Creative Possibilities for Teaching Graphic Narratives

Creative Possibilities for Teaching Graphic NarrativesLouann ReidColorado State University

Graphic Narratives

book-length works composed in the medium of comics (H. Chute)

Webcomics Zahra’s Paradise http://www.zahrasparadise.

com/lang/en/archives/76

“Zahra’s Paradise isn’t just a cemetery where the world comes to an end. It’s also a womb, a garden, where the world is reborn. Sure, Neda is dead, Sohrab is dead, Mohsen is dead, and they’re all buried in Zahra’s Paradise. But just as there is death, so there is life and light bursting out of their shadow. Their virtual reflection, wrapped as fictional characters, allows us to raise our own imaginary army to intervene in history in real time.” Amir

What do teachers who use graphic novels do?

“Graphic Novels Make Me Nervous”

Help students realize how to juxtapose words and images to make meaning.

Teach the craft of visual and verbal narrative.

Support students in creating their own graphic narratives.

“This isn’t serious literature. My students need a challenge.”

Close Reading My faith was not unshakable. The year of the

revolution I had to take action. So I put my prophetic destiny aside for a while. “Today my name is Che Guevara.” “I am Fidel.” “And I want to be Trotsky.” We demonstrated in the garden of our house. “Down with the king!” “Down with the king!” The revolution is like a bicycle. When the wheels don’t turn, it falls. “Well spoken!” And so went the revolution in my country.

What is the subject? Who are the speakers?

Sort and sequence◦ Open your envelope and take out the panels for

the excerpt. ◦ Put the panels in sequence. Be ready to explain

why you chose the sequence you did.◦ Discuss how the words helped you read the

pictures.

From David Considine and Gail Haley. Visual Messages: Integrating Imagery into Instruction. 2nd ed. Englewood, CO: Teacher Ideas Press, 1999.

“This is too easy. It’s just a bunch of pictures.”

http://www.le.ac.uk/engassoc/images/imagesArrival.jpg

www.shauntan.com

www.shauntan.com

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/09/comics_arrival.html

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/09/comics_arrival.html

Pacing Perspectives Tone and Mood

Visual Storytelling

How would you describe the connections between the first six panels?

What is the effect of combining six panels into one at the bottom of the page?

How does the writer’s pacing (through the use of panels in this way) operate in concert or in counterpoint to the story?

Pacing

PerspectivesAngles and shots, using the language of film

What effects are created with the panel borders?

What roles does lighting play in the effects of the images?

What roles do color and contrast play?

Tone and Mood

Amy Vail adapted excerpts of Twilight for her high school students, using the software program Comic Life.

Her explanations are on the conference wiki for this presentation. They can serve as a model for students’ thinking about the decisions they make as creators and the effects of those decisions on how the story is told.

Creating Comics

Literary Elements

Cinematic Elements Dramatic Elements

Comics Creation Resources Comics Creation Software Comic Life •

Kerpoof • Comicssketch • Comics Lab/ Extreme • PikiStrips • Toondoo • Bubblr • Comiqs • My Comic Book Creator • BitStrips • ReadWriteThink's Comic Creator • Make Beliefs Comix • Myths & Legends Story Creator • Cartoonist • Pixton• Chogger•

http://mcpopmb.ning.com/group/graphicnovelscomics (Making Curriculum Pop is hosted by Ryan Goble. Joining this

network is free, and you’ll be connected with teachers, writers, and artists who are as interested in graphic narratives as you are or want to be.)

Please see the conference wiki page for this session.

Let’s talk during the conference. I would really like to know what you see as creative possibilities for teaching graphic narratives.

You can continue the conversation via email to Louann.Reid@colostate.edu.

Beyond Today