Best Examples of Art of Storytelling: Visual Narrative Examples for the Classroom

If you walk into a classroom and ask, “Who likes stories?” most hands go up. Ask, “Who likes writing essays?” and suddenly everyone needs to tie their shoes. Visual narratives bridge that gap. They feel like play, but they quietly build serious skills.

Here are some of the best examples of art of storytelling: visual narrative examples that click immediately with students:

Think of a classic Pixar storyboard panel sequence. No dialogue, just a character, a problem, and a series of images that escalate tension. Show students a short, three-to-six-panel storyboard (you can sketch it yourself with stick figures). Ask them to narrate what happens between each frame. They’re doing narrative inference, pacing, and character analysis—without a single worksheet.

Or consider a wordless picture book like “The Arrival” by Shaun Tan. Students read the images the way they’d read a text: left to right, detail by detail, tracking changes in mood and setting. When you ask them to add captions or internal monologue, they suddenly see themselves as co-authors of the story.

These early examples of art of storytelling: visual narrative examples grab students because they’re familiar, visual, and low-pressure—but they open the door to sophisticated storytelling work.

Classroom-Friendly Examples of Art of Storytelling: Visual Narrative Examples

Let’s walk through specific classroom-ready formats. Each example of visual storytelling can be adapted from elementary to high school with small tweaks to complexity and reflection.

1. Wordless Picture Book Narration

Take a wordless or nearly wordless book and turn your students into the authors. Great options include:

• “The Arrival” by Shaun Tan (immigration, fantasy, social-emotional themes)
• “Flotsam” by David Wiesner (oceans, imagination, science tie-ins)
• “Journey” by Aaron Becker (adventure, creativity, problem-solving)

How to use these as examples of art of storytelling: visual narrative examples:

Lay a few pages under a document camera or project them. Ask students to:

• Describe what they see (literal observation)
• Infer what characters feel (emotional reading)
• Predict what might happen next (narrative thinking)

Then have them write dialogue, internal thoughts, or a short narration for a single spread. You can extend this into a full-class collaborative script, where each student writes for one page, then you read it aloud as a group. Suddenly, the class has co-created a multimodal text.

This also supports English learners and students with reading difficulties by giving them a visual anchor. For background on how visuals support literacy and comprehension, you can point colleagues to research summaries from the National Center for Education Evaluation at IES: https://ies.ed.gov/ncee.

2. Comic Strips and Graphic Novels as Narrative Blueprints

Graphic novels are no longer the “extra” reading; they’re in the core curriculum in many districts. Titles like “New Kid” by Jerry Craft, “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luen Yang, or “March” by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell are powerful examples of art of storytelling: visual narrative examples rooted in real identity and history.

Try this approach:

• Have students choose a two-page spread from a graphic novel.
• Cover the text with sticky notes.
• Ask them to reconstruct the dialogue and narration only from the art.

Afterward, reveal the original text and compare choices. Students analyze pacing, panel size, and framing. Why did the artist zoom in on a face here? Why a wide shot there? This is visual rhetoric, but it feels like detective work.

For older students, connect this to media literacy standards and research on multimodal texts. The Harvard Graduate School of Education has accessible articles on visual literacy and graphic novels in the classroom: https://www.gse.harvard.edu.

3. Storyboards for Science, History, and SEL

Storyboards aren’t just for film class. They’re one of the most flexible examples of art of storytelling: visual narrative examples across subjects.

In science, students can storyboard the water cycle as a character’s journey: a single drop of water traveling from ocean to cloud to rain to river. Each panel represents a stage, but students also add emotional tone: maybe the drop is nervous about evaporation and thrilled to become snow.

In history, ask students to storyboard a key event, like the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Each frame shows a moment: a law, an act of resistance, a community response, a long-term consequence. Students must decide what to include and what to leave out, which is exactly what historians do when they construct narratives.

In social-emotional learning (SEL), students can storyboard a conflict-resolution scenario. A disagreement, a misunderstanding, a conversation, and a repair. This kind of visual narrative supports emotional regulation and perspective-taking; organizations like CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) emphasize the power of perspective-taking in SEL: https://casel.org.

4. Social Media-Style Visual Narratives

By 2024–2025, most middle and high school students understand story formats from platforms better than from textbooks. Without using actual social media in class, you can borrow the structure.

Try:

• “Instagram grid” storytelling: Students design a 9-panel “profile grid” for a character from a novel, historical figure, or even a scientific concept personified. Each square is a moment in that character’s life or development.
• “Stories” sequence: Students create a short, vertical sequence of images that would function like a story highlight. Each frame has a timestamp, a location, and a brief caption.

These are modern examples of art of storytelling: visual narrative examples that feel native to students’ daily lives. They also open conversations about digital citizenship, self-presentation, and how images can be edited to shape perception—a critical media literacy skill supported by organizations like Common Sense Education: https://www.commonsense.org/education.

5. Data Comics and Infographic Narratives

A newer 2024–2025 trend in classrooms and in journalism is the rise of data comics and narrative infographics. Instead of a dry bar graph, students create a character who walks readers through the data.

For example, in a health class, students might tell the story of “Alex’s Sleep Week,” turning sleep data into a comic: one panel per night, with hours slept, mood the next day, and key events. This connects to real health guidance from sources like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on teen sleep and well-being: https://www.cdc.gov.

These data-based comics are powerful examples of art of storytelling: visual narrative examples that merge math, science, and art. Students learn that data isn’t just numbers; it’s evidence behind a story.

6. Silent Film Clips and GIF Story Sequences

Visual narrative doesn’t have to be static. Short, silent video clips or looping GIF-style animations are perfect for teaching story structure.

