Tableau

The name of this strategy comes from the term tableau vivant which means “living picture.”  In this activity, students create a still picture, without talking, to capture and communicate the meaning of a concept. Students must truly understand the meaning of a concept or idea in order to communicate it using physical poses, gestures, and facial expressions rather than words. This collaborative strategy is appealing to kinesthetic learners and allows all students to be creative while strengthening their comprehension of a concept.

Lesson Plan

This is a general lesson plan for a standard tableau lesson.  There are multiple variations on this plan.

Rubrics

Self evaluation has a high effect on student learning and rubrics are tool to accomplish this.  Here are two rubrics from different grade levels.

Additional Resources

Here is a list of many resources for learning how to use tableau in the classroom.  

Videos

Here are a few of the many video examples of tableau.  
professional tableau
student tableau