Picture Stories: Elementary School Project Based Learning

[infogoddess]

I have started an intense (14 session) two-week project with my third grade Elementary school children and I thought I would share the fruits of my labors here.  These activities are based on Chapter 3 of "Projects with young learners" by Diane Phillips, Sarah Burwood and Helen Dunford http://www.whatthebook.com/book/9780194372213? and could be used for after school or camp.

Description of the project

In this project the children create a number of picture stories.  The first 4 lessons are suitable for learners who are lower-intermediate and above.  These activities consist of self-contained tasks.  Some or all of these activities can also be used to prepare for the project described in Lessons 5-10.  In this project, children plan, prepare, and make a complete photo story.


Lesson 1  Jumbled cartoons - Each group of students has a short cartoon strip where the pictures have been cut up and jumbled, and the words in speech bubbles have been removed.  The children put the pictures in the right order, and decide which words to write in the speech bubbles.  They also write captions underneath each picture.

[infogoddess]

Lesson 2 Six Word Stories

The next lesson involves creating six word stories.  I learned about these when Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto presented at Busan KOTESOL 2011 "Little Tech for Big Results" http://teachingvillage.wikispaces.com/Little+Tech+for+Big+Results and have been fascinated with them for ESL teaching ever since. Barbara posted online about how she uses it http://www.teachingvillage.org/2011/03/03/six-word-stories/ but it is really a simple exercise.  Take a picture. Elicit vocabulary about the picture from students.  Use six words to make a story about the picture.  Last year I used these as warm-ups for fifth and sixth grade but they work with any age group.

For more six word story ideas try this http://www.sixwordstories.net/ which is based on Hemingway's challenge to write a complete story in six words http://www.sixwordstories.net/2008/12/for-sale-baby-shoes-never-used-ernest-hemmingway/

Anyway, here is my lesson plan and powerpoint with pictures for starting a story.

[infogoddess]

Lesson 3 Tell Me a Story

For this lesson students were asked to bring in a picture of themselves. I had spare picture worksheets for those who didn't bring one. In class we talked about my photo and brainstormed for six key words that had to be included.  Then we wrote a story together about my picture including all of the words.  Students then talked about their photo with their partners, brainstormed six words and wrote stories.  The pictures were glued onto the worksheets and shared with the class.

I found some great story starter websites with worksheets to download for free.  Try http://www.storyit.com/Starters/picstart.htm or http://www.meddybemps.com/9.700.html

[nicoleyoleravioli]

Thank you so much! I have been trying to figure out how to start a project for my kids but couldn't think of material suitable or easy enough!! These are fantastic!

[infogoddess]

Lesson 4 Guess the story

Each child is given a different animal to draw from the story of "The Old Woman who Swallowed a Fly"  The children draw their pictures and then try to work out the story collectively by looking at all their pictures.  The children learn the song and stand when their animal is called out.  For homework children can create their own animals for the song.

For the video version of the song I downloaded the one from the British Council website http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/old-lady-who-swallowed-fly
More worksheets and activities can be found on Enchanted Learning
http://members.enchantedlearning.com/stories/rhyme/ladyfly/
and Making Learning Fun
http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/ThereWasAnOldLadyWhoSwallowedaFly.htm

Wikipedia even has an article to explain the song if you don't know it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Was_an_Old_Lady_Who_Swallowed_a_Fly

My kids really struggled with how the lady could have eaten a whole cow (apparently eating a cat isn't a problem) and why would eating a horse kill you when eating a whole cow doesn't

[unhitchedfern]

Info Goddess, this is absolutely amazing. I've been using your material and so far it seems to be a big hit with my after school class. Your work is awesome!

[infogoddess]

Thanks. I have been having a great time with my third graders doing this one.  Today they finally said "Teacher, game"  and I said "No, we are writing stories" and one of the smarter girls in the back said "Yeah, we are writing stories.  Much better than a game"

I can't take full credit for this but have enhanced and prepared worksheets and powerpoints whenever necessary.  Now I have to upload the next installment.

[infogoddess]

Lesson 5 Story Lucky Dip

The children pick 4 random pictures and use them to invent a story.  They stick the photographs on a large piece of paper, and write the story captions underneath.


The original lesson calls for magazine pictures to be used and since I don't have any and don't have a decent color printer, I made picture sheets that meet the requirements.  I have to say, my kids showed some incredible imagination in coming up with their stories.  This is a bit like going to an Improv Club and doing the exercise where audience members call out three things and a location and the team has to perform a story.

[infogoddess]

Lesson 6 Story types

The Ss look at different types of stories, how a story is structured, and how language is used to express time in a story.  "Little Red Riding Hood" is used as the example here, but you can choose other well-known or popular stories for this activity.


Depending on the ability level of your students and how familiar they are with the story this could take 60 to 90 minutes.  My lesson plan says 60 but you can remove watching the video and doing the warm-up to make it work in a 40 minute class or add in extra activities to expand it to 90 minutes and spread it out over 2 classes.

[infogoddess]

Lesson 7 : Planning a story

Explain to the children that they are going to create the story for their photo story and remind them of the stages of a story.  Put them in groups of six and give them a large sheet of paper or use the honeycomb organizer. Have them answer the basic questions about their story.

[infogoddess]

Lesson 8 : Expanding the story

Ss work in their small groups to write story strips that tell their basic story in about 10 chunks.  Then Ss are paired and have to write a narrative of one section (i.e. beginning, middle or end) of the story which is made up of multiple strips.  The sections are put together and edited to make a complete story.

Attached is a sample story strip to give you an idea of how it works

[infogoddess]

Lesson 9 - Behind the scenes

The children work together in their groups to decide on the background scenes and characters for their photo story, where the photographs will be taken, and costumes and props required.

I planned the class for 40 minutes but if you decide to paint any pictures you will need to plan for another class.

Attached are some sample worksheets for characters and locations

[infogoddess]

Lesson 10 Making the storyboard

The children plan and make a detailed storyboard for their photo story.  They write a description of what is happening in each scene of their story, and plan any dialogue or thought bubbles required in the final photographs.

[infogoddess]

Lesson 11 Taking Pictures

The children set up the scenes and take the photos need for their picture stories.  This may take multiple sessions based on how many groups you have, how many cameras you can use, and how complicated  any scenes might be.

[Aleksuh]

There’s some great stuff on this thread. Thanks!

Thought it was worth resurrecting to post my own 6 word stories game. I’ve posted version one on here before, but there’s now a new spangly version 2 as well.

The instructions are simple. Show the photos. Groups write a 6 word story. Students vote for the funniest, each vote = 1 point. Then, the students have to correct each other’s stories, stealing points for each correction.

Full explanations plus other stuff here:

http://breathyvowel.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/lesson-plan-six-word-stories/

http://breathyvowel.wordpress.com/2012/04/07/lesson-plan-6-word-stories-2/ ‎

Cheers,

A

[Aleksuh]

Sorry, realised it would have helped a lot to attach some files