Student Storytelling through Sequential Art
David Fay
Most all of us are familiar with one form or another of sequential
art, a term that the late illustrator Will Eisner (1985, 5) coined
for an art form that has come to include cartoons, comic strips,
comic books, and graphic novels. It is an international art form.
Most French people can recall a scene from Tintin or
Asterix; most Turks are familiar with the adventures
of Red Kit; it is hard to find a South American who does
not adore Mafalda or is not an avid follower of the sharp
wit and social commentary in Quino’s cartoons; the Indian
sub-continent has access to Chacha Chavdhary in 10 languages;
and Finns can actually pronounce the name of one of their comic
book heroes, Kapteeni Hyperventilanttorimies. The Japanese
have their own version of the art form, manga, which now covers
several racks in most bookstores across the United States. These
books can be found next to the rows of bound anthologies of American
classics such as Spiderman, Archie, and the Fantastic
Four; collections that go back over three generations.
Despite its popularity, sequential art has long been misunderstood.
After widespread use throughout the first half of the 20th century,
comic books in the United States came under attack in the 1950s
when psychiatrist Frederic Wertham wrote, in his highly influential
Seduction of the Innocent, that they are a “reinforcing
factor in children’s reading disorders” (1954, 130).
Their meatier sibling, the graphic novel, has long been associated
with the seedier end of the vast content spectrum sequential art
covers and has only recently been recognized as a serious literary
medium. Max Collins’ Road to Perdition, which was
later turned into a Hollywood blockbuster, Jeff Smith’s
Bone series, and Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer prize-winning
Maus all play important roles in casting a more positive
light on graphic novels.
In the United States comic books are, unfortunately, still regarded
by many parents and educators as academically detrimental, despite
the fact that a growing body of research has shown otherwise.
Research by Hayes and Ahrens (1988) highlights the fact that comic
books contain a greater number of rare words than ordinary conversation
and are thus an excellent stepping stone to more difficult reading.
Dorrell and Carroll (1981) and Ujiie and Krashen (1996a, 1996b)
found that the increased use of comic books stimulates the reading
of non-comics material. Krashen (2004) points out that anyone
still willing to associate juvenile delinquency with comic book
reading should consider the example of South Africa’s Bishop
Desmond Tutu, who praises the role comic books played in his childhood.
Why use sequential art in the EFL class?
The reasons sequential art is such a popular commercial art form—visual
appeal, versatility, efficiency and power of message—also
justify its use in the modern foreign language classroom. Students
are attracted by the rich interplay of graphics and text and by
the quality of the story, a distinguishing feature of authentic
sources of language. Unlike many EFL resources, the plot is not
sacrificed for the benefit of a graded approach to language. The
higher quality of the story, coupled with the ability of the reader
to connect visually with the cartoon characters, means that students
invest in the comics intellectually and emotionally (Cary 2004).
Its lower readability level (Wright and Shermann 1999) and the
support of graphics also ensure learners can access the authentic
language with less trouble than they have with most other authentic
sources.
Cary (2004, 33) points out that sequential art is rich in ellipses,
blends, non-words (uh-huh, humph, sheesh!), and other common aspects
of spoken language, exposing students to “the ambiguity,
vagueness and downright sloppiness of spoken English” (Williams
1995, 25). Sequential art is a window on the spoken vernacular,
a variety of the target language that is commonly overlooked in
EFL classes in large part due to its absence in both educational
material and in more formal authentic texts. The obvious absence
of an informal register from a students’ linguistic repertoire
is a key contributing factor to misunderstanding and confusion
when students confront a native speaker of English or when they
watch a film in English. While some authors of fiction successfully
approximate the nature of human speech, their works do not contain
the visual support that sequential art offers, nor are they generally
as accessible, in terms of language level, as sequential art.
And while film is another important source of this less formal
variety of spoken English, it requires technology that many classrooms
around the world lack. Films also lack the visual permanence of
the written page that allows students to read and re-read target
expressions in comic books as often as they like.
