Graphic Narratives as Teaching Tools

Classroom Activities

Section I: Pre-Reading Activities

Annotating Comics Graphic Organizer-

• Teacher will give students a choice of 3-4 comic strips where students will dissect 3 of the panels and analyze the use of colors, use of speech, facial expressions (if present), angles, perspective, and how visual choices affect the mood or tone.
• Suggestions for how to lead this activity:
  • Teacher should model for students how to annotate a comic strip before giving students this assignment.
  • Graphic Organizer Example for this activity:

Imagining the Future Art Activity-

• Students will make their own comic strips, using inspirations from the previously read comic strips and watched clips. Students will pick 2-3 elements of dystopian or utopian fiction to include in their panels. These panels will depict students' portrayal of what the future may look like in 100 years from now. Students will need to make 5-8 panels, utilizing word bubbles, and captions. Students will hang their panels in the classroom and complete a gallery walk, leaving notes by at least two of their peers panels providing feedback or commentary on their artwork.
• Suggestions for how to lead this activity:
  • Teacher can make this a partner activity or group activity, depending on the size of class.
  • Teacher can also allow students who are struggling with the drawing component to pick out graphic images from the Internet and have them create their panels using a free comic strip maker.

Section II: During Reading Activities

Connecting the Real World to Butler’s World

• For this activity students will be looking at recent newspaper articles that describe current events in the United States. From there students will be filling out a graphic organizer that will have them summarize the article, analyze the trend noticed in the article, and identify a connection between the article and Parable of the Sower. Students will also make connections by including textual evidence from Parable of the Sower.

• Suggestions for how to lead this activity:
  • The teacher should have 3-4 news articles printed out for students to read. These articles should include topics such as social news, political news, economic news, environmental news, spiritual news and, science/technological news.
  • If there is time at the end of this activity, the teacher can have students do their own research and find articles on their own and discuss their findings with the class.

Graphic Organizer Example:

Creating Your Own Earthseed

• While reading the text, students will come across Lauren’s philosophy of Earthseed. Lauren’s Earthseed is her belief system for what she believes is true. For this activity, students will create their own “Earthseed” where they will create a Found Poem that uses words or phrases from Lauren’s Earthseed verses and includes their own beliefs and truths.
• Suggestions for how to lead this activity:
  • Teacher should show students examples of Found Poems and explain to them how to create one.
  • Students can choose to add visuals or graphics to their “Earthseed”
  • Provide sentence stems or Earthseed-style scaffolds: “God is _____. It shapes us and is shaped by ____.”

Section III: Post-Reading Activity

Socratic Seminar

• Socratic seminars are students led discussions where students will discuss their own original questions about the novel. Once students are done with reading Parable of the Sower, students will be able to talk about their own thoughts, questions, and commentary on the novel. Students should be encouraged to come up with different levels of questions, ranging from surface level questions about the book to more broad concepts that connect to the real world.
• Suggestions for how to lead this activity:
  • If students are struggling to generate their own questions, the teacher can supply students with this list to help students out.
    • Even though Lauren is living in an unstable society and there is lots of violence and despair, she still seems to want to have kids some day. Why do you think that is?
    • Does Lauren’s belief system of Earthseed connect to you? Do you see it as a new religion? A cult? Something else?
    • At one point Lauren says that she isn’t inventing Earthseed, but discovering it. What do you make of that statement?
    • What did you think that Butler was saying about religion in this book?
    • How does Butler address race, and how does racial identity intersect with other themes in the novel?