The Teachers' Animation Toolkit

Stage 1: Storyboarding
In groups of four to fi ve pupils, students selected stories from 
different cultures. Each group adapted their story and transformed it 
into a storyboard for a 20-second animation.
PART FOUR: SCHEMES OF WORK
4.1 TELL ME A STORY

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Schemes of Work
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Hints and tips:
We asked the students to write the story using the standard 
narrative convention of third person, past tense. This included a 
narrator’s voice and/or dialogue by the main characters. Students 
used a maximum of 60 words, and about 6 sentences. Referring 
back to the original text, they maintained the overall structure of the 
original storyline, that is, they established the main characters and 
the scenario, quest or dilemma facing the characters and how it is 
resolved or completed.
They storyboarded the tale in six shots, one per sentence in the 
script.
They added a description of the action taking place under each shot 
and listed sound effects.
Background art work
Stage 2: Production
We allocated two lessons to storyboarding, and three lessons to 
model making and set building. The production stage needed three 
full school days to shoot the animations, compose the music, record 
sound effects and narration and edit.

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The Teachers’ Animation Toolkit
Stage 3: Assessment
Expectations
At the end of this project most pupils explored ideas and made 
moving images in response to an existing story and identifi ed the 
key components of story; character, narrative and meaning. They 
researched fairy tales and the history of animated fi lm. They were 
able to organize and use visual and other information in their work 
and manipulate media to convey their ideas. They analysed and 
commented on their own and others’ images and related this to what 
was intended. They adapted their work to refi ne their own ideas and 
intentions.
The more advanced students were able to exploit the characteristics 
of the media,analyse and comment on the context of their own and 
others’ work and explain how their own ideas have infl uenced their 
practice.
Prior learning
It is helpful if students have:
developed the habit of reading and comprehending what they 
have read
developed the habit of collecting visual and other sources of 
information to support their work
used collage, model-making and mark-making techniques
used digital images and the internet as an integral part of 
their art and design work
compared the moving image with other forms of visual 
imagery and considered their varying impacts
looked critically at their own and others’ work in order to 
generate ideas for adapting and developing their work