Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Title of Activity
Storyboard: very special characters

Description of educational activity
Duration: 4 hours
Pupils’ age: 14-16
Organization of the class of pupils: group work

Pupils' tasks: After students have read the novel" Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children", they will be divided into 4 groups, made up of 4 or 3 members; they will choose some sequences from the book in order to draw a few sketches with captions or a series of illustrations of the selected sequence that will eventually stand for the succession of the different framings in a multimedial, audio-visual production.

Support materials:

Ferrara Mario Ramina Graziano- CLICK & NET (LDM) Laboratorio Tecnico Multimediale. Zanichelli Editore
Andrea Balzola- Riccardo Pesce, STORYBOARD- Arte e tecnica tra lo script e il set. Dino Audino Editore

Evaluation and assessment method: Students will be asked to fill in a self-evaluation sheet regarding the final outcomes, in which the teacher will have to highlight the narrative elements through images: logical and narrative unity; creativity; efficacy of captions.

The visualisation of the text in sequences of images helps arouse students' interest in the analytical reading of the text and encourages them to reflect upon the descriptions to be pictured

Connection to curriculum

Grade: 2^nd grade

Knowledge:

Narrative techniques
Basic structures of narrative texts
Main literary genres
Skimming and scanning
Reflecting on reading

Skills:

grasp the fundamental features of a literary text
master language structures used in the texts
understand the message
understand and be aware of the means of the audiovisual communication.

Competences:

reading
undestanding and interpreting texts of different genres
using the narrative strategies to turn a literary text into a sequence of images
comparing a literary text with its filmed version

Bibliographic reference to be used during the activity

Italian version

Ransom Riggs - Miss Peregrine

La casa dei ragazzi speciali - Rizzoli,2016 (Versione italiana)
Editore: Rizzoli Collana: Rizzoli best
Anno edizione: 2016 Pagine: 383 p. ill. , Rilegato
ISBN-10: 8817090018 - ISBN-13: 978-8817090018

Short description of digital sources

A films has been made from Ransom Riggs'novel, directed byTim Burton e interpreted by Eva Green, Samuel L. Jackson, Asa Butterfield, Kim Dickens, Rupert Everett, Allison Janney, Ella Purnell, Terence Stamp, Judi Dench, Chris O'Dowd, Milo Parker.

Results

The novel contains several black and white photos, printed on vintage yellowish paper. These pictures aroused the students' curiosity since they will also study photography and prepare storyboards as part of their curricula.e dello storyboard

Students have learnt how to single out similarities and differences between literary and cinematographic genres.

Gli studenti got engaged in reading the story and most of them have also read the other two stories featuring Miss Peregrine.

Recommendations

In order to produce a storyboard, it is fundamental that the students read the whole novel. Group work is an effective method to arouse students' motivation, to favour opinion exchanges and stimulate their creativity. Cooperative learning may also be useful. Group work strengthens the individual sense of responsibility and triggers the challenge to become passionate readers.