Art Integration Lesson 1

Presenting Part of a Book

Materials:
Novel or short story, IPad, paper, pencil, chart paper, crayons/colored pencils/
markers/watercolor, popsicle sticks, SMARTBoard,

Standard:
Reading - Literary Text
Standard 8: Analyze characters, settings, events, and ideas as they develop and interact within a
particular context.
Writing-
Standard 3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective
techniques, well-chosen details, and well structured event sequences. 3.1 Gather ideas from texts,
multimedia, and personal experience to write narratives that: a. develop real or imagined
experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences;
Art:
Anchor Standard 4: I can direct and organize work for a performance to reflect specific content,
ideas, skills,
and media.

I Can:
Read, analyze, summarize, and present information gathered from a text.

Engagement:
Begin reading a short story, or novel with your students. Once you get a few chapters into the
book and students understand the plot and most characters, you can begin this kind of lesson.

Planning/Instruction:
1. You will need to group your students. I put them into heterogeneous groups so that
every group has a high reader, a low reader, and readers in between. This allows the
high reader to help their group members understand the chapter, and help lead the
group.

2. Assign each group with a chapter to read, or part of the short story. The groups will
read the chapter and answer questions with their group to discuss the events happening
and improve their comprehension.

3. Groups will decide how they want to present their chapter to the class. I provided a lot
of ideas for students to do, and allowed them to pick the way that interested them the
most.

4. Before starting their presentation: I had them write a summary of their chapter. They
used their comprehension questions to help them stay focused on the important events
that occurred, and then used their summary to focus on what to present. It is important
to remind them that the rest of the class hasn’t read this chapter, so they need to make
sure they don’t leave out important details.
 Art Integration Lesson 1
Presenting Part of a Book

Presentation choices include:

a. Create puppets and scenery posters to act out the chapter. Designate a narrator
and create a script to help the performance run smoothly. Some students
created their backdrop on their tablet and we projected it up on the Smartboard.
b. Use bodies and movements to act out themselves. Write a script and highlight
your lines for your character.
c. Use Toontastic: a creative storytelling app that empowers kids to draw, animate,
narrate, and record their own cartoons on their tablet. (They, of course, loved
this option.)
d. iMovie to record and present on the Smartboard (for those students
embarrassed in front of an audience.)
e. Leave it up to them: Any other creative way they came up with that was
approved by me before starting.

I gave students time to try out technology apps if they have never used them before to decide if
that was what they wanted to do. I had some students start on Toontastic, and then decide it
was easier to just act it out themselves.

Before presentations, I allowed groups to meet with their group one last time to perfect their
performance. We moved around furniture to “set the stage” in the classroom and began to
present. The creativity of each presentation was the most fun to watch, and every group did
something different. Students loved breaking up the “reading” of such a long book by jumping
into it and becoming the characters to act out. A great way to liven up a reading/writing block!

Assessment:
I assessed the students based on the content of their presentation and knowledge of what they
read. If students missed something in the chapter, I asked questions at the end of their
presentations to clarify for the rest of the class what happened before moving onto the next
chapter presentation. I also allowed student comments/questions so they could address
something that may have been confusing to them. You could create a checklist or rubric for
groups to follow, and grade the scripts as a writing piece.
Art Integration Lesson 1
Presenting Part of a Book
Art Integration Lesson 1
Presenting Part of a Book