Bernajean Porter, http://www.digitales.us/
For workshops, spend 1/3 time on content not tools.
Kids need to have meaty content before they worry about packaging.
Most loved Comic Hero: Green Lantern, Spider-man (recent survey).
Every piece of work student does, they need to own work and make decisions and decide whether to take feedback from you or not.
Graphic Novels: written in chapters and later on bound together. Not a lot of concensus on what is and is not a graphic novel. Huge variety of genres–including political commentary and documentaries. Literature ones are popular, so are social studies, also math and science to explain concepts.
- 1837–oldest comic
- 1939–Superman, beginning of golden age of comics
- 1954–comic burning, senate investigates relation with juvenile delinquency
- 1992–Art Spiegelman, Maus
Myths:
- Not real writing
- Not deep
- Activity/Play
- Childish
- No effort
- Inappropriate language
- Crude
- Violent
- Hinders Literacy development
What research says: more complex cognitive skill than reading alone–interpretation of images and relation of gutters to meaning. Also introduces more new words than books for kids. Increases reading. Appeals to wide range of age groups.
Start with gallery walk with examples and non-examples. Plus, Minus, Interesting (PMI). Beginning of critical friend review. Did PMI for 8 example comics ranging widely in style, content and age.
Check out her web site for detailed information and scoring rubrics.
We next did the organizing/reflecting/decisions on the home base comic. What learned for giving advice to teachers for using comic in classroom. Most are now one pagers in classrooms. Craftmanship part of grade: decorating, illustrating, illuminating. Want illuminating not decorating. About designing information.
- Storyboard/rough draft
- Sequence–story or graphics
- Language of comics
- Story structure
- Difficult to grade so need a clear rubric
- Go over how to provide appropriate feedback
- Decide what best tool for communication
- Use illustrations effectively
Content first. What do you want students to know and deeply understand? How will they demonstrate their understandings? How will we know they have mastered these understandings? Results in less decorating. They need to care about the content and showing what they know. Don’t do superficial tasks/research.
We didn’t do comics, podcasts, etc. We did higher order thinking skills. We explained concepts to each other. Avoid lower level thinking skills. Do application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation.
Not about the stuff. About the purpose and audience, so really about types of communication. She has 16 types in four categories. Important to make thinks more meaningful.
Not about the hardware. About the content.
7 steps to making any multimeida.
- Preproduction: script, find emotional storyline, shot list
- Production: create pieces required
- Post Production: assemble
Vocabulary
- Splash page–need a hook, set up
- Panels–convey meaning so a how-to thing should have panels set up one way
- Gutters–white space should add to the story, intentional
- Graxlixes–international code for symbols (non-verbal) like sweat marks, dust clouds, etc.
Bubbles vs. Balloons–inner vs. outer conversations
- Clouds–lingering small bubbles
- Bubbles–inside
- Balloons–outside
- Caption Boxes–narrative
Onomatopoeia–Baam Argh Aaah Pow
Time to try comic life. Had a checklist of skills and took us through with sample images supplied on flash drive. Remember about image quality for print out.
Craftsmanship Scoring
Content Scoring
Panels have meaning. Visual metyaphors have emotional meaning and symbolism. Don’t forget white space. Consistency of Tone (purpose)
What’s the pacing?
What’s the focus?
What are the revelations?
Comics use a different perspective. Oddly cropped. Extreme closeups.Even with photos, try extreme angles. Use darkness and light to convey mood and emotion.
Task: If you were a dinosaur and in charge of the world; what would be your advice to us today?
her del.icio.us account: del.icio.us/bernajean
Too many samples are lower thinking skills and summary reports instead of much more interesting and thought provoking types. Another mode of communication.
