Book Report Alternative: Comic Strips and Cartoon Squares
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Overview
Students examine graphic novels and comic books and discuss the important components of the genre, such as captions, dialogue, and images. They then use an online tool to create a six-panel comic highlighting six key scenes in a book they have read. By creating comic strips or cartoon squares featuring characters in books, students are encouraged to think analytically about the characters, events, and themes they've explored in ways that expand their critical thinking by focusing on crystallizing the significant points of the book in a few short scenes.
Featured Resources
Comic Creator: This online tool allows students to easily create and print comic strips.
Comic Strip Planning Sheet: Use this worksheet for students to plan their comic strips before using the online tool.
From Theory to Practice
This activity invites the student to think symbolically. The students choose key scenes for their characters and books, find landscapes and props that fit the scenes, and compose related dialogue. These student representations of the books, with their multifaceted texts using symbols, images, texts, and metaphor, succeed in the classroom because they provide a snapshot of the students' comprehension of the ideas in the texts. As Vokoun describes, the alternative to a traditional book report "allows students to create something unique and show their understanding of what they read."
Further Reading
Common Core Standards
This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.
State Standards
This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.
NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts
- 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
- 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
- 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
Materials and Technology
Graphic novels and comic book versions of well-known books for inspiration and comparison (optional)
Printouts
Websites
Preparation
- Before this lesson, students will read a book independently, in literature circles, or as a whole class.
- Ask students to bring copies of the book that will be the focus of their comic strips to class for reference.
- Make copies or overheads of the planning sheet and the rubric.
- Practice the steps for using the Comic Creator with your computers.
- Visit the Website of Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics, for background on the genre, inspirations, and sample comics. Additional information can also be found at Integrative Art: American Comic Strips from Pennsylvania State University.
Student Objectives
Students will
- identify appropriate landscapes, characters, and props that relate to the events and characters in the books they've read.
- interact with classmates to give and receive feedback.
- explore how audience, purpose, and medium shape their writing.
Session 1
- Introduce the writing activity, sharing the planning sheet, rubric, and sample graphic novels and comic books.
- Share the example graphic novels and comic books with students and explain the assignment, pointing out each of the parts that are included.
- Lead students through discussion of the key elements for each part. Sample discussion questions can include the following:
- What are the important characteristics of a caption? What do the words in the captions tell you about the scene depicted?
- What kind of landscape makes sense for the scene?
- What props can you associate with the scene?
- How kind of dialogue bubble makes sense for the interaction?
- What connects one scene to the next in the comic strip?
- What are the important characteristics of a caption? What do the words in the captions tell you about the scene depicted?
- Share the example graphic novels and comic books with students and explain the assignment, pointing out each of the parts that are included.
- Once you're satisfied that students understand the assignment, demonstrate the Comic Creator student interactive and discuss its relationship to the Comic Strip Planning Sheet. Be sure to cycle through the options for characters and dialogue bubbles to show students the range of options available.
- Have students begin work with the Comic Strip Planning Sheet to plan their book reports. Students can work individually or in groups on this project.
- Encourage students to interact with one another, to share and receive feedback on their plans for comic strips. Since these comics will be shared in the class as well as in the library, hearing the feedback and comments of other students helps writers refine their work for their audience.
- Students can continue working on the project for homework if desired.
Session 2
- Remind students of the goals and elements included in this project. Answer any questions students have.
- To make comic strips, have your students follow these basic steps, referring to their planning sheet as they work in the Comic Creator:
- For the comic title, name the scene (or scenes) that will be depicted.
- For the comic subtitle, name the book where the scene is found.
- Include your name or the names of the members of your group as the authors of this comic strip.
- Choose the six-frame comic strip. (Alternately, have students choose the one-frame cartoon square and focus their work on an important scene in the book).
- In each of the six frames of the comic strip show a significant event from the book.
- Under each picture or cartoon, write a caption that provides additional detail on the scene.
- Print at least three copies of your finished comic strip.
- For the comic title, name the scene (or scenes) that will be depicted.
- While students work, again encourage them to interact with one another, to share and receive feedback on their plans for comic strips.
- After the comic strips are printed out, students can decorate them with markers or other classroom supplies.
- As students finish, ask them to turn in two copies of the comic strip (one for you and one for the librarian-the third copy is for the students to keep).
Extensions
Student Assessment / Reflections
For more formal assessment, use the Comic Strip Rubric which is tied to the elements included in the planning sheet.
On the other hand, nothing is as useful as the feedback that they'll receive by sharing their comic strips with their peers. Informal feedback from students who read the comics and search out the related book are excellent feedback for students.
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