| Hello, Helen. Sorry I'm late. |
| Hi, Jeremy, no problem. |
| Well we'd better work out where we are on our project, I suppose. |
| Yeah. I've looked at the drawings you've done for my story, 'The Forest', |
| and I think they're brilliant - they really create the atmosphere I had in mind when I was writing it. |
| I'm glad you like them. |
| There are just a few suggestions I'd like to make. |
| Go ahead. |
| Now, I'm not sure about the drawing of the cave - |
| it's got trees all around it, which is great, |
| but the drawing's a bit too static, isn't it? |
| I think it needs some action. |
| Yes, there's nothing happening. |
| Perhaps I should add the boy - Malcolm, isn't it? |
| He would be walking up to it. |
| Yes, let's have Malcolm in the drawing. |
| And what about putting in a tiger - |
| the one that he makes friends with a bit later? Maybe it could be sitting under a tree washing itself. |
| And the tiger stops in the middle of what it's doing when it sees Malcolm walking past. |
| That's a good idea. |
| OK, I'll have a go at that. |
| Then there's the drawing of the crowd of men and women dancing. |
| They're just outside the forest, and there's a lot going on. |
| That's right, you wanted them to be watching a carnival procession, but I thought it would be too crowded. |
| Do you think it works like this? |
| Yes, I like what you've done. |
| The only thing is, could you add Malcolm to it, without changing what's already there. |
| What about having him sitting on the tree trunk on the right of the picture? |
| Yes, that would be fine. |
| And do you want him watching the other people? |
| No, he's been left out of all the fun, so I'd like him to be crying - |
| that'll contrast nicely with the next picture, |
| where he's laughing at the clowns in the carnival. |
| Right, I'll do that. |
| And then the drawing of the people ice skating in the forest. |
| I wasn't too happy with that one. |
| Because they're supposed to be skating on grass aren't they? |
| That's right, and it's frozen over. |
| At the moment it doesn't look quite right. |
| I see what you mean. |
| I'll have another go at that. |
| And I like the wool hats they're wearing. |
| Maybe you could give each of them a scarf as well. |
| Yeah, that's easy enough. |
| They can be streaming out behind the people to suggest they're skating really fast. |
| Great. |
| Well that's all on the drawings. |
| Right. |
| So you've finished writing your story and I just need to finish illustrating it, |
| and my story and your drawings are done. |
| So the next thing is to decide what exactly we need to write about in the report that goes with the stories, |
| and how we're going to divide the work. |
| Right, Helen. |
| What do you think about including a section on how we planned the project as a whole, Jeremy? |
| That's probably quite important. |
| Yeah. Well, you've had most of the good ideas so far. |
| How do you feel about drafting something, |
| then we can go through it together and discuss it? |
| OK, that seems reasonable. |
| And I could include something on how we came up with the ideas for our two stories, couldn't I? |
| Well, I've started writing something about that, |
| so why don't you do the same and we can include the two things. |
| Right. |
| So what about our interpretation of the stories? |
| Do we need to write about what we think they show, |
| like the value of helping other people, all that sort of thing? |
| That's going to come up later isn't it? |
| I think everyone in the class is going to read each other's stories |
| and come up with their own interpretations which we're going to discuss. |
| Oh, I missed that. |
| So it isn't going to be part of the report at all? |
| No. |
| But we need to write about the illustrations, because they're an essential element of children's experience of reading the stories. |
| It's probably easiest for you to write that section, as you know more about drawing than I do. |
| Maybe, but I find it quite hard to write about. |
| I'd be happier if you did it. |
| OK. |
| So when do you think... |