Vignette Resources for the English ARB
These resources ask students from Years 3 to 8 to write a description (a vignette), using the provided image (either a photograph or fictional illustration) to focus on writing a short and descriptive piece of creative writing, that shows controlled skill and use of literary techniques. Students should "show" not "tell" by using figurative language to "paint a picture" for the reader.
A vignette can be as long as a short chapter in a book, or a short story. But for the purpose of creative writing exercises, vignettes can be as short as a single paragraph and describe one point in time (which is what these resources focus students on doing). Students should not be concerned with plot. As the emphasis is on quality rather than quantity, students need to show a controlled and elegant skill in writing.
NOTE: Although we are trying to encourage the students to write prose, a vignette can also be written as a poem, and this is an acceptable form to use for the assessment.

Purpose
As explained above the emphasis is on quality rather than quantity in writing a vignette. This makes them an excellent writing tool to use with students. In writing a vignette students must consider how every idea, word, sentence, and literary technique is used for effect and to convey meaning to their appropriate audience. 
These skills are all essential for use in writing of any length. Vignettes allow students to develop these skills that can be applied to longer forms of writing. They can be much more effective than having students write pages of text, or stories with chronological narrative structures, because they must be carefully crafted to show elegance and skill in writing.

Important Features
As the vignette should be a description of one point in time, students should use literary techniques such as metaphors, similes, personification, alliteration, repetition, rhyme, and sensory details, to build an image for the reader. This should be done by using some of the basic visual descriptors from the image, such as: facial features, expressions, clothing, body posture, movement and the relation of the character to other elements within the image.
Students should use what's in the image to "show not tell". This will help them to paint a picture in the reader's mind. 

Using Visual Descriptors and Figurative Language to "Show not Tell"
To describe the scene, students should use descriptors from the image to "show not tell". So instead of saying, "The boy is 10", you could describe the boy as "just tall enough to lean with his arms on top of the fence", and explain how "his sweatshirt pulled tight as he lifted his arms", and that he was "just old enough to watch the car race unsupervised on the inside of the fence".
Students could use sensory details to explain how the boy is experiencing the scene shown in the picture. How the autumn leaves crunched under his feet (sound/touch), the early morning sun breaking through the clouds and the branches of the leafless trees (sight), the damp smell of dirt as the car raced around the track (smell), and that he is looking across to the next field at the towering rugby stand dwarfing the men controlling the small cars (sight).
Explain to students that we use different styles of writing for different purposes and that vignettes are a form of creative writing and this is why we are getting them to focus on "showing" not "telling". Explain the difference between "showing" and "telling". "Telling" is using literal language in stating information, like you would do in describing a missing person: He is 10 years old, has brown hair, green eyes, a blue shirt etc. "Showing" is using figurative language to create an experience for the reader.