Lessons Overview

#1 Picture This

#2 Storyboard 2

#3 Lights, Camera, Action

#4 Word and Thought 'Balloons'

#5 Presentation or Publication

Resources

Links to samples

Assessing the Unit

Extensions & Ideas

This is the heart of the whole lesson set- 1st get the students truly engaged, 2nd start the partner or team dynamics....... What is the Story?? (note: 'story' can also be straight expository or 'how-to' communication, like showing how a science experiment was done, and discussing the results)

1. Decide as a teacher how narrow you want the field of project inquiry to be. If is an alternative way of showing a classroom learning activity, a more open 'challenge' to show a problem solving cycle (how to build a solar oven that cooks s'mores), or a wide open narrative challenge (tell a story about Friendships).

2. Choose assessment or challenge criteria for both language use and story-telling. (my first try focused on dynamic verbs)

3. Present the lesson concept to class.... use the links in Resources here, or try you own example first. (In fact, you could prepare an 'instructions' page of yourself going through the steps.)

4. Agree on teaming strategies and work times (with good buy-in, most of the work can be done at home, breaks, and lunch-time..... usually kids beg to finish!)

5. Pass out plain white paper, and suggest either- "each person cartoon out their story ideas, then share and discuss/argue your way to a best choice" or "discuss ideas, then in 15 minutes have your cartoonist do 4-6 frames on the page to capture this first draft of your story. The rest of the team works on captions..... the basic language part of your story-telling. LANGUAGE WILL CHANGE in future drafts!"
>> A good alternative is brainstorm.... with individual homework, then share-out the next day. Some will really get into it, and their first tries can serve as starter samples to get the rest going.