Polka Dots

Learning intention

I am learning to analyse stylistic features of authors so that I can make deliberate choices when creating images.

 

Success criteria

• I can analyse illustrations by the same illustrator.
• I can identify features of an illustrator’s style.
• I can create an illustration in the style of an illustrator.

 

Essential knowledge

View the video Style from The School Magazine. Ensure students identify that style refers to the personal approach of a writer/illustrator and the features they include.

 

View the illustration that accompanies the poem Polka Dots. Refer students to the first illustration from Hundreds and Hundreds of Octopi, page 14 Countdown issue 8, 2023. Inform students that the illustrations that accompany Hundreds and Hundreds of Octopi are also illustrated by David Legge. Inform students that for now they’ll only be focusing on the first illustration from Hundreds and Hundreds of Octopi and the illustration that appears with Polka Dots. Discuss the following:

 

• What are some of the similarities between the illustrations? (Both feature animals, strong colours and expressive faces)
• What are some of the differences? (The illustration accompanying Hundreds and Hundreds of Octopi is set inside a frame while the illustration that accompanies Polka Dots spills onto the page without any clear frame)
• What can we conclude about David Legge’s style? (He uses strong colours, he exaggerates characters’ facial expressions, and he draws animals)

Place students with a partner and instruct them to analyse the remaining illustrations that accompany Hundreds and Hundreds of Octopi to see if there are any further similarities and differences between these illustrations and the image from Polka Dots. For example, that David Legge often uses softer colours for the backgrounds (except in the background of the illustration on page 15, accompanying Hundreds and Hundreds of Octopi) and that he fills most of the frame with the characters rather than the settings.

Display the following sentence stem on the board and instruct students to record their responses in their workbooks:

Common features of David Legge’s style include:

• Strong colours
• Exaggerated facial expressions
• Softer colours for the background usually
• Filling much of the frame with the characters rather than the background
• Often includes animals.

 

Those with a digital subscription can complete the interactive activity now.

Inform students that you will be composing a poem collaboratively for them to illustrate. Refer back to Polka Dots and identify the subject matter, a leopard, an animal with distinctive markings who loses its spots. Discuss other animals that have distinctive features, such as zebras with their stripes, monkeys with their long tails. Discuss vocabulary to describe one of these animals, such as zebras:

• Stripes
• White and black
• Long nose
• Looks like a horse.

Remind students that the text Polka Dots, focuses on the leopard losing its spots. Using the vocabulary identified, compose a brief collaborative poem about an animal losing its markings. This poem can rhyme or not. For example:

 

I bumped into a zebra,

And knocked off all its stripes,

They landed on my back,

Making me look a fright.

 

My skin is now furry,

With black and white lines,

If only I had a tail,

I’d embrace this new hairline.

 

Inform students that they will be creating an illustration in the style of David Legge to accompany the class poem. Discuss ideas that students might include in their illustrations, for example:

 

• A person with a shocked facial expression
• Black and white stripes across their back
• A thought bubble to show them dreaming of having a tail.

 

Refer students back to the list of criteria they noted in their workbooks and instruct them to refer to this when creating their illustrations. Provide students with coloured pencils, textas, paint or access to digital programs such as Microsoft Paint and tell them to get creative. Students may choose to frame their illustration or not. They may also choose whether to include the poem within the image.

 

Assessment for/as learning:

Instruct students to swap illustrations with each other. Tell students that they will be using the style features that they noted in their workbooks as criteria for assessing the illustrations their peers have created. Display the criteria:

Common features of David Legge’s style include:

• Strong colours
• Expressive faces
• Softer colours for the background usually
• Filling much of the frame with the characters rather than the background
• Often includes animals.

 

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