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Pictures Tell a Story: A Lesson in Sequencing


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Subjects

  • Arts & Humanities
    --Literature
  • Social Studies
    --History

Grade

  • K-2
  • 3-5
  • 6-8

Brief Description

In this lesson, students illustrate sequential events in a story or in history.

Objectives

Students

  • illustrate important events in a story or in history.
  • correctly sequence images of events to tell a story.

Keywords

history, literature, sequencing, sequence, events, order

Materials Needed

  • a reading selection (or a group of reading selections) -- see activity
  • drawing paper and drawing materials
  • masking tape or thumbtacks
  • five 3-inch squares of construction paper; on each is written a different one of the letters a, b, c, d, or e.

Lesson Plan

The idea behind this lesson is a simple one. Students will illustrate a handful of events from a story, a piece of literature, or period in history. The explanation immediately below provides one way to introduce and carry out this lesson as well as several alternatives/adaptations that might be used to vary the lesson for different ages and subjects.

Sample Lesson
Choose a short story to read aloud to your students. In advance of the reading,

  • choose five (5) main events from the story and draw five simple illustrations of those events.
If you are the world's worst drawer, you might simply use five cards; write on each card a statement about a key event from the story.
  • write on each illustration a statement that describes what is happening in the illustration.
  • tape the illustrations and their accompanying descriptive statements out of sequence on a board, or tack them to a bulletin board.
  • post next to each illustration one of the construction-paper letters. Post the letters in sequence: a, b, c, d, and e.

Read aloud the story. Then share the five illustrations you have drawn, in random order (not in sequence). Read the statement on each illustration as you show it to students. Tape the illustrations on a board, or tack them to a bulletin board. Next to each illustration tack one of the letter squares you created. Have students write the order of the letters so that the pictures tell the events of the story in the correct sequence. For example, the pictures might tell the story in this order: d b e a c

Now that you have introduced the idea behind the activity, it's the students' turn! Choose grade appropriate stories for students to read. Then use or adapt one of the three lesson ideas below:

  • Each student might read a different story. S/he will decide on and illustrate five key events from that story.

  • Small groups of five students might read the same story. After reading the story, the students will decide on five key events to illustrate. Each student will draw a picture and write a statement that represents one of the events. In subsequent days, read aloud the books that had been selected for this activity (or students might read them on their own). After reading the book, present listeners with the student-drawn illustrations. Post them out of sequence on a bulletin board and label them with the letter cards a to e. Have students write the order of the letters so that the pictures tell the events of the story in the correct sequence.

  • You might read aloud a chapter book and decide on the key events in the book. If you have 20 students in the class, make a list of 20 key events. Have each student draw a picture of one of those events. The student should write on the picture a statement that describes the event in the picture. Arrange the pictures in order to reflect the events in the story. Then post them on a bulletin board in groups of five pictures.


    --- pictures for events 1 to 5 of the story should be arranged out of sequence in a row; the pictures should be labeled with letters cards a to e.
    --- pictures for events 6 to 10 of the story should be arranged out of sequence in a row; the pictures should be labeled with letters cards a to e.
    --- pictures for events 11 to 15 of the story should be arranged out of sequence in a row; the pictures should be labeled with letters cards a to e.
    --- pictures for events 16 to 20 of the story should be arranged out of sequence in a row; the pictures should be labeled with letters cards a to e.

Have students arrange each row of pictures to reflect the correct sequence of events from the story. They should write the order of the pictures for each row. For example, the correct sequence for the first row of pictures might be b d a e c; the correct sequence for the second row might be c b a e d; and so on...

Assessment

Now that students have had plenty of practice, create another set of illustrations/statement cards for a separate short story. After reading aloud the short story (or letting students read it to themselves), have students arrange the illustrations in the correct sequence. Did they do it correctly?

Lesson Plan Source

EducationWorld.com

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

National Standards

FINE ARTS: Visual Arts
GRADES K - 4
NA-VA.K-4.1 Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes
NA-VA.K-4.3 Choosing and Evaluating A Range of Subject Matter, Symbols, and Ideas
NA-VA.K-4.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines
GRADES 5 - 8
NA-VA.5-8.1 Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes
NA-VA.5-8.3 Choosing and Evaluating A Range of Subject Matter, Symbols, and Ideas
NA-VA.5-8.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines

LANGUAGE ARTS: English
GRADES K - 12
NL-ENG.K-12.2 Reading for Understanding
NL-ENG.K-12.12 Applying Language Skills

SOCIAL SCIENCES: U.S. History
All Eras

SOCIAL SCIENCES: World History
All Eras

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05/08/2006