Play a short, silent film clip—think classic Chaplin or a contemporary silent short—and ask students to:

• Identify beginning, middle, and end
• Freeze-frame at key moments and sketch them as panels
• Add thought bubbles or voiceover scripts

You can also have students create their own short, silent video sequences on school devices (no dialogue, just movement and expression). They storyboard first, then film. This process shows them how every shot is a choice that shapes meaning.

How to Teach With These Visual Narrative Examples Without Killing the Magic

The danger with any creative arts lesson plan is over-explaining it until it feels like a test. The art of storytelling thrives on curiosity, so structure your lessons to keep that sense of discovery.

Start by presenting examples of art of storytelling: visual narrative examples with almost no pre-teaching. Let students react, wonder, and argue a little. Then, once they’re hooked, guide them toward the concepts you want them to notice: sequence, point of view, pacing, symbolism.

Some teaching moves that work well:

• Think-alouds: Model your own internal monologue as you “read” a visual narrative. “I notice the artist zooms in here… that makes me feel closer to the character.”
• Gallery walks: Post student visual narratives around the room. Have peers leave sticky-note comments focused on story elements: conflict, turning point, resolution.
• Choice of medium: Let students choose between comic, storyboard, picture-book spread, or data comic. The learning target is narrative thinking, not drawing perfection.

When you assess, focus more on clarity of story than on artistic polish. A stick-figure comic with a clear conflict and satisfying resolution is a successful example of art of storytelling: visual narrative examples in student work.

Integrating Visual Narratives Into Standards and Subjects

If you need to justify your creative arts lesson plans to administrators or colleagues, you can connect these visual narrative examples directly to common standards and skills.

Reading and writing:

Students practicing visual storytelling are learning to:

• Identify plot structure (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution)
• Analyze character motivation and change
• Infer meaning from context and detail

These align with ELA standards across grade bands. The Common Core State Standards documentation at https://www.corestandards.org highlights narrative writing and analysis skills that visual storytelling directly supports.

Social studies and history:

When students storyboard historical events or create graphic biographies, they:

• Distinguish between primary and secondary details
• Understand cause and effect
• Recognize perspective and bias

Science and health:

Visual narratives of processes (cell division, climate change, disease transmission, or healthy habits) help students organize complex sequences and understand systems over time. Health-related visual narratives can be supported with accurate information from sources like the National Institutes of Health (NIH): https://www.nih.gov.

Social-emotional learning:

Storyboarding conflicts, friendships, and dilemmas helps students rehearse social situations safely. They can “try on” different choices and outcomes visually before facing them in real life.

2024–2025 Trends to Watch in Visual Storytelling for Classrooms

Visual storytelling in 2024–2025 isn’t just about paper comics anymore, but you don’t need expensive tech to ride the wave.

• AI-assisted sketching and layout tools: Some teachers are using AI-powered design tools to help students quickly generate backgrounds or panel layouts, then students add their own characters and text. The goal isn’t to outsource creativity, but to lower the barrier for students who feel intimidated by drawing.
• Interactive digital story maps: Platforms that let students place images, text, and audio on a map are gaining traction. A migration story, a civil rights journey, or a character’s road trip becomes a visual narrative layered over geography.
• Cross-curricular “story labs”: Schools are building interdisciplinary projects where students research in science or social studies, then communicate their findings through visual narratives instead of traditional reports.

As you explore these trends, keep returning to concrete examples of art of storytelling: visual narrative examples your students can actually make. Fancy tools are optional; a pencil and sticky notes are still enough to build a powerful story.

FAQ: Visual Storytelling in the Classroom

Q1. What are some simple classroom examples of art of storytelling: visual narrative examples for beginners?

Start with three-panel comics showing a tiny moment: “Before school, during school, after school,” or “Problem, reaction, solution.” Wordless picture book pages are another accessible example of visual storytelling; have students add dialogue or thought bubbles. Even younger students can sequence three photos or sketches into a beginning, middle, and end.

Q2. How do I support students who say, “I can’t draw”?

Normalize stick figures and icons. Show professional comics that use very simple art styles. Emphasize that the goal is to communicate a story, not to create gallery-ready artwork. You can provide pre-drawn character templates or panel layouts so students focus on narrative choices instead of worrying about drawing skills.

Q3. Can visual storytelling help with reluctant writers?

Yes. Many reluctant writers are not reluctant storytellers—they’re just overwhelmed by text. Visual narratives let them organize ideas, sequence events, and explore voice with less pressure. Once the story exists in images, you can gradually add captions, dialogue, and finally full paragraphs. This scaffolded approach is supported by literacy research highlighting multimodal composition as a bridge to traditional writing, which you can see discussed in resources from universities like Harvard: https://www.gse.harvard.edu.

Q4. What’s an example of using visual narratives in a non-arts subject?

In a biology unit on ecosystems, have students create a visual narrative following a single animal through a day or a season. Each panel shows interactions—predators, prey, habitat changes, human impact. This example of visual storytelling help students remember complex relationships much better than a list of bullet points.

Q5. How do I assess visual narrative work fairly?

Create a simple rubric that focuses on story clarity, use of sequence, and connection to content. Artistic skill should be the smallest part of the grade, if it’s included at all. Ask students to write a short reflection explaining their narrative choices—what they wanted the audience to feel or understand. This reflection gives insight into their thinking, even if the drawing is minimal.

Visual storytelling isn’t a side activity; it’s a powerful way to teach thinking itself. By curating and creating strong examples of art of storytelling: visual narrative examples, you give students a language that crosses words, images, and disciplines—and that language sticks long after they leave your classroom.