Description and Story Creation

In the spring program for our children in Kratie, we included writing exercises to improve their writing skills, or description skills in particular.

When we look at the essays written by children in our foster care activities, we often find that although the writer understands the situation, the reader does not understand in detail when and where it happened, or what the circumstances and background are.  So this time, we've created a program that will allow children to review and practice how to write, while also developing their imagination.

First, we started by handing out a picture card to each child and let them explain its contents in detail.  For describing the scenery depicted in the picture, we introduced a method of gradually expanding the description from the center or the foreground of the picture, or from the painting's theme or the viewer's main point of view, to areas farther away.  Here, we used pictures from donated items such as picture-story show and karuta cards.  It was good that we could distribute different design to everyone, which prevented children from copying their friends next to them.

Children practiced several times, changing the picture cards.  Even though they were not getting the point the first time, they seemed to be able to write a lot as they repeated the exercise.  When there was nothing left to describe from the picture, we asked them to add their own imagination.  They can freely imagine what that person is thinking, why he is doing that, and so on.

Once the children had become accustomed to this type of exercise, we divided them into groups and gave each group a picture that had very little to describe.  Finally, we had them create a story that was entirely based on their imagination.  What is the weather like in the picture?  What other animals and people appear?  What is the ending?  The older children were able to incorporate their own everyday lives and some even created beautiful, poetic scenes.  Even in the lower graders, a group who got an illustration from "The Gigantic Turnip" came up with a story about a group of children who are in danger of being blown away by the wind, so they hold on to leaves to survive and eventually build a house that can withstand the strong wind.  It really was an interesting story.

Some children found it difficult to simply list the descriptions from a picture.  Perhaps they did not have the concept of paying attention to the finer details or explaining even the smallest details.  Also, there were many children who could describe things but found it difficult to imagine anything other than what was being depicted.  I feel that this new experience opened up new horizons for them.