The grade 6 class that I observed for in-situ had library for first block. The beginning of the block they worked on a lesson with the librarian and then the students got some time to exchange their books and read. One of the big advantages I noticed from this set up is the students get a chance to learn from multiple teaching styles. While I was in the class the students were learning about comic books!
Creating a Comic Book:
Goal: The end goal is for the students to create their own comic strips. By having the students watch videos and take notes the students focus on particular pieces of their comic strip. This can be used for assessment and to make sure students fully understand what is being asked of them. This is a unit that took place over a couple months because of the limited time they had with the librarian. I only got to watch a few weeks of planning and note taking.
Core Competency: Creative Thinking. “I generate new ideas as I pursue my interests. I deliberately learn a lot about something by doing research, talking to others, or practicing, so that I can generate new ideas about it.” Students were being guided in research to generate ideas on the comic they will be creating.
Big Ideas: Questioning what we hear, read, and view contributes to our ability to be educated and engaged citizens. Students worked on this big idea because they had to question which parts of the videos were important and decide what should be included in their notes.
Curricular Competencies: Access information and ideas for diverse purposes and from a variety of sources and evaluate their relevance, accuracy, and reliability Students worked on this when they watched the video and took notes. Students knew their purpose and were given the source and needed to decide what was relevant.
Synthesize ideas from a variety of sources to build understanding. Students worked on this when they watched videos to build understanding on creating a comic.
Content: Text Features. Students focused on the specific ways text is displayed in a comic strip.
Literary Elements. Once students start creating their comic they will focus on building characters, setting and narration.
Activate and Engage:
The students started the lesson by watching Dave McDonald Art on youtube. Each day they watched a few 5ish minute videos from the series Kids Make Comics.
The benefits of using a youtube video are:
- The person presenting is an expert in this topic
- Students are very familiar with this media and it feels like a treat to them
*** remember to ALWAYS pre watch any video before playing it in front of your students
Explore and Discover:
While the students watched the video they were asked to take notes on the topics from the youtube video.
The notes were taken in the same style as the comic book to get students familiar with the formatting.
All the notes were stored in a nice booklet set up by the teacher so all student work was in one place.
Throughout the video the teacher paused to ensure students had time and could discuss the notes. This made sure all students got the information.
Topics:
Dave Mcdonald Art- Kids Make Comics covered a large range of topics related to creating a comic book. It is up to the teacher to decide which videos fit into the curriculum they are trying to teach. Here is a list of topics offered:
- Simple Shapes make Super Characters
- Inking your comics
- making comic panels
- Where do ideas come from
- Making word balloons
- Fridge door comics
- making big bold lettering
Organize and Integrate:
The lesson ended by having the students practice making a comic. This comic will not be used for a summative grade, however the teacher can see if the students are putting their notes into practice!
This activity can be adapted by having more or less details put into the pictures. Some ways to do this could be:
- Have all the pictures filled in and students write word bubbles
- Have pictures be a connect the dotes activity so the students can practice drawing comic pictures with some support
The End Result:
I did not get to observe this class long enough for them to finish the project, these are samples from previous years. The theme of this years comic was humor.
Reflection:
I love watching other teachers teach. I learn so much from being in the moment and observing their lesson. One challenge I find from this environment is these are not my students and I never know how much intervention is appropriate. Something I can do to help this is connect with the teacher before the students arrive. I can ask them “How can I support you while in your classroom?” and “Are there any behaviors I need to be aware of?” This way the teacher can provide boundaries of what they expect from the visitors in their classroom.