Using Paintings in the Classroom - TakeOnePicture - Le Nuit by Claude Joseph Vernet

Firstly I apologise this isn't about a book - although I'd love to hear your book suggestions linked to this.

Towards the end of my 3 year Primary Teacher Education Degree at Oxford Brookes I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to take part in a weeks training in the TakeOnePicture Project at the Ashmolean Museum.

Over the course of the week we looked at how paintings and artefacts can be used to bring learning to life in the classroom. Le Nuit by Claude Joseph Vernet was immediately a favourite of mine and by the end of the week I had brought myself a classroom sized copy as I was sure I would use it during my career. Sure enough I used it within my first year, however when I returned to Cornwall it, along with most of my classroom resources, had been packed away for safe keeping. This was recently when I dragged it out for an interview lesson...
 Here is the corresponding lesson plan:


Lesson Plan

Brief: ‘Deliver a 40 minute Literacy lesson which will use creative and imaginative approaches to engage children to become enthusiastic writers’.
Number and age of children: 30, Year 5 pupils.  
Differentiation: By outcome – teacher to draw out ideas with questioning.
Lesson Focus: Generating ideas for writing
Learning Objectives: To generate ideas for writing by asking questions.
Focusing on: developing character.
      Starter: Introduce myself and the learning objective for the lesson.
1-2 minutes
First group task: In their table groups (mixed ability) children will have a section of a painting stuck onto a piece of flip chart paper. The children should look at their ‘painting’ (they will not know yet that this is part of a larger painting) and generate questions e.g. who are the people? Where do they live? What are they doing? Are they happy to be there? Write Q’s directly on the flipchart paper – encourage chn to spread them out around the page.
5 minutes
Second group task : Groups to swap ‘painting’ and try to answer the questions from the other group. They can make up answers or list possible answers, they do not have to be ‘the answer’. They should write these on post-it notes and stick by questions. Teacher to ensure all chn are involved and encourage plenty of discussion making sure one child is not dominating group discussion.  
5 minutes



Whole class task: Reveal the whole painting to the class and ask them to share some of their ideas. How do all the pieces link together? Do you have more questions? Are there any questions that intrigue you.   
5 minutes
Teacher modelling – Stepping into the painting: Model choosing a character, asking Q’s who are they? What are they doing? How do they fit in? Where do they live. Encourage children to think about the senses that the character might be experiencing, what can they see, hear, smell, taste, feel. What can they see from their position in the painting? Who are they with?
Encourage pupils to use clues in the paining to infer. Use their imagination to come up with ideas about their character.
5  minutes
Paired task – Stepping into the painting: In pairs the children should pick a character in the painting. Discussing with each other ask questions about the character and think about their story – who are they? What are they doing? How do they fit in? Encourage children to think about the senses that the character might be experiencing, what can they see, hear, smell, taste, feel.  
Encourage pupils who are exceeding expectation/more able – to consider a character who might be on the ship. Draw their attention to the light at the back of the ship.
10-15  minutes
Plenary: If you could step into that characters shoes/mind, if you became that character stepping into the paining what would you be thinking? Write on your whiteboard one thought that might be in your characters mind.  
5 minutes
Resources:
Large copy of the painting
Sections of the painting printed and stuck on flipchart paper
Post-it notes
Whiteboard and pens
IWB – displaying LO and large painting that you can zoom in on


 I broke the painting down into the following sections for the group tasks before revealing the whole painting:
 
 This section above is the hardest as you really have to look closely and use a bit more imagination.
 Here are some of the questions (and answers) the children came up with:

I seem to have mislaid the mindmap I typed up for the picture containing the dog - but will find the questions and add it soon. When we discussed ideas and looked at the painting as a whole there was a lot of talk about the dog - lots of the children chose the dog for the 'stepping into the painting' sections of the lesson.

One of my favourite talking points of this painting is the single light at the back of the ship.
- Who could be onboard? e.g. a captain writing his log, crew members arguing, crew members plotting a mutiny.
- What is happening? e.g. planning a journey, stowing smuggled booty, people escaping.
- What conversations are taking place in that cabin? e.g. arguements, planning a journey, debating tactics.
- What does the room look like? e.g. old, wooden panelled walls, lots of treasures line the shelves, brass instruments.

If I had been doing this with my own class I would have worked it slightly differently and drawn out more questions and ideas and given the children time to develop different ideas. This would of course also have been more focused with our outcome in mind. However this lesson was purely to generate ideas for and get children excited about writing. 

What else can I do with this painting?

