By Roy Gardner, guest writer 

From Monday Aug. 11 to Thursday Aug. 14, fifteen teachers, ranging from grade levels one to six, went back to school this summer in Fairlee, Vermont. Held at the Samuel Morey Elementary School, the teachers attended a Vermont Alliance for Arts Education sponsored Summer Arts Institute graduate course that focused on fostering student literacy through artistic expression and education. 

This Summer Arts Institute course, “Picturing Writing: Fostering Literacy Through Art and Image-Making within the Writing Process,” aimed to provide teachers with a means to design lessons that utilize visual methods of thinking throughout the writing process. Based out of the University of New Hampshire’s Laboratory for Interactive Learning, this was the second year in a row that the VAAE made this course available for interested teachers. 

During the four-day and one night session, the course works to, amongst other things, encourage teachers to rethink traditional classroom practices, particularly in terms of conventional Language Arts programs. Expanding the teacher’s concept toward the interlinking of literacy learning with visual and kinesthetic thinking, the course seeks to offer tangible methods for developing literacy learning for children with diverse learning styles. 

Validated by the US Department of Education in 1993 as an innovative and effective literacy program, this interactive learning process was developed by Beth Olshansky of New Hampshire University. Though, these techniques are often taught within two separate programs – “Picture Writing: Fostering Literacy Through Art” and “Image-Making Within the Writing Process” – the VAAE Fairlee Summer Arts Institute offered both together. 

Essentially, the former program pushes teachers to realize the interconnection between art and literacy through storytelling. In crafting a story of their own, students first learn to create images that express their ideas and then write words that “paint” their pictures. Rather than separating these two aspects of story telling, “students become fluent in the dual languages of pictures and words,” explains the program’s brochure. 

In the latter program, students begin developing their own portfolios of hand painted textured papers, which the brochure describes, will “not only spark story ideas but also become the raw materials for constructing stunning collage images.” 

“The connection between the two has really been enhanced for me,” wrote one teacher upon completion of the course, “that the art doesn’t need to be at the end of the writing process, and instead can assist in initiating it. I could also see picture writing as the writing process – not as something after the fact or as an extender.” 

From using sponges and tissue paper to swirling paint with a straw and sprinkling salt to make stars, students are acquainted with an extensive number of techniques for producing the images they want. While learning ways to use words to illustrate their art, a goal for each student during the art/writing workshop within the classroom is to produce their very own published storybook. Teachers attending the summer arts institute in Fairlee were also required to publish a completed collage story. 

Expressing satisfaction, one teacher wrote: “I learned that the words are in the pictures, you just have to find them! I thought the information presented was very useful and I can clearly see how I can use this program with my first graders.” 

Another summarized the experience simply stating: “I feel refreshed about teaching writing.” 

Currently used in thousands of classrooms across 35 states and three US Commonwealths, teacher satisfaction does not prove as the only testament to the potential effectiveness of both processes. Along with consistent positive feedback from now “published” student authors/artists, standardized reading and writing comprehension test scores reveal significant raises in scores in classrooms using the process as the primary writing program. These results are also particularly encouraging with those students considered “at-risk.” 

The attending teachers finished the week with some new insight into teaching literacy and art as well as with confidence that each teacher could implement the process into their classroom. One satisfied course graduate concluded, “I learned that art is a powerful way of freeing a child (or adult) to find the language to create a story.” 

Though joining the course didn’t take much more than some interstate travel for 14 of the 15 teachers, Michelle Cardonella was clearly the exception, journeying all the way from Louisiana. A first grade teacher from just outside of New Orleans, Cardonella saw this institute as not only a great learning opportunity but also as chance to visit Vermont for the first time and drive through some of the north east. 

After a less than successful attempt to experience Boston, Cardonella focused north and never looked back. And on the evening of Wednesday Aug. 13, she ventured up in the air with Post Mills balloonist Brian Boland in order to experience the Upper Valley in unique fashion. Along with stunning bird’s eye panoramas, she even got a free basket dip into the Connecticut River – no doubt a welcome relief from the humid weather. Coming to the institute for the unique combined course offer, she left with new knowledge and an experience of a lifetime. 

Completing the summer institute, each teacher received either 37 re-certification hours or three graduate course credits from Keene State University in New Hampshire, according to VAAE executive director Anne Taylor. The purpose of such sponsored courses, explains Taylor, “is to provide classroom and arts teachers with the opportunity to take graduate courses in areas closer to them.” Responsible for organizing much of the four day course, Taylor expressed satisfaction with the Fairlee Summer Institute and looks forward to offering the UNH Picturing Writing/Image Making course again next summer. 

For more information about the Picturing Writing program, as well as a full listing of teacher-training programs and a calendar of workshops, visit www.picturingwriting.org. 

See the VAAE November newsletter for an article on the second Summer Institute course, Art, Imagination, and a Sense of Place .