Week 4. Retelling the Brolga story with pictures.

M & M's Graphs


The picture above is an aboriginal story of a boy seaching for the spirit of his fathers.
Retelling story with pictures is a very important way of teaching and learning. It helps children to comprehend and summarise stories. This is an activity that will reinforce sequencing in a story. I can mix the pictures up and ask students to rearrange them in order. I can cut sentence strips and ask students to put them in order. Also students can learn reading and vocabulary through this story. This type of story will allow students to learn how to organise and describe events which improves reading. It also helps students to analyse stories. Retelling stories in pictures enhances visual clue to remember the story. That is why Benjamin Franklin says, "Tell me and I will forget, Teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn".

The picture on the right is that of m & m graphs. It has a visual clue that enhaces learning. Students can use this activity to collect and analyse data. They can count the m&m's in colours, find out how many colours are in each bag and plot a graph with the number of colours in the bag of m&m's. Assuming different colours have different flavours, students will be able to tell how many flavours are in the graph. Students could be asked what colour has the highest number, discuss favourite colours and count how many colours are in each bag. What will happen if one colour goes in one bag and if some colours are fewer than others?

Using a spread sheet, abstract information can be represented in a conrete form showing the relationship between facts and concepts. This could be used to relate information to prior knowledge. Connections can be shown through lines, symbols, images, graphs etc. Students can engage in different activities with the spread sheet and their work can be displayed on the class wall.