Teacher Discussion Forums

bradwelljackson · Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 49 Location: Guiyang, China

You know, as English teachers, especially if we are teaching kids, we are often in the situation where we need to draw something in order to show what we mean. It usually ends up being something like an animal or food or some such thing. Are there any books for English teachers who can't draw well, you know, something that can teach a teacher how to use simple drawing techniques to make a passable image of the most common characters?

Sally Olsen · Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 7:27 pm Post subject:

Here is probably the easiest one:
www.eslmonkeys.com/book/teacher/blackboard_drawing.pdf

but there is a beatiful one that really creates art

http://www.kellscraft.com/BlackboardDrawings/BlackboardSketchingContentPage.html

fluffyhamster · Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 8:05 pm Post subject:

The "VSO style" is similar to Andrew Wright's:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2VRx2lUMe9sC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Andrew+wright

IIRC he did a few OUP books on storytelling too, that include the use of drawings.

Or you could just get one of those "How to Draw Anything" sort of books that you see in bargain bookstores; that, or practise/draw a fair amount in your spare time, whilst developing materials (I've posted a few examples on Imageshack of what can be "achieved" if you put your pen or rather your mind to it).

bradwelljackson · Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 49 Location: Guiyang, China

Thanks to both of you for your answers. Sally, your first book seems very good, but I can't see how to order it. I can't find it on Amazon. Can you tell me how I might get my hands on it? I'm in China (Tangshan to be exact, close to Beijing).

Sally Olsen · Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 8:30 pm Post subject:

I just found it on line and thought you could download it if a PDF file. If you can't I will try and copy it onto this forum.

fluffyhamster · Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 9:09 pm Post subject:

Yeah, it's downloadable and would be easily printable (it comes to less than two dozen pages, and the stick figures should still be perfectly legible). More of a pamphlet than a proper book (still good and useful though, especially for free!).

bradwelljackson · Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 49 Location: Guiyang, China

Thanks to Sally and Sir Fluffy! Me and my boss were able to get this printed and it's turned out to be quite a revelation for us and our school. You guys were kind to help us out on this.