#1035. Story Boards

Literature, level: all
Posted Fri Jun 18 18:02:49 PDT 1999 by Jan Purnell (jayp@netrax.net).
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Littlestown USA
Materials Required: construction paper markers,crayons or colored pencils, scissors, plain white paper, glue
Activity Time: 1 45-minute period
Concepts Taught: Understanding sequence and main events in a story

Story boards are a great way to evaluate student's understanding of important events in a novel, either read as a class, or independently. The students enjoy the artistic aspect as well!

1. Distribute a piece of regular-sized construction paper to each student or group.

2. Have the students fold the paper as many times as you wish to create "cells" for each chapter.

3. Direct students to think of the main event or happening in each chapter of the book they have just read. (It helps if students first list these events on a sheet of paper - it will help to avoid confusion later.)

4. Students will then recreate each chapter from the book, in order, by drawing an appropriate picture in each cell and labeling it with a sentence explaining what happened. (This can be done directly on the construction paper, but I have found it best to use small pieces of plain white paper, which are then glued into each cell on the construction paper.)

5. Display the story boards in the hallway for other students to see. It has become a book report in pictures!