LIVING SUMMARY

 

Georgia Standards

 

South Carolina Standards

 

Key Vocabulary

 

Materials

• Story excerpts from Because of Winn Dixie, by Kate DiCamillo (or other text)
• Various scenarios for sample tableaux written on 3x5 cards

 

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Classroom Tips: If each of the activities are taking too long, have the students make one or two examples from “Family Portraits” at the same time as a whole class.

 

• Start with a general physical warm-up to get the students' bodies ready. Use exercises such as:
  • Stretching: Stretch all major muscle groups.
  • Shaking Out Limbs: Shake out arms, legs, and the whole body to release tension.
  • Energy Passes: Stand in a circle and pass a clap or a simple motion around to build group focus and energy.
• Play “Family Portraits”.
  • Break the students into groups. Each group must go on to the rug and make a family portrait. 
  • The leader calls out a type of family and students must pose as that family. They have three seconds to get into pose and freeze when the teacher indicates (use a drum, a clap pattern, etc.).
    • Types of families could include: Crazy family, sick family, magical family, loving family, fighting family, goofy family, circus family, dancing family, rock’n’roll family, gymnastics family, swimming family, movie star family, athletic family, lion family, teacher family.

 

 

• Explain to students that what they just did, is called tableau in theatre. A tableau is a “living picture” in which a group of people takes on various poses and maintains the poses silently in order to illustrate an abstract idea or communicate a concrete image.
• With note cards that have different scenarios written on them, have the students pull different situations randomly from a bucket, such as:
  • A train robbery  
  • Seeing a big bear  
  • Shopping at the grocery store 
• Students will practice making tableaux in their same groups from the activator demonstrating these scenarios.
• Tell students that they will be making a tableaux to demonstrate summaries of various passages from a text they are reading. Ask students to listen for the key points of the passage and think about how they can be shown in a single picture.
  • Read an excerpt from the chosen text. Ask students to listen for the key points of the story, answering the questions who, what, when, where, and how.
    • Students should discuss who, what, when, where, and how with their group members. Optional: Have students complete a who, what, when, where, and how graphic organizer.
    • Facilitate a class discussion to answer who, what, when, where, and how. Write answers on a smart board so that students can see class responses. 
  • Ask students to plan a tableau that shows this passage. After planning time, announce, “On a count of three, show me, 1-2-3 freeze!”.
  • Move around the room and discuss the success of each of the tableaux and how they show a summary of the passage.  
  • Read another excerpt and repeat the process.
• Assign different groups different passages that they enacted using tableau.
  • Together, students should write a summary of the passage.
  • Students should then create a final version of a tableau to summarize their passage.

 

 

Closing Reflection

• Students will read their summaries and present their tableaux for the class in sequential order. Discuss appropriate audience participation and etiquette prior to groups presenting.
• After each presentation, students should discuss how the group showed the summary using their bodies.

 

Assessments

Formative

Teachers will assess students’ understanding of the content throughout the lesson by observing students’ participation in the activator; demonstration of tableaux; discussion of who, what, when, where, and how after each passage is read; and participation in summary tableaux.

 

Summative

CHECKLIST

• Students can demonstrate the summary of a text using tableau.
• Students can write a summary of a text including a main idea and essential supporting information.

 

DIFFERENTIATION 

Acceleration: Students can rewrite the passage as a scene using dialogue. Students in the group can practice their scene and perform it for the class. Remediation:  After reading the passage, answer the questions of “who, what, when, where, how and why?” together as a class. Then, spend time brainstorming ideas as a class for how a passage could be summarized using tableau.  Rather than summarizing a passage into one tableaux, break the passage into several key events; students can make several tableaux demonstrating each event to summarize the passage.

 

 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

NA

 

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Ideas contributed by: Mary Gagliardi. Updated by Katy Betts.

Revised and copyright: July 2024 @ ArtsNOW