Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Making Memories-A Yearbook Spread Activity

One of the highlights of the students' school year is receiving their yearbooks. They pore through the pages to see how many times they were mentioned, to groan or giggle about how they and their peers were depicted and to critique the photos, all with the same intensity that we wish they showed for the books they studied that year.

With this Making Memories-A Yearbook Spread Activity, they will be able to combine their understanding of the characters in a book that they studied that year with their ideas for the "Perfect" yearbook spread.

    Not only will they work individually or in pairs to choose a fiction or non-fiction book, but they will also select a Spread Idea such as:
    Middle and High School Yearbook Lesson Plan

    1. Student Life
    2. Community
    3. Clubs and Activities (choose one)
    4. Sports
    5.  Leadership
    as well as a Spread Presentation Theme, such as:

    1. Memories
    2. Last Will and Testament
    3. Senior Superlatives
    4. Movers and Shakers
    5. Theme of their own (with teacher approval).
    These Spread Ideas and Spread Presentation Themes are only a few examples.  Students can create their own for their perfect two-page spread.


    Students can complete this project individually or in pairs. If you want to offer another option, group students in teams of 4-6. After selecting a book that they studied in class this school year, and the characters to depict, each pair in the quartet or sestet will be responsible for one spread and should choose a
    Middle and High School ELA Yearbook Spreadsheet Activity
    Spread Idea and theme. Each pair can add to the same theme or select a different one.

    The characters that each group chooses to depict can be the same,  or a selection from all of those that the author portrayed in the book. Each two-page spread must develop, in pictures and text, four characters, though. Their spread idea is up to them, but they must include all of the ways an author develops a character: 

    •   By what the author says
    •  By what the character says or how he/she acts
    • By what others say about the character
    • How the character thinks/speaks of him/herself. 

    The finished assignment must offer evidence for the choices such as actual quotes from the book or in the student autograph texts that are included on the layout.  The students' reasons for their choices should not appear on the layout, but must be typed in an explanatory paragraph format that will be stapled to the layout.

    Criteria for grading are clarified on the Project Grading Rubric which is included on both the Teachers Notes page and the Student Directions page. Students will share their spreads in five-minute oral presentations
    Middle and High School Yearbook Activity
    where they will address their Spread Topic and Spread Presentation Theme, the characters as well as  how they depicted them, and the reasons for their choices and representations. After each presentation, have students staple their spreads to a bulletin board.

    Keep your students motivated, inspired and on-task with this engaging end-of-the-year activity that is aligned with Common Core Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy. Download it from: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Activity-Making-Memories-A-Yearbook-Spread-704469






    Happy Teaching,






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