Graphic Novel Writing Assignment Text

Jonathan Friesen - Writing Coach

The fall quarter at university of cincinnati rsquo s center for access and transition was well underway last year when, as part of my training as a new writing center tutor, i walked into susan bernstein rsquo s introductory composition class. I rsquo d been told to observe how tutors and instructors alike worked with these developmental writers. Susan greeted me and then handed me a copy of a clever political statement in comic form, a simply rendered comic of an apple and an orange struggling for power. Should i comment on the artwork, the content, or the student rsquo s innovation? up until then i had watched instructors and tutors strive to elicit more conventional genres of writing.

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Based on my background teaching esl students in switzerland and my own experiences as a product of us higher educational systems, i was nonplussed. Could this work be considered acceptable for a developmental writing class? apparently so mdash susan seemed delighted. She must have seen my double take, because she handed me, by way of explanation, a copy of marjane satrapi rsquo s persepolis 1: the story of a childhood, a graphic novel about growing up in iran in the midst of the islamic revolution and the iran iraq war. Emily rsquo s paper, susan explained, was a revision of one she had written earlier in the quarter.

Ldquo for that assignment, i asked students to divide their essay into three parts: find an example of figurative language from frederick douglass rsquo narrative analyze the effectiveness of this example examine whether or not the example remains effective for 21 st century readers. I encouraged them to relate effective language to the changing political and social contexts of 19 th and 20 th century readers. Rdquo ldquo in addition, students could add a creative writing project for extra credit points that would count toward class participation and sustained effort and practice in the writing process. The creative writing aspect of the assignment invited students to reframe the topic of their essay in a non expository, imaginative genre, such as poetry or comics. However, emily revised this essay for her portfolio in late november, in the aftermath of the 2004 presidential elections. Emily, like many of her classmates, had voted for the first time in that election. As ohio residents, these students were particularly aware of the importance of their votes in a swing state.

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In order to better visualize how to frame her revision, emily decided to draw a comic to express her ideas. Rdquo mary deming of georgia state university suggests in ldquo reading and writing: making the connection for basic writers rdquo , ldquo both reading and writing have a place in the basic writing classroom for one process informs and complements the other. Rdquo reading graphic novels in a basic writing course adds an additional complementary process. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then literacy is people ldquo getting the picture. Rdquo developing writers, regardless of their exposure to academic english, often ldquo get the picture. Rdquo they just haven rsquo t had the practice of putting the picture into words ndash either on the paper or in a classroom discussion. Yet proficiency in one language supports proficiency in a second language krashen.

As students move among multiple literacies, they learn the ways in which they are already literate, creating metacognitive awareness and motivating learning. Understanding the interrelationship among literacies is crucial at the developmental level as students gain experience with the expectations of academic cultures. Working together as tutor terry and teacher susan in the winter and spring quarters, we discovered that we both had backgrounds in fine arts that allowed us to approach graphic novels from different perspectives.

I was drawn to the aesthetics of the graphics on my first reading of persepolis 1, reading the words as part of the whole picture. Susan rsquo s training in critical theory allowed her to see the multiple literacies implied in the text. However she found that she needed to slow down at times to absorb the impact of the story. Our different ways of reading ultimately helped us to understand the learning differences that our students experienced. As we recount this experience now, world events mdash none more powerful than hurricane katrina or the memory of september 11, 2001 mdash remind us again of both the power of images and our need to expect the unexpected. We educators can use both the word and the world to our advantage in stimulating discussion and facilitating opportunities for engaging students rsquo multiple literacies.

Graphic novels in combination with other literary texts are one way to sustain dialogue and to create learning opportunities. The links below in the works cited and works consulted sections lead to some great graphic novel source sites. With that in mind, we would like to end with a list of our reasons for continuing to teach graphic novels mdash and hope to have more stories to tell as the days go on graphic novels: deal with the difficult events/themes common to academic environments. They facilitate the introduction of abstract topics power struggle, political change. These abstract topics help to maximize lsquo intellectual time rsquo in the basic writing classroom. Students are not reliant on one interpretation of the story mdash they can read images and/or text.

There is more sense of the class group as a community because no one is at a disadvantage in the process ndash some have lsquo read rsquo the pictures, some the text. Help teach students to, in freire rsquo s words, lsquo read rsquo the world, and reading allows students to verbalize their ideas. After an introduction on the elements and importance of graphic narratives, students will have the challenge of creating their own characters, setting, conflict and images. After they complete their 12 slide graphic story, we will share the stories as a class and reflect on their experiences. This experience will allow students to explore the value in both text and visual to develop characters, effectively use setting and create a conflict to explore the theme of coming of age in their writing. While reading persepolis, our class focused on the critical theme of coming of age in the book by examining both image and text.

Through discussion and writing, we have addressed the multiple definitions and understanding of this theme. In order to more fully explore this theme, students will find ways and opportunities to express coming of age in their own, original graphic stories. This experience will help them further understand the complexities and expectations of growing up. This lesson is designed for a ninth or tenth grade college prep english classroom. Students have recently completed reading the graphic novel, persepolis: the story of a childhood.

Several lessons have preceded this lesson plan to ensure student understanding and interest. Before creating their own stories, i will be showing the class a short film on how to create a graphic novel and what makes a great story. Since we are using a computer program to digitally create these stories, the media resource specialist will guide us through the program before we begin. She will also be there during our computer lab sessions in case students have any questions regarding the program. I have also made several accommodations for students who may experience difficulty in creating a narrative or writing their stories. This assignment allows students to create their own characters, setting, conflict and plot, but connects these elements to the theme of coming of age. Having the liberty to use their imaginations, with the exception of the theme, will give students the freedom and the guidance that they need to successfully create the story.

As a class, we have fully explored the theme of coming of age in persepolis, so students are familiar with the idea and able to apply this them to their own stories. For students who made need more help with the writing aspect of this project, i will be circulating the room to provide individual instruction. When responding to the comic strips during the initiation lesson, students will have access to an alphasmart if they experience difficulty writing.

Formative assessment will include assessing student participation and work ethic in the computer lab and classroom. Summative assessment for this project will be based on the graphic novel assignment. Assessment will also include the quality of the student’s presentation and his or her ability to utilize the images and the text so that they contribute to the narrative and the theme. Rubric for a rewrite of persepolis: creating our own graphic novels over the past few weeks, we have been reading and discussing the graphic novel, persepolis: the story of a childhood by marjane satrapi.

As a class, we have discussed the historical, social and political significance of marji’s experiences growing up in iran. Her story has led us to explore topics and themes such as coming of age, finding ones’ voice, women’s rights and political strife. Our readings and discussions have also led us to explore the value in graphic novels and how they convey significant themes and ideas through the use of text and image. You are free to select the characters, setting, conflict and narrative however, your story should reflect our unit theme of coming of age.

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