Recently I posted about the “5 Picture Story” idea, which you can read here. Our 6th grade English teacher adapted the idea to fit her project which she is calling, “6 Picture Story.”
Her key learning objectives for this project:
- understand the importance and use of images in conveying a story (visual rhetoric of sorts)
- using words strategically to convey an idea (mini grammar, rhetoric, and communication focus such as limited words)
- learning and using new technologies, specifically the Pages App
To introduce the lesson, she began by asking what you need to tell a story and prodded their answers until someone came up with “words.” She then told them that we weren’t going to be using many words (specifically 6) to tell an autobiographical story. They talked about the use of images and how we could use visuals to also depict a story. She then presented her example that she had created. (As teachers, we tend to leave this step out. We assume that if we provide an example to our students, this will inhibit their creativity rather than foster it. I myself do not love providing samples for this very reason. However, I have noticed that by not providing a sample, many times the outcome is not pretty. The kids drop the ball and really, it was me. I dropped the ball by not providing a sample to allow them to guide them through the process.) Next, the students followed all the steps of the writing process (brainstorm, plan, draft, and revise) for their Pages document, brainstorming and planning the 6 words and images separately before drafting and revising the final product. Next, they peer reviewed the documents and then she gave them a short lesson on presentation skills allowing time for a presentation practice run. Finally, each student presented their finished product to the class. Below are a couple student samples from this project.