Literary Analysis: Analyzing Symbolism through Animated Gifs on Brush Ninja Lesson Plan
Learning Objective
Students will learn how to identify symbolism in a story and create animated gifs on Brush Ninja to represent the symbols.
Materials
- A short story with clear examples of symbolism (e.g. “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein)
- Computers or tablets with internet access for each student or pair of students
- Access to Brush Ninja website
Procedure
- Introduce the concept of symbolism in literature and provide some examples.
- Read the selected story aloud as a class, pausing at points where there are clear symbols to discuss them.
- Review how to use Brush Ninja, including how to draw simple shapes, add text, and animate objects.
- In pairs or individually, have students choose a symbol from the story and create an animated gif with Brush Ninja that represents it.
- After completing their gifs, have students share them with the class and explain why they chose that particular symbol and how they represented it in their animation.
Assessment
Assessment will be based on students’ ability to:
- Identify symbols in the story
- Create an animated gif that effectively represents their chosen symbol
- Explain their thought process and reasoning behind their choice of symbol and animation
Extension
For advanced students or as an extension activity:
- Have them analyze multiple symbols in the same story or across different stories using Brush Ninja.
- Have them create longer animations that tell a story using multiple symbols.
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How to animate with Brush Ninja
This video teaches the basics of using Brush Ninja
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Examples of Brush Ninja in Education
Thanks @hreitDIS for coming amd doing brush ninja with out kiddos. Kids read an article and created a gif to represent the main idea.
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P1-4 enjoyed using Brush Ninja on iPads and chrome books. The children created comic books on class and school rules 📕 It was our 1st time an a lot of fun was had 😆 Using both Google images and our own images representing our rules
Tweeted by St Margaret's RC Primary School
2nd Grade STEM learned how to create their own stop animation of a ball bouncing and learned how to use a mouse!
Tweeted by Kellie Aranowski3rd graders using #BrushNinja to tell about the planet that NASA should visit next-included animation of the rocket
Tweeted by Pamela Reece
Me: Are you making something about water?
S: It’s precipitation
Me: bested by a 4th grader again
DES 4th graders in Computer Science learning how to make a Gif (not the peanut butter! 😛) using Brush Ninja. They picked it up pretty quick since it is not too much different from filming in stop-motion which they did last year in 3rd grade.
Tweeted by Kevin Hughes