When I was planning this lesson I found myself getting really excited again and stuck into this. I then went on to come up with ideas of how else I would use the painting as a stimulus for writing, and then ended up generating how I could go on to use the painting as the basis for cross-curricular topics.
Where would I go next with writing?
-          Write a diary entry from the perspective of the character they choose earlier in ‘Stepping into the painting’.
Fiction writing 
-          Develop character profiles
o   Explore how we go about describing a characters appearance
- Starting with their size and shape.
-  Focusing in on clothing and features e.g. carriers a stick, is carrying fishing gear.
-  Focus further in on their facial features.
-  Give hints as to their personality.
-  Roughly map the characters life story – how will this help us to get to know our character, understand what drives them and help us to represent them in our writing. Get children to think about why their character would make the choices they do and behave the way they do.
o   Explore the characters personality traits, how do we give the reader this info (in a reading activity look at how authors give clues about the characters personality – see accompanying sheet). Try and replicate this in our own writing.
-          Developing setting description
o   Generate a word bank.
o   Incorporate similes and metaphors ‘the moon hung in the sky like a perfect pearl’.
-          Map out their story using the structure from a novel or story we are familiar with to help.
Non-fiction writing
·         Linked to topic work there will be plenty of opportunity for writing non-fiction texts:
o   Write non-chronological reports – linked to history/geography.
o   Instructions linked to science and DT, model making etc.
o   Recounts of trips.
o   Note taking – when researching.

A whole topic from one painting
Art/DT focuses to explore:
·         - Colour, light and mood.
·         - More refined colour mixing/shades of colour.
·          - Shadows and reflections of light.
·         - Silhouettes.
·         - Creating a piece (could be multi-media) from 1 section of the painting (if working in groups and enlarging section this could be put together and displayed outside the classroom.
o   Explore working with inks and using resists – how would inks and paints have been made in the 18th Century – can we make out own?
·         - Animation by turning the painting into a moving/talking picture.
·         - Design and build models with pulley systems to work the rigging.
Music focuses to explore:
·         - Sea shanties – look to local groups such as the Fisherman's friends.
·         - Soundscapes based on different areas of the painting – how do they differ/compare.
PE focuses to explore:
·         Sailors dance.
·         Balances and movements – climbing the rigging, hauling ropes etc.
·         Link to drama and music, use soundscapes already created and add movement and drama.
Science focuses to explore:
·         - Healthy nutrition – scurvy and diet.
·         - Water safety – linked to PSHCE (invite the local lifeguards in, investigate the dangers at sea and how we stay safe today.
·         - Model boats – linked to DT – how do you power your boat effectively? Which are the best materials? Which materials would have been around in the 18th Century and which are newer materials?
·         - How did sailors navigate – using the stars and instruments?
·         - The moon – in the painting it is a full moon – explore the phases of the moon – did sailors get information from the moon?
History focuses to explore:
·         - Who would have worked on a galleon?
·         - What were galleons used for?
·         - What jobs were there on board?
·         - The different people in the paintings
o   was there a class system?
o   What did this mean for peoples job opportunities?
o   How were peoples lives different even though they were all living at the same time?
·         - Whether the painting is a true representation of what life was like at the time?
·         - How the painting would change through time? If the same scene/bay was painted 50 years later would it look different, if so, how? And so on… E.g. buildings, clothes, transport, jobs.
Geography focuses to explore:
·         - How does this compare to Cornwall in particular St Austell bay? Compare St Austell bay to another Cornish bay e.g. Falmouth. How are both bays vital to the economy in that area e.g. jobs, trade etc.
o   Coastal landscapes
*  Contours
*  Cliff erosion
*  Which bits are natural and which have been adapted or made by man?
o   Coastal life – how does it compare to other places e.g. the countryside, moorland,  towns, cities.
o   Coastal roles and jobs
Outdoor learning, trips & extra-curricular
·         - Maritime museum – Falmouth packet ships.
·         - Arts club to get involved in the Maritime museums arts project.
·         - Visit to Jamaica Inn to find out more about smugglers (I have not visited here myself so would need to do so first to see how appropriate and worthwhile it would be.
·         - Fire lighting and cooking on an outdoor fire.
·         - Explore traditional recipes – including fish.
·         - I would want to make lots of local links and encourage the children to explore the local traditions linked to the sea – Mevagissey’s Feast week and Fish festival, Falmouth week – sea shanty festival etc.
·         - I would also try to make links with any families who have links current or past with the sea e.g. fishing, lighthouse master etc.
- PSHCE and values to run throughout weaved into lessons. Most importantly find out what the children want to know and add these ideas. The children should be excited about their learning and want to find out more, I would encourage this using a topic themed homework system. 


Artefacts - I also went on a search of artefacts to use in this lesson but feel this post is long enough and so won't go into detail here. Keep your eye out for a future post on using artefacts in the classroom. 

For me this is just the start... I love this painting!

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