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LESSON THREE:
SUMMARIES AND STUDENT CREATED STORYBOOKS

Overview of Lesson

Pictures and words to convey ideas about cultures and time periods. Teachers will use compare and contrasting strategies to help students summarize the ways Van Allburg and Faith Ringgold project ideas about time, place, and culture.

Lesson Objectives

· Students will identify specific ways the two artists/authors used pictures and words to tell their stories.
· Students will identify how the times, places, and cultures of each artist were expressed in the text and the artwork.
· Students will summarize their discussions of Van Allsburg and Ringgold using a chart organizer to compare and contrast the two images and books.
· The students will tell their own imaginative story expressing its meaning using words and a picture.

Materials and Resources

· Lesson Handout: Chart for Two-Way Comparison
Lesson Handout: Uniting Words and Images
Overhead Projector and pen
· White drawing paper, 12" x 18", one per student
· Pencils and erasers
· Black, fine point markers
· Colored pencils or markers
· Transparency of the Chart for Two-Way Comparison

Planning and Preparation

Make transparency of Two-Way Comparison Chart (page 17). Review the background information on Van Allsburg and Faith Ringgold. Cut drawing paper to size and secure fine point markers, colored pencils, or markers.

Instruction

Display both prints and books The Polar Express and Tar Beach and the transparency of the Chart for Two-Way Comparison (page 17). Ask students to think and identify some of the similarities and differences that they have learned and discussed about how both artists/authors, Chris Van Allsburg and Faith Ringgold, used words and pictures. Record their responses on the transparency.

Discussion Questions to Consider

· What are some of the similarities in Van Allsburg’s and Ringgold’s stories? (the main character went to a special place; it was imaginary; had a deeper meaning; both main characters were children and could have been the author when a child)
· What are some of the differences in their stories? (one flew, one took a train; one was written in first person, one in third; one was a girl, one a boy;)
· What are some of the similarities/differences in the meanings and purpose of each story and art? (both had several levels of meaning; one was about power to change and one was about faith; one was wishing to make things better, one was believing in dreams)
· What is similar/different about the times of each story and how did the artist/author give clues about the time? (both seemed to be when the author was young, not the
present; one was night and winter; one was night and summer;)
· What is similar/different about the places of each story and how did the artist/author give clues about the place? (both began at the main character’s home; one was in a
high rise in a large city and one in a home on a suburban street; both gave hints of the types of places the author grew up; one went to the imaginary north pole and one to real places)
· What is similar/different about the cultures of each story and how did the artist/author give clues about