Urdaneta City, Pangasinan

INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES

I. TITLE: “ STO-RE-BOOK”

Sto-Re-Book is an instructional material which combines story and

rebus puzzles written in a big book.

Rebus is an allusional device that uses pictures to represent word or

parts of words. It was a favorite form of heraldic expression used in the middle

ages to denote surnames. A rebus puzzle consists of category and series of

picture clues. The picture gives vague hint to what sort of answer or word you

are looking for.

Making rebuses was an important step in the history of writing. Back in

the fourth millenium B.C., in a region called Mesopotamia, the ancient

Sumerians developed a system of writing with pictographs -- they drew

pictures to represent things that they wanted to keep records of.

But drawing pictures to represent things is a limited way of writing.

You can write only about things that you can draw -- like an ox or a bird or a

fish or a plow. You can't write someone's name or write about something that

you can't draw -- feelings like love or hate or confusion.

 To get around this limitation, the Sumerians started using pictures to

make readers think of a sound, rather than an object. Using rebus writing

made it possible to write about things that couldn't easily be pictured.

A Big Book is used as a reading material which has texts that are large

enough to be seen by every student present in a classroom. It could be used

in practicing reading abilities by the students especially on the lower levels.

Thus, combining the rebus, big book and the texts which are

commonly in forms of short story stimulates responses from the

learners. In this material, students are not just merely reading the story but

also urge learners to think critically to unlock the puzzle that obstructs them

from completely understanding the story. It increases learners

(HOTS) Higher Order Thinking Skills while improving their reading ability

and comprehension. This Instructional Material promotes complex thinking

which really challenges the readers from reading it.

II. TARGET LEARNERS

STO-RE- BOOK, is primarily design for the Elementary pupils but can

also be used by the High School students specifically the learners who are still

in the “Early Independent” level. Readers at this stage read with fluency and

ready to begin the study of the subject matter and the use of informational

text. In this level, learners need to bring prior knowledge to their reading

(Developmental Reading 1).

 Without the learners’ prior knowledge, they cannot be able to unlock

or find out the hidden words in the story. Hence, the more knowledge you

have, the easier for you to get the message of the story. The level of the target

learners depend on the content of the story.

III. GUIDE IN USING “STO-RE-BOOK”

This introduction will explain all you need to know in using the “STO-

RE-BOOK”. STO-RE-BOOK is bigger than the usual book. It is half an

illustration board which you need to flip to see the content of each page.

The story is essentially printed or written, often made with letters and

words, which cryptically represent a word, phrase, or saying. This page

attempts to explains – with the help of examples – eight of the main ways

in which a rebus puzzle might encode its solution.

POSITION

One of the most common devices is the positioning of the words

and symbols, both relative to the rectangle containing the puzzle, and to the

other words and symbols. In the example MAN is in MOON, so it is the man

in the moon.

HIGHLIGHTING

Often attention is drawn to some part of the picture, often by an arrow

or underlining, indicating that this is where we should be looking for the clue.

Here the arrow points to the first AID, and thus the answer is first aid.
DIRECTION

Closely related to position is direction. When a word is spelled in any

direction other than the usual left-to-right it is generally relevant to the

solution. The example below illustrates wake up.

SIZE

Unusually large or small words or symbols may be used to convey

concepts like big, large, small, wide, etc. For example, the rebus puzzle on

the left represents big deal.

NUMBER

The device of number is frequently exploited, due to the closeness in

sound of 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 10, etc. to other English words. This cryptic example

shows 4 GOT 10 HEROES, and so the answer is forgotten heroes.

COLOUR

If a word or symbol is not printed in black, then you can expect the

colour to be a relevant in the solution. More difficult rebus puzzles may make

use of somewhat more obscure colour names like scarlet or beige. In this

fairly easy example CHEESE is blue; it is blue cheese.

 STYLE

The style of the font is sometimes relevant. It might convey such

concepts as tall, pretty, thin, slanted, etc. The fat letters in the example here

lead the puzzler to conclude that the answer is fat chance.

SOUND

Very often rebus puzzles are phonologically cryptic. The sound will not

always be exactly like the answer, but it will always be close enough to

recognize, as in 1s upon TIME: once upon a time.