Identifying major themes of literature and analyzing their development throughout a piece of text is part of ELA Common Core State Standards for grades 9-12 (Literacy.RL.9-10.2, Literacy.RL11-12.2). A common approach for this standard is to teach about types of literary conflict in conjunction with the literature being studied: Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Society, Man vs. Self, and Man vs. Technology.
Creating storyboards and posters is the perfect way to engage high school ELA students, and teach them to identify types of literary conflict. Visual cues in storyboards bring heady concepts, such as Man vs. Society and Man vs. Self, down to earth through “comic-strip” style illustrations and captions. Posters let students distill the concept into one single image, and can be hung in the classroom when finished.
Teachers can create fun and easy-to-assess classwork that tasks high-school students with creating storyboards focusing on the types of conflict in literature. The linear nature of a storyboard mirrors the progression of conflict and reinforces learning. Students create storyboards using details and characters pulled from text, allowing teachers to determine almost immediately whether students comprehend the objectives.
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Teachers can customize the level of detail and number of cells required for projects based on available class time and resources.
Another advantage to storyboarding is the ease with which storyboard assignments can be graded and assessed via a rubric. Below is a sample rubric you can use to assess your students, or as a reference for planning your own literary conflict lesson.
Proficient 17 Points | Emerging 14 Points | Beginning 11 Points | Try Again 8 Points | |
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Conflict Identification | | | | |
Understanding Outcome | Student clearly shows the outcome of the conflict and its effects on the protagonist with evidence from the text. | Student shows the outcome of the conflict and its effect on the protagonist, but some evidence is unclear. | Student shows the outcome of the conflict, but does not examine its effect on the protagonist and uses some vague textual evidence. | Student does not clearly show the outcome of the conflict or use textual evidence. |
Quote | Student includes at least one quote, with proper punctuation and page #, from the text that deals directly with the events presented in the storyboard. | Student includes at least one quote, but it is not directly relevant to the events presented in the storyboard, or has an error in punctuation, page #, etc. | Student includes quote, but it contains errors or is not at all related to events presented in the storyboard. | Student does not include a quote. |
Character | Storyboard includes all required characters and clearly names them. Goes above and beyond by adding details or names of additional characters. | Storyboard includes all required characters, clearly named. | Storyboard includes protagonist and antagonist but leaves out other required characters. | Storyboard does not include the names of required characters. |
Storyboard | Student clearly shows effort to convey the setting the scene of the book | Student attempts to convey setting and scene of the book, but lacks some clarity. | Student does not clearly convey the setting and scene. | Student makes little or no attempt to convey the setting or scene. |
Spelling and Grammar | Student uses exemplary spelling and grammar. There are no errors. | Student makes a minor error in spelling and grammar. | Student makes several minor errors in spelling and grammar. | Student makes many errors in spelling and grammar; little attempt at spellchecking. |