Picture Writing

Classroom Activities

Introduction to the Medium of Comics

A major component in this unit involves building a framework the students can use when reading and discussing visual media. I will begin by teaching the students about sequential art using an excerpt from Will Eisner's Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist. Next, I will use Scott McCloud's categories of words and pictures explained in Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga, and Graphic Novels to help students to better understand the play between words and images that they will see throughout this unit. Finally, we will take a look at Williams Moebius's "Introduction to Picturebook Codes" to allow for in-depth conversations related to the composition of visual media.

Sequencing

To teach sequencing I will use Robert Crumb's "A Short History of America," a comic without words that shows the development of an area of land over hundreds of years. ²¹ Before having any discussion, I will give each student an envelope with the twelve panels from the comic cut apart and mixed up. The students will sequence them as best they can by relying on their prior knowledge and clues from the panels themselves. Next, modeled after Maureen Bakis's idea in The Graphic Novel Classroom, the students will discuss the mental process they used to determine the sequence of events. To make the thought processes of the students even more evident, Bakis recommends having the students add captions and/or ideas to each image, then encouraging the students to compare their captions. She explains, when students write their captions, they are generally writing what they believe the text means. The students should be encouraged to be as honest as possible throughout this process: no one answer is correct as each person interprets the images differently.

I selected Robert Crumb's "A Short History of America" based on his wordless panels and content. Having no words will force the students to sequence the panels using the images alone, a process that may be new and/or challenging to the students. The comic's content is relevant to the content of this unit. The comic illustrates a changing region of land that spans many decades. The first panel shows a grassland area with many trees in the distance and birds in the forefront; in contrast, the last panel shows the same area of land as a bustling intersection with homes and businesses, modern cars, streetlights, electric poles, and signs. I will conduct a discussion on how society has changed over time after they sequence and study each image. I will also discuss technology, electricity, pollution, resources, land use, and transportation. I will then ask the students about the way people's needs must have changed as the land use changed in the area. My goal is for the students to bring up the need for government and/or laws.

Word/Picture Combinations

Sequencing is one major aspect of graphic novels; similarly, the balance between words and images is also worth discussing with students. Scott McCloud's word/picture combinations will allow the students to understand the role of the text and images in the comics, visuals, and graphic novels we read throughout this unit. In Making Comics, McCloud explains seven categories of word/picture combinations including: word-specific, picture-specific, duo-specific, intersecting, interdependent, parallel, and montage. ²² Since these concepts are new to the students, I will spend at least an entire class period discussing each one and showing examples. To accomplish this, I will use the jigsaw strategy to cover the seven word/picture combinations. Chapter Three of Making Comics will be split into seven parts, one for each word/picture combination, and distributed to groups of seven students. The students will create a poster and presentation to teach the class about their word/picture combination. The students will use the Concept or Vocabulary Map III from The Teacher's Big Book of Graphic Organizers by Katherine McKnight. The graphic organizer requires the students to give a definition, three examples, three non-examples, and an illustration. The graphic organizer will assist the students in planning their presentation and ensuring that they thoroughly understand the word/picture combination that they are studying. ²³ The students will be challenged to identify McCloud's word/picture combinations as we read the graphic novel.

Picture Book Codes

The last piece of the framework for looking at graphic novels and visual media is from William Moebius's "Introduction to Picture Codes." In the article Moebius is very specific as he describes each of the picturebook codes. He thoroughly explains the picturebook codes as well as identifies what message the image conveys based on the codes. For my classroom I plan to introduce the picturebook codes and then allow the students to draw their own conclusions as they apply them to visual media. Below is a table with the picturebook codes in one column and suggested discussion questions to use with students. ²⁴

Some follow-up questions are necessary as the students are presented with the questions related to each code. I will ask questions about how the item they have identified compares with the overall piece, story, or book and how the technique is used to convey meaning or move the story along.

Graphic Novel: The Girl who Owned a City

To apply the skills the students have developed over the last few lessons, I will have the students read The Girl who Owned a City. As they are reading, I will have them take notes in a graphic organizer related to the content, word/picture combinations, and picturebook codes. The rows of the graphic organizer will have the page numbers. and the columns will be content-based notes, visual/illustration notes, and questions. The students' notes will be used to facilitate student-led discussions. At the beginning of each reading, the students will look back at their notes and the novel to write a few questions for their group. Then they will be given time to discuss their questions, and I will clarify any information the students are struggling with. I will also present themes related to the artwork and content, as described in the table below.

