Strategies
Image to text
On some pages, the balance of energy falls towards text, such as on pages 71 and 75 of book 1, where what is being said is important. The images change only subtly down the page. On others, the balance falls to image. Page 73 is the mailing of Lewis’s letter to which he owes his fate (see above). Page 79 is another of these pages. Facial expressions and close-ups dominate this page. If the captions and balloons were not present, could readers predict what might be said or discussed? Could they identify tone, mood, or conflict among specific characters? To encourage close reading of image using the terms and techniques we learn, we will “annotate” the pages for leading details. Students will be responsible for turning in their annotations and filled caption and speech balloons. This may be done in small groups, but we will recap as a class. Of course, this activity could be done in reverse, with students providing image to go with provided text using close reading strategies we use in class already.
Read-think-wonder
This strategy originated (for me) with a Fellow in my seminar. The See-Think-Wonder strategy encourages readers/viewers to slow down, see, focus on details, then to think about the significance of these details. Usually we move from questions to answers, but the third step here is the question set. What questions do viewers have once they have seen and thought? Why is that page so dark? Why are there no words? Why are all of their faces close up? One way to include this strategy in this unit might be to separate image and text for several pages. Some students will See-Think-Wonder with the images minus text. Others will Read-Think-Wonder with only the language, no image. We’ll come together for a full class discussion of the contrasting outcomes. Another product from such an activity might be to eliminate text from a page and have students “translate” the image content to narrative next. (A version of this is included in David Low’s activities.)
Making comics—with Scott McCloud’s Making Comics
Another way to capitalize on the complex, multiple literacies students have been developing is to create their own using the language and tools they’ve been studying. They have to make decisions about setting, theme, character development, and style, with text and image possibilities. The narrative, generated mostly by image, is supplemented with flourishes of comics conventions. In Making Comics, McCloud’s essential “Five Choices” section should set us up for cohesion and completeness. In addition to questions I will lead with, including choice of character(s), conflict, setting, they will settle on McCloud’s five: choice of moment, choice of frame, choice of image, choice of word, and choice of flow. As they learn do draw simple expressions and body language, they will have more control over these five things.
In Making Comics McCloud spells out each and every step one should consider and take while creating an original image-text. My students will study other pages from his text, as well, and practice executing elements so that they may better understand how to get full meaning from March. Several activities can come from this strategy set of McCloud’s.
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