Boys into Writing - A fact finding mission for key stage 2 & 3 a special workshop created for Tor Bridge Primary School exploring the rainforest through Art read more
Brilliant Books - Drawing Image and Story Structure Together. Visually story boarding, shaping story structure, pace and page turn with inventive templates.
Printmaking - Using immersive activities to comment on social and political viewpoints, ecology, our local environment and ourselves.
Art & English - Engaging and fun for a whole class, the formats are designed to encourage even the most reluctant to engage in a positive way with a written project.
Drawing Stories - Inventing characters and setting the scene. Creating characters, exploring emotion and building environments.
Exciting Writing - A personal connection to reading and written projects. Alternative approaches to creating story lines and collaborative written projects.
Our Environment - Ecological, social or environmental issues presented as a large scale collaborative printmaking project using repurposed found objects.
Community Group Activities - Group activity workshops for your event
Ourselves and Others - Creating another self or developing a character for a creative writing project - a self-motivating topic with printmaking and digital processes.
Politics In Print - Pressless printing (as a process) with a political voice as posters for IT or English projects which comment on our political and cultural environment.
JoLB - Artist, Illustrator and Copywriter, who understands the visual thinker.
Primary & Secondary school workshops
Experiential learning through independent interpretation and a personal connection with artwork. Widening participation for all learning styles with whole class benefits.
A range of approaches designed to excite and energise your student’s creative writing projects and curriculum texts through visual connections. Each workshop offers a fun and immersive approach to creating stories; either from scratch or when working with a particular text. Illustration or printmaking are used to build a story structure, energise character development and encourage visual diversity. This approach, crucially, allows students to express concepts which some may struggle to articulate through purely written expression. Results are evidenced by the success of student’s project work undertaken to date and outlined in the blogs on this site which demonstrate the interpretative and exploratory writing projects they have produced based on the artwork they have made.
For more info about Jo LB and Drawing Together (link)
1 IN 4 CHILDREN STRUGGLE TO READ AND WRITE
74% of children met the expected standard in writing in 2016. This means that 26% of children are struggling with reading and writing in every classroom. (Department for Education (UK) 2016)
EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
Psychologically engaged learners are intrinsically motivated by curiosity, interest, and enjoyment, and are likely to want to achieve their own intellectual or personal goals. (Finn & Rock 1997; Brewster & Fager 2000; Marks 2000)
POSITIVE OUTCOMES
Visual semantics are an accessible approach for those with non-linear learning patterns; with added benefits of cognitive functioning for all students. (Caning-Wilson, 2000, Swiderski, Suzanne M 2013)
When, where and how much?
I am able to travel throughout West Devon, East Cornwall from Coast to Coast. On the map, you can see where I am based (Brentor, PL19 0LP) and also where I have provided workshops to date.
Soon I will have a “Check my Calendar to find a date that suits you”, in the mean time please use the contact form or ring me.
Pricing: to keep thing simple I charge £140.00 for a half day and £230.00 for a full day. These prices are very competitive and intentionally kept low as an incentive to bring this concept into your classroom. For more details please contact me.
How it works
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GET IN TOUCH
If you would like to contact me directly I would be very happy to hear from you on 01822 810272 or you can email: jo.lb@drawingtogether.co.uk with any questions or queries. Alternatively use the link above to make a booking through my calendar or for any questions you may have regarding the workshops there is an enquiry button.
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DELIVERY OPTIONS
I have ready built workshops which require minimal materials and offer flexible half or full day options depending on class sizes or school timetables. These sessions are delivered in whole class situations or to smaller rolling groups. Printmaking workshops make use of the whole day but can accommodate multiple groups.
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TAILOR MADE COURSES
Art & English Workshops can be tailor made to suit your topic/curriculum activity. For a small design cost (£40-120) and working with your choice of text these workshops can be collaborative across class/key stages and work well for cross curriculum projects; where art and creative writing would be used to create newspapers, journals or books with your particular content.
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LEARNING MATERIALS
I’ll provide all learning materials for Illustration based workshops and make use of classroom equipment such as coloured crayons, scissors, glue and collaging materials. Similarly, I will provide ink, rollers and printing matrix materials for printmaking sessions and, similarly, these sessions will use schools’ arts papers and collaging materials etc. This keeps costs to you down.
