Tableau

What is it? Tableau are essentially a still life image of a scene or scenario often used in combination with a story. Students have to create a "still life image" of one or numerous parts of the book using their bodies and expressions. This can take on many different forms and can be used in many different subject areas. Students are also encouraged to use different levels (high, medium and low) and transition between different Tableau. 

Accommodations: This strategy is quite simple to accommodate for most students of different abilities. Students who are physically unable may be asked to direct the other students or to interpret the tableau created by their peers. Students can easily be sitting  during a tableau if the teacher allows props such as chairs. This does not require a lot of movement and does not require students to speak or make sounds which helps ease any problems for students who are deaf, mute or really shy. 

Curriculum Connections: Tableau could be used for a number of different curriculum areas such as Social Studies or History. Students could re-enact historic events that they have learned about or customs and traditions that they would learn about in Social Studies. This strategy could also be used during literacy as students could create a tableau for different parts of the story adding transitions to move from one tableau to the next. 

Theory: The Learners Theory enhances the need for students to be doing and teaching each other. By having them create tableau students are doing which helps them retain 80% of the information. Having students teach each other helps them retain 90% of the information! Using this technique students are creating tableaux and depending on what the teacher does with it afterwards students could be teaching each other as well. Having students explain their tableau and how it portrays the information taught can be one way to have students teach each other about the subject area without much input from the teacher.