When Dr. Eugene Lau was planning his course "Visual Arts: Beyond the Classroom," he thought about how to help his students broaden their awareness and deepen their understanding of visual arts elements in their daily lives, not just in Hong Kong but elsewhere. Dr. Lau decided to engage UK-based visual artist and illustrator Ms. Junie Tan to give an online storytelling and collage-making workshop.
Dr. Lau explained: "Every kindergarten teacher creates and tells stories to children every day, but not everyone knows how to structure a story to tell it in a way that impacts children. By listening from the perspective of a visual arts storyteller, we can understand what goes behind the creation of a story, and hence tell better stories in class."
Ms. Tan is an illustrator and storyteller from Singapore and is currently based in London. She just completed her MA in Children's Book Illustration and Graphic Novel at Middlesex University, UK. Ms. Tan is currently speaking to a publisher about her book "Who Took My Gold?" a story about a king, who went on a self-searching journey to seek his missing gold.
In the three-hour workshop on May 2, Ms. Tan taught in-service teachers how to turn their ideas into a story and infuse it with imagination and moral values. In groups, students came up with their own stories with illustrations. They showed them to Ms. Tan, who provided feedback on improving the illustrations to bring their messages across. She also taught them how to use the collage method to create an illustration for their own stories.
Students enjoyed the workshop and the opportunity to share their stories with Ms. Tan and the class. They rated the workshop highly, giving it a 4.67 out of 5. They mentioned that they learned how to create a draft and use more materials to create and develop a story. Many of them also appreciated Ms. Tan's drawing skills and the feedback she gave to improve each of their work.
Ms. Tan said: "I'm impressed by Dr. Lau’s students. They were confident in expressing themselves; some clearly have artistic talents." She also shared that as kindergarten teachers, it was vital to have storytelling and arts and crafts skills, and the students clearly showed an aptitude for storytelling and drawing.
Dr. Lau also praised his students for their enthusiasm, creativity, and eagerness to share their artwork and stories with Ms. Tan and other students in the class. He said, "I am pleased with how the workshop met the course outcomes. Ms. Tan introduced new ideas, illustrations, and techniques that helped students appreciate the art of storytelling using different media and elements."
A student explains her group's drawing to Ms. Tan.
Dr. Lau and Ms. Tan instructs the students on collage making.
A compilation of students' group work.
Written by Sofie Chua (schua@eduhk.hk), COIL Facilitator