And What Happens Next? Telling Stories Through Drawing

Amy Davidowitz, Kasey Phillips, Nyla Kimber, Michelle Urban

What do you see in this picture?

Some of the stuff on the picture, like human stuff just flying around, had a crash. And got muddled up. 'Cause it's outside ... That’s purple in the inside of the car. It used to be powered on grass but now it is powered on down because it's so heavy ... The cars are small but so heavy it's not funny. Not even with no gravity. it is going down, down, down, down, down ... That's what happened there. They guard are supposed to be up like that but they are down like that... And here is the other car that made that one happen.

Warm-Up Activity

- The listener and the teller are often one and the same. You need a willing listener to understand a child's meaning

-You need to listen to the meaning of someone's art work because if you don't listen, you will never know what the artist intended

-If you hear the meaning of a child’s art, you can retell it, and by retelling and repeating it, that is how a story is made.

Main Ideas- Children use drawings to narrate. A scribble may not

mean anything to you as the reader, but to a child it could have an entire elaborative story to go along with it.

- -Be willing to listen and encourage your students to share their art. It is easier for a lot of children to explain their artwork to you as a story than it is for them to write a story down on paper.

- -”We also believe that drawing allows children to add elements to their stories that might otherwise remain unexpressed.”

Main Ideas-Children’s story drawings deal with these themes:

Origins, Growth, Quest, Trials, Creation, Failures and Successes.

-Story drawings best serve children as means to actively explore the dynamic nature of the four realities – to look at the world and ponder its anomalies, to master its processes and rhythms, to consider one’s origins and anticipate one’s future, to know oneself, and to make decisions about right and wrong behavior.

Activity-Everyone take a minute to think of something that has been on your mind. Ex) something that is stressing you out, making you nervous, making you happy or excited…When ready take turns come up to the board and write it down.

Activity- Take a look at the board and choose a word or theme that pertains to you.

- Each person will get a blank storyboard with six empty boxes.

-Draw a story using the theme you have chosen. Ex) You can be the superhero, villain, draw an adventure related to your life.

--Show the beginning, middle, and end by drawing what happens first in your story, what happens next, and how things finally turn out.

- “We believe that in his own stories, the child is creating situations that are suited entirely to his own needs and desires, that deal directly, though symbolically, with his own immediate concerns.”

- “In their story drawings children can experiment with all kinds of trials, struggles, successes, and failures while remaining safe from all the dangers that would surely accompany the actual adventures.”

- -"Still others continually create stories that exist in a single frame. Sometimes these stories are complete but usually they are merely pieces of stories whose beginnings and endings proceed in any number of directions.”

Review- What you saw in the picture, Warm-up activity, Main

Ideas, Storyboard Activity

Discussion Questions- How could you use any of this information in your

future classrooms?

- What struck you as interesting?

- Did anything surprise you as a learner or future teacher?