Sequential art also provides an up-to-date look at target language
culture and society. As an art form that is kept current by active
publishing houses, newspapers, and the Internet, it is a widely
accessible source of popular topics, concerns, and fashions that
can interest almost any age level. And as most comics involve
a number of characters from different backgrounds interacting
over a long period of time, they can serve as a tool for studying
socio-cultural aspects of a people, allowing a teacher to design
a lesson based solely on cross-cultural differences and similarities
between the target language culture and the students’ native
culture. Due to the taboo status of the art form in the 1950s
in the United States, many comics have a healthy dose of “other-ness”
that often takes the shape of cynicism and irony. This makes comic
books a rich source of alternative points of view within the target
culture and can, as such, provide a perspective that will help
fuel discussion and debate (Chilcoat and Ligon 1994).
The enthusiasm for using sequential art in the language classroom
has spurred the publication of many articles and ideas. Cary’s
outstanding teacher’s resource book, Going Graphic,
contains probably the most complete treatment of the subject to
date. There are also several good articles that specifically address
the use of comics in the EFL classroom. Among the better articles
are Noemi Csabay’s (2006) “Using comic strips in language
classes” and Neil Williams’ (1995) “The Comic
Book as Course Book: Why and How.” In this article I will
look at student-created sequential art, a topic that only a handful
of authors have discussed, albeit usually with reference to the
native speaker class.
One of the biggest advantages to having students create their
own sequential art is that they take ownership of the learning
process, with the added benefit that the product of their effort
can become a permanent part of the classroom. This helps solve
one of the more serious problems in EFL today: a lack of materials.
Good comic books can be kept for future classes and, due to their
widespread appeal, can be used with different age and language
levels in a school. A project initiated by a Peace Corps Volunteer
in Uzbekistan resulted in bound, printed copies of student-generated
stories that were based on popular folk tales and fables. They
are now in their fourth year of use. During the creative process,
students practiced research skills, developed their literacy and
critical thinking skills, and mastered the structure of storytelling.
As students work collaboratively on such projects, they also negotiate
language among themselves and with the teacher, adding to each
other’s language knowledge as the project progresses.
Students can cover a wide array of topics through this art form.
Sequential art can revisit or summarize stories that the students
have read in class or for homework, thus serving as a comprehension
check or as an assessment tool. Sequential art can be used to
increase student interest in a subject, as Bryan, Chilcoat and
Morrison (2002) accomplished with a social studies unit on the
native Arctic coastal Inuit way of life. In his “Take a
stand” activity, Cary (2004, 100) argues for introducing
the editorial cartoon, emphasizing a Freirian model of reflection
and social action. Another author, Mulholland (2004), emphasizes
the healing power of comics and argues that one should use “the
creation of comic book characters and worlds to work through problems
in [one’s] life” (42). Autobiographies or biographies
of family members, descriptions of cultural celebrations, how-to
instructions for a favorite hobby, even complex grammar explanations
are all potential subject matters for this elastic art form.
Creating sequential art in the EFL class
Below is a step-by-step approach to help teachers get their students started with this art form. This approach focuses on raising awareness of specific social concerns through storytelling. By addressing a topic with real-life implications, students learn more about their community, city, or country and are inspired to explore solutions that can lead to meaningful follow-on activities. By fictionalizing the topic, students are able to use their imaginations to explore a multitude of possible scenarios rather than simply report on the facts. With their invented characters, they can approach the topic through the eyes of another, adding a rich variety of perspectives on the topic. The coupling of text and graphics packs a punch. Be prepared to have fun. And be prepared to enjoy, and to have other classes enjoy, the power of the students’ messages and stories.
