How does developing teachers’ digital art practice support children’s writing? This is the question that the Real Ideas Organisation set out to explore with teachers from the Learning Academies Trust in Plymouth. Find out what they learned together through their joint Pens & Pixels project, supported by the Teacher Development Fund.
Across the Pens & Pixels project, teachers worked with artist practitioners to develop their understanding and application of digital art practices: projection, sound and drawing. Teachers investigated how these could be utilised as part of their own delivery toolkit. Artist practitioners explored how to engage and work with teachers to support their professional development, and the common enterprise was the positive impact upon children’s writing.
When we met as a group for the final time just before Christmas, we looked back at the broad enquiry question we had set ourselves: “How does developing teachers’ digital art practice support children’s ability to engage in, retain and express learning, with a specific focus on the development of writing?”
Two years and a pandemic later the participating teachers were asked what their answers were. In terms of the impact of the project, the following responses encapsulate all that we would have hoped:
“Digital art can hook children and engage them in their learning. It provides opportunities, stimulus and scenarios that the children may never, or have ever, experienced. It can bring learning to life and stimulate more of the senses.”
“It is so difficult for children to write about experiences that they haven’t had or places that they haven’t been to. The use of the digital arts creates a level playing field where all children have the opportunity to achieve and be successful, no matter where they have come from or what their background is.”
“I have seen a significant improvement in my children’s vocabulary as an impact of using the digital approaches.”
“The use of new resources engaged the children and allowed them to express themselves through the medium of visual and auditory art but with a positive impact on their writing. It added an additional layer and provided a purpose and audience.”
“The children have been able to develop a broader vocabulary and they have spent more time crafting a piece of writing.”
– Teachers/Learning Academies Trust in Plymouth
Next stop? There is a genuine desire from colleagues to continue to use the approaches as part of their day-to-day practice “so that they do not sit on a shelf and get forgotten.” Teachers also want to share and pass on their learning whether with colleagues in their own school, across the Trust or more widely across the city.
“Our aim is to share [this] with staff across the school and to let them play with the technologies and see how they feel they could best be used- either as they have been designed to be used, or in any other way. The great thing is that it can work in so many different ways to support all children in the classroom.”
The Teacher Development Fund’s Cohort Learning Programme brings together teachers, artist practitioners and school leaders across projects to share their progress and challenges. TDF Associate Greg Klerkx tells us how this programme helps nurture a thriving community of practice.
Supported by the Teacher Development Fund, The Forge’s Teaching Things Differently project set out to explore whether photography can support children’s progress in creative writing. Find out what they learned through this innovative programme, partnering with artist practitioners and teachers across seven schools in the North East.
