Power of Pictures with Daishu Ma

Winner of the Teach Primary Award Best CPD 2022. 

Enhance your knowledge and understanding of how to develop visual literacy, reading comprehension and the teaching of creative writing alongside renowned author/illustrator, Daishu Ma, using her picturebook Tiger, It’s Snowing!

Over 2.5 days, participants will learn how working with picturebooks across the primary years supports the development of children as readers and writers with a greater depth of understanding about the writing process, learning directly from the author/illustrator. 

What you will learn:

This 2.5 day course was designed by CLPE's Learning and Programme Director, Charlotte Hacking in partnership with CLPE Patron Ed Vere and developed with a wide range of author/illustrators and will cover:

• Understanding the importance of picturebooks as a vital part of children’s reading experiences across the primary years;
• How to closely read illustration, developing visual literacy skills;
• Investigating approaches to develop children’s inference, deduction and to be critically reflective about a text and its impact on the reader;
• How to convey meaning in words and illustrations of their own, investigating the impact of drawing as a means of communicating and sharing ideas;
• How to teach children the building blocks of narrative by exploring a wide range of high-quality picturebooks;
• Developing your role as a teacher-writer and the practices that are involved in this role;
• How to support children in creating, shaping, developing and publishing their own narratives using words and pictures following the authentic process of a practicing writer; 
• Understanding the wider benefits of children being more visually literate, including how to develop news literacy in the current climate;
• How to embed creative practices across your school to develop children's engagement and attainment in reading and writing.

What participants will receive:

As well as 2.5 days of in-depth training, participants will receive:

• A copy of a picture book.
• Detailed teaching plans for each age phase to teach the text across a school.
• Access to a suite of video resources to support teachers to use the book and develop children’s independent writing back in their own classrooms between the course days.

Participants will receive joining instructions for the course one week before the training date. If you have any queries, please email [email protected].

Impact of the Power of Pictures:

This programme was independently evaluated by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in 2019 and found that:

• Pupils who received the Power of Pictures programme had, on average, higher writing scores (equivalent to one month of additional progress) as compared to children in the control group.
• Among children eligible for free school meals (FSM), those in schools that PoP was delivered in also made one additional month’s progress.
• Children in PoP schools had higher writing self-efficacy (equivalent to two months additional progress) and writing creativity (ideation) scores than those from schools in which the programme was not taught.
• The visual element of this programme attracted learners who traditionally have difficulties engaging in literacy activities.
• Teachers reported high levels of engagement with the programme not only from the pupils and themselves, but also from the senior leadership teams at their schools.

Read the full research report