Fall 2014: As a part of my Narrative/Self-Writing Unit with my Mason City High School 10th graders, I wanted students to be comfortable writing about themselves, so I decided to create a comic activity, one that would bridge the gap between writing and drawing, while also bringing in some creativity.
I created a lesson plan in which students were asked to define the elements of narrative as a class:
- rising/falling action
Then they were to brainstorm, as a class, different events in their lives in which to write a comic-story about.
The final assignment would be creating a comic story, with captions and full-color illustrations, graded on their use of the elements of narrative. [For the complete lesson plan, click Introduction to Narrative – Narrative Comic Lesson Plan.]
**This was the first self-writing activity I made for the class, so I created a Parent/Guardian Letter to send home, advising parents/guardians that students would be writing about their personal lives.
The students were given a Brainstorming Worksheet to organize their ideas. This is a preview:
Then they were given a Comic Template to use as their comic strip.
I also provided the students with my personal examples that they could reference in creating their own comics. These were shown on the board, printed, and accessible online. Here is a preview of my sample. The full version can be viewed/downloaded here.