About the Power of Pictures
What is the Power of Pictures?
Developed in partnership with artistic mentor Ed Vere, and funded by The Arts Council England, the Power of Pictures provides training that supports teachers in using picture books to enhance critical thinking and in developing creative approaches in art and writing alongside a professional.
Over two highly practical days, teachers work alongside published author/illustrators to investigate how picture books can be used in schools to enhance children’s reading comprehension and composition of their own creative writing. Learning from the professionals, the relationships between drawing, thinking and writing are explored through sharing the authentic writing processes of a picture book artist, creating more meaningful partnerships between schools and authors.
Across the course of the project, CLPE’s independent evaluators reflected on what can we learn about using picture books in school, the teaching of writing and working with professionals in our schools.
- Create more lasting and fundamental relationships between teachers and writers/illustrators, with greater impact
- Give teachers greater confidence in choosing and talking about picture books
- Develop teachers own skills as writers and artists
- Develop author/illustrator partnerships with schools to make partnerships more meaningful
- Extend and deepen children's enjoyment of picture books across the school and of writing
- Raise the profile of emerging authors and illustrators and to support their work in what is seen as an increasingly competitive market
- Stimulate an active and independent writing culture in schools
This website shares the approaches trialled in the training along with videos of the focus authors and illustrators at work, exploring their writing processes, and teaching sequences to accompany the focus picture books. These sequences are differentiated across key stages to facilitate whole school study of the texts and picture book making projects.