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RUNNING THE WORKSHOP
I am an experienced schools and community group workshop provider and I can provide DRB and Indemnity Insurance copies for your records. For Illustration sessions and smaller rolling groups I am happy to run sessions autonomously (although extra hands are always appreciated). For longer sessions, larger groups or whole class situations, naturally, I will require classroom support.
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WORKSHOP OUTCOMES
At the end of the sessions the students will have a piece of work to take home with them. Illustration and text templates are designed to be folded into books. On longer projects, and in some printmaking workshops, works are designed and prepared to be reproduced as printed ephemera. Printmaking sessions or Illustration sessions can incorporate badge making.
How I draw Art & English together
Illustration
The hands-on interaction of producing a physical item, (a book or newspaper) fosters personal engagement and the artistic process brings with it an enthusiasm and positive energy to write about a subject. Topics can be curriculum based or cover social, cultural or ethical issues. Workshops are based on the principles of using image to illustrate text in self authored books. These can be anything from simple minizines, concertina formats, pocket books for kinaesthetic interaction with texts or reworked vintage texts or collaborative workshops to make newspapers or Journals.
Printmaking
Printmaking offers the opportunity to, not only experience the various presses processes I can provide, but also to use these sessions to explore the concepts of Political Message. Workshops are topic based on artists who have used printmaking to produce a political message and provide the perfect vehicle to discuss ethical, environmental and social issues. Sessions involving digital processes and outcomes can be incorporated to widen the remit of these sessions with cross curriculum projects.
Community Groups
Working on Community illustration and text based projects has been part of my practice and I have worked both autonomously for and collaboratively with various agencies to design and facilitate workshops for families and groups. Clients have included Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, The Refugee Council, Craft Council UK, Aspire Plymouth, Plymouth University Summer School, Peninsular Art Gallery, Plymouth International Book festival etc. Please do contact me if you are looking to host or organise an activity based programme for your event.
Testimonials
Feedback from Workshops delivered across Devon and East Cornwall.
St Peter’s CofE Primary School
Making Books Brilliant Art & English Workshop “The children have really benefitted from working with you on their creative writing project Goodnight Mr Tom. By demonstrating an understanding of the changes in Willie through stance and colour the children have been able to engage with the text with an understanding of the emotions involved in the story. I am so pleased with how deeply they have engaged with this project; Thank you so much." Jo EPlymouth School of Creative Arts – Crafts Council UK
Acts of Making workshop. Workshop focusing on Richard Whitely’s work using recycled plastics. “I just wanted to finally send a note to say that the workshop looked fantastic. I’m so pleased that it not only came together, but that it worked so well with the festival and what PSCA wanted to do with the Year 7s.” Chris W and “Yesterday was fantastic thanks for all your hard work particularly at such short notice!” Cathy PLooe Community Academy School, Looe, Cornwall
Our Environment Printmaking Workshop “The students really understood the message of the workshop. Using the recycled objects and printing on jelly made them think about the message they wanted to get across in their printed work. With such large groups working on this project I was impressed with how much we managed to achieve and the students will use the prints to make posters on our environment.” Mary-Ella WBlogs
Creative Writing Project at Heles School
A Heles School summer term art project encouraged students to invent narratives and consider how finding connections can create exciting alternatives. read more
Community Group Pressless Printmaking Workshop
Christmas Pressless Printmaking with a Community Group. Had great fun using gelatine and silicone along with trusty styrofoam and foam to make some prints read more
Contact
Imagery, combined with text, makes us more likely to think about the process of language more fully.
The theory and research behind what I am providing in the form of Art & English workshops shows proven benefits for all learners. The concept and design of workshops and templates (©) were conceived through the experience of my own learning difficulties and the knock on effect in the classroom environment. Research has led me to build formats to encourage lateral thinking and oblique approaches. The greatest benefits are for visual and kinaesthetic processors and the reason to book one of these workshops is that nonstandard learners (particularly boys) can engage in a way which offers them the opportunity to process and produce a piece of work which plays to their strengths, offers a personal connection to the creative writing process and encourages a proactive positive approach. These workshops are perfect candidates for funding through schools PP funding sources.
For ‘In School’ delivery Art & English teaching resources are also available with Teacher Training Inset Day Sessions.