Visual Interpretation of “The Story of an Hour”

In this activity, students work in groups to create a visual interpretation of “The Story of an Hour” that illustrates a theme derived from the topic of freedom.  The visual interpretation should engage the symbolic imagery of the story in some way, through a drawing, a collage, or both! Students discuss and plan how to visually interpret the story before getting started.  However, words are not allowed to be used.

Students will then engage in a Gallery Walk where, as a group, they view each group’s creation and interpret how each group has analysed the topic (orally, with a notetaker transcribing at a station set up for this).  Questions may also be asked about how the group interpreted the topic and the choices they made.

Once the Gallery Walk is complete, each group returns to their creation and reflects on the responses from other groups members, writing a final reflection on how their peers understood (or not) what their creative intentions were and what was surprising about how their classmates interpreted the drawing.  They can also answer any questions.  These response documents are shared in the collective folder. 

As a larger class, the similarities/differences in interpretations are noted and discussed, often in the following class after they have reviewed responses.

Students will be able to:

• Interpret a text and analyze a theme by creating a visual interpretation of the story
• Compare and contrast the various interpretations of the story through their work and that of their peers