Words & Pictures

Lesson Plan

Prior Knowledge

This lesson assumes that students have been discussing sequence in stories.  They have also been exposed to the differences between city and country neighborhoods.

Direct Instruction

Look at Thomas Hart Benton’s painting, First Crop. Use VTS questions to help students explore this work:

• What is the setting of this picture?
• What do you see that makes you say that?
• Where are these people?
• Is it a city or the country?
• What kinds of jobs do people do in the country? (Possible answers: farmer, doctor, teacher, mail carrier, etc.)

Just like a book, a painting can tell a story.  Now that we have discussed the details that we see in the painting, can we imagine what is happening in the painting.  What story is this painting telling?

• If what we are seeing happened in the middle of the story, what do you think happened in the beginning, or before what you see in the painting?
• What do you think might happen next?

Describe what happened before and after what is happening in the painting to your partner.

Now, using the provided graphic organizer, draw or write what happened at the beginning, middle and end of the story that the painting is telling.

Day 2 (optional)

The same lesson can be done a different day using a different painting. Look at Sloan’s Maid Cutting Ice and explore with VTS.

• Is this a city scene or country scene?
• What do you see that makes you say that?
• What kinds of jobs do people do in the city?

Mentor Texts for Teaching Sequencing

• I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
• Chicken Little by Rebecca Emberley & Ed Emberley
• A Taste of Honey by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace
• I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson
• Olivia by Ian Falconer

Mentor Texts for Comparing City and Country

• Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel
• Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems