What is a Storyboard?
Pre-writing Tool that Helps Students Organize Thoughts and Sequences
Jul 8, 2009
Storyboards are a tool used commonly in video production, animation, web site design and video game design. It allows for members of a team to understand the various parts of the production. During the design stage a storyboard makes it easy to rearrange scenes, change descriptions and modify, add or delete parts while creating the complete story.
Parts of a Storyboard
There are many different ways to create a storyboard. Some might be on full sheets of paper and others on note cards. Still other storyboards might be created on squares and attached to a felt board. Even PowerPoint slides or graphical software such as Photoshop or Paint can be used to create individual scenes.
No matter what method is used, there are two basic parts to a storyboard, the image and the description. The image can be a basic hand drawn sketch, photograph or graphically created image. Its primary purpose is to give a basic visual idea as to what is happening.
The description can vary dramatically depending on what is needed for the storyboard exercise. It can be a list of what will happen or a complete sentence or two about the characters in the image. It might include specific information about backgrounds, sounds or text. The description might also include a number declaring where in the order of events the particular scene should be placed.
Why Use a Storyboard?
There are many graphic organizers available for classroom use. Memory maps, inverted triangles, Venn Diagrams, flow charts and many others all are valuable tools for brainstorming and pre-writing type exercises. What makes a storyboard different is the use of a picture.
Students like to sketch and draw. Providing them an outlet for this creativity while developing a story helps connect the images to words. Elementary age students can be encouraged to make sketches of a story and then create a description for each sketch; slowly developing a written story. Middle and high school students can also benefit from sketching their ideas, or teachers can integrate technology into the lesson by having students create the image part of the storyboard on the computer or creating the storyboard before using a software package such as Scratch or Alice.
Storyboards are a graphic organizer that combines words with images. It helps students organize ideas, sketch images to support text, reorganize the scenes until the best order is found and can support group work. Storyboards can be used in the classroom for pre-writing exercises or other lessons that involve a sequence or series of events.
For more information about using storyboards in video production visit Creating a Storyboard for Video Production.
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