interpretations of the phrase
- I ask the
students to imagine a picture for this phrase.
- We consider the
unlimited possibilites!
- I point
out that much of a story is told in the illustration: who, what,
where...the setting, the weather, the mood, emotions, costumes,
furniture, time period, etc.
Book Dummy
- A book dummy is
a mock-up of the actual book..
- What is a picture
book? How is it different than a story book? We talk about the interdependence
of words and pictures in a picture book.
- I present my books
to my editor as book dummies. Sometimes my books go through more
than one book dummy stage, I don’t always get things right
the first time. I show these various dummies to the class.
Editing
- The process of
working with teacher/editor to communicate one's ideas more precisely.
- Write or
Draw something—and then
you can fix it. Nothing is perfect the first time.
Art
- I
will show a piece of original
art
- What is the media?—painting,
collage, etc.
- How
does the media communicate
the subject matter?
- I will show sketch
stages and answer questions and talk about whatever the students
may find interesting about the artistic process.
F&Gs,
Bound Book
- I show an unbound
book, and a finished book.
- I talk about
the printing and publishing processes.
Read
- The students
and I tell a story together! It is fun and loud.
This presentation works well for
all grade levels. For older students, we go into more detail about
each segment of the presentation. With grades pre K and K we do
not get very technical, and sometimes we do more talking through
stories.
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