About / Why pictures and music?
Pictures hold ideas and music gives them atmosphere. Together they stimulate the imagination – the language of creativity.
Once children are writing from their imagination (rather than from memory) they are unstoppable. Words pour out of them. They create stories that they are incredibly proud of.
Picture the Music is a simple tool that creates remarkable results.
The four major skills involved in Picture the Music are:
Look
The ability to be observant is an essential skill for creative writing. When a picture is on the wall it is important to look closer and deeper than usual. The more you look the more you see. The more you see the more ideas you have. Pointing this out explicitly to students is essential to get the maximum out of Picture the Music.
Listen
We often listen but do not hear. In this age of noise it is easy to block out sounds and not think about them. Teaching students to be open to the sounds they are hearing is valuable. Listening closely opens up a world of ideas.
Think
The ideas that come need to be organised. Students use thought maps to do this. They soon realise that from one idea can come many. Ideas are the food of the creative mind.
Write
The fact that students have ideas mean that this difficult stage of creative writing (getting ideas into sentences) becomes less daunting. The most common hurdle for writers is that they “don’t know what to write”. Understanding that one idea can lead to others is very motivational for students.