Language Arts, Writing, Journaling, Art, Mediums

Grade 3- 5

Objective

Students use art as another medium of expression to awaken creativity.

Directions

Combining art and writing is a natural way to increase student creativity. Writing teachers often allow students to illustrate stories, but it can be very worthwhile to allow students to draw first and write second.

Student Practice: The exercise on the activity page is adapted from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. It is designed to help students think about their writing from an intuitive, "right-brained" perspective, as opposed to the rule-bound "left-brained" manner of using language.
The exercise directs the students to create a border around their papers and draw within it objects that are found along the walls of the classroom.

Ask students to select one object and write about events or students in the classroom from that object's perspective. For example, if a student chooses the clock, then he or she might write an essay on time spent in the classroom or changes in the room down through the years.
Encourage students to caption their artwork, as this provides another way for students to self-evaluate their work.

Extension: Ask students to do the same exercise, using a room in their homes. Students may wish to view a piece of fine artwork and write a story about the scene they encounter. Students may also wish to select their own previously created works of art and write about the inspiration for their work or create a story around it.

Resources

• A New Perspective activity page
• paper
• pencils
• ruler
• classroom objects
• Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards (J.P. Tarcher, 1999)