Preparing for the 7 Plus composition paper: A Picture is worth a thousand words
October 23rd, 2019Last updated: May 20th, 2022
As both a teacher and a tutor, Hannah has worked with many children who present as reluctant writers or who appear to not have many ideas to begin a story. "Talking Pictures" is a simple yet highly effective 4 step strategy to get your child’s creative juices flowing and to kick-start the story writing process.
1. Select a Talking Picture
This is any image in which something interesting is happening. It can be taken from the Internet, the newspaper or from a book. Ideally, the picture would be in colour, quite large and have some character, either animal or person in it. Alternatively, it could be of a setting, like a cityscape of New York or a dingy forest. There are some good images to stimulate a good discussion on the Images Shed. Print the picture off if possible and leave some blank space around the picture for the next step.2. Question with the Talking Picture
As you show your child the picture for the first time, ask them some open questions about the picture. Here it is important to allow the child to generate their own ideas themselves, so try to avoid suggesting what you think is going on at first. Some good open questions could be;- What do you think is happening here?
- Where is this picture?
- What colours can you see here?
- What could you hear/see/smell…?
- How would you describe the way (a person/animal in the picture) is sitting/moving/looking…?
- How do you think (a person/animal in the picture…) is feeling? Why?
- How did (an object in the picture) get there?
- If this picture was from a film, what do you think would happen if I pressed play?
Start the discussion!