The Girl who Owned a City introduces themes at a basic level, helping the students to form a solid base of understanding. To bring the content to a higher level, I will have the students complete a few activities as they are working through the novel. For the first section, Lisa's house, I will have the students do a close reading of an article about the social contract from The Center for Civic Education website. For the second section, Grandville, the students will design a fortress using a map of a local building. For the last section, Glenbard, the students will debate for either a state of nature or the institution of government.

Section 1- Lisa's House: Close Reading

To activate prior knowledge, I will have the students discuss the following questions in small groups: "What do you think driving would be like if there were no traffic laws?" and "What do you think life would be like if there were no laws to protect your private property?" I will direct students to share their answers with the entire class. Hopefully, the students will explain that driving would be dangerous without laws and give examples such as people driving at any speed they wanted, driving on people's property, and not taking turns at an intersection and causing an accident. To clarify the question about private property, I will tell the students that without any property laws people would be able to take whatever they wanted. People could enter your home or business and take things without any consequences. There would not be much of an incentive to create nice homes and businesses because people would be afraid of others stealing and destroying their property. This discussion will make the students more comfortable with the topic, and they will therefore be prepared for reading the text.

I will explain to the students that they will be using the close reading technique; this means that they will be working together and independently to carefully analyze a text on the social compact. I will explain that they will be reading the text several times and each time they will be focusing on different aspects of it. For the first reading of the text, the students will read and fill a graphic organizer independently. The graphic organizer will contain a section for the students to write the words in the text that they are unfamiliar with and another section for questions or thoughts they have about the text. After the students have independently read the text, I will give them a few minutes to share their graphic organizer with a partner. Then they will share any remaining questions through a full class discussion.

The second and third readings involve reading with a purpose. For the second reading I will read the passage aloud. Before reading I will tell the students to find the central idea of the text; this sets up a purpose for listening and following along. After reading I will give the students time to compare what they have identified in the passage as the central idea with what their classmates have identified. Hopefully, the students will conclude that the central idea is the social compact whereby people give up some of their freedom in exchange for protection and security. Then I will ask the follow-up question: What distinct details convey the central idea of this piece? The students should be able to identify that the details conveying the central idea can be found throughout the second paragraph. The third reading involves a series of text-based questions. I will model the first question working through it with the class, and then they will complete a couple more questions with a partner. As I work through the first question with the students, I will model the following process: re-read the section of the text, take notes, discuss the question with a partner, and write your best answer to each question. Suggested questions and answers can be found in the appendix.

The final step in the close reading process is a short essay. The students will, in two paragraphs, answer a prompt using "The Social Compact" text, their notes, and The Girl who Owned a City. The first paragraph will discuss the problem the author introduces in the text "The Social Compact" and a solution to the problem. The second paragraph will explain how the concept of the social contract relates to The Girl who Owned a City. Suggested answers can be found in the appendix.

Section 2- Grandville: Making a Fortress

To expand the thinking of the students and bring the graphic novel to life, the students will choose a floor-plan map of our school building, local mall, area grocery store, or a popular restaurant. In a group of two to three, they will be challenged to create a functional city plan within the building they have chosen. They will use diagrams, words, and symbols to show the way they would utilize the rooms of the building and the surrounding land. They will also devise a plan for protecting their fortress using the same amount of materials the kids of Grandville have. The students will be expected to explain how they would set up a government, security system, and public goods. ²⁵

Section 3- Glenbard: State of Nature vs. Government

To take the content of the novel to a higher level, I will review the theories of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau with the students by focusing on the state of nature. Then the students will pick one of the three political philosophers and draw a panel or series of panels to describe the theorist's view on a state of nature. I will challenge them to think about Scott McCloud's word/picture combinations and William Moebius's picturebook codes as they are drawing. These comic strips will shared in the classroom and then displayed in the hallway to celebrate the learning of the students throughout this unit.