Step 1: Exploring sequential art
Begin by familiarizing students with the art form by bringing in samples that cover a range of styles, content, and functions (news stories, advertisements, instruction booklets, comic books, etc.). Material in the students’ native language can be used for this part of the process, but keep in mind that the Internet is also an excellent source of English language materials. (See the “Websites of Interest” listed at the end of the article.) Students should begin exploring the overall layout and approach to sequential art, the balance of visual and text, and the use of speech bubbles or dialogue balloons (characters’ speech), thought clouds (characters’ thoughts) and captions (text at the top or bottom of a panel). Some of the key questions that students should discuss are as follows.
- What is the story about? If an advertisement, what is the
message? If a user’s manual, what does it explain?
- What role do the graphics (drawings) play? Do they add to
the story, message, or explanation? How so? Can you understand
the story without the graphics? (The teacher can provide a handout,
use the board or do a dictation to have the students focus on
all or part of the graphics-free text.)
- What is the role of the text? Can you understand the story
or message without the text? (The teacher can provide a handout
with the text covered or whited-out.)
- What kinds of characters are used? Are they realistic? Do
they represent something? If so, what?
- Do the characters speak in full sentences? Why or why not?
What kinds of new words and expressions do you see?
- In what order are the panels (the basic unit of sequential art, the “picture frame” of the art form) read? In what order are the speech bubbles read? Practice mapping the movement of your eye through the page. After comparing with another student, what are the similarities and differences in the way you read the panels?
Teachers should introduce the following questions specifically for stories.
- How many panels does the artist use to tell the story?
- What are the basic parts of the story (setting the scene,
introducing characters, developing the plot, climax, other)?
How many panels are used for each part?
- Are there any panels the artist could have inserted? Which
ones and where? Why do you think they were left out? (Why did
the artist choose the specific panels on the page?)
- What different perspectives does the artist use (eye-level
view, close-up, bird’s-eye view, etc.)? How does the perspective
add to the emotion or energy of the scene?
- Was the story good? If you had been the author, what would
you have done differently?
Many students are probably familiar with sequential art, but they may not have looked at it with a critical eye. The idea of this first step is to get students to look more closely at the art form and to explore its power and secrets as future creators. While there are right and wrong answers for some of the questions above, answers will vary according to the samples of sequential art the teacher shares with the class.
Step 2: Establishing project groups
If the project is to be a collaborative effort, this is the best
stage during which to form groups. While not essential, work groups
are probably the best way to work with an art form that involves
a considerable level of artistic talent, storytelling expertise,
and planning. Some students will obviously be better visual artists
than others, while others will be better at finding just the right
language for a specific character. A project of this size has
a greater chance of succeeding if it taps into an array of talents.
A collaborative approach also ensures that issues are discussed
among group members as the story is being developed, thus enhancing
the language learning experience on and off the page.
The world of commercial comics has clear-cut job titles: researcher,
writer, penciler, inker, colorist, letterer, and editor. This
breakdown of responsibilities does not readily fit the goals of
an EFL class, which is to involve all members in the research,
writing, and editing phases of the project. The jobs of “penciling,”
or sketching the images in a panel, “inking,” or outlining
the sketches with ink, “coloring,” or adding color
to the drawing, and “lettering,” or writing words
into the speech bubbles, thought clouds, and captions, can be
distributed among the group. As one might guess, the job of penciler
is the one that requires the most artistic skill and talent. While
a group might have a standout artist, it is still a good idea
to involve other students in this time-consuming phase. We will
have a look in Step 7 at alternative approaches to dealing with
the artwork.
A group of three or four students works best. It maximizes the
potential to include group members in almost all aspects of the
work yet does not burden the students with too much work, as might
happen when working in pairs. It is also helpful if the students
know that their effort and their project will be assessed, both
on a group and individual basis. Progress checks and frequent
informal consultations with the teacher will help, although a
student-created “group contract” works even better.
This is an agreement made by the students in the group that describes
who will do what parts of the project. The teacher gives an overview
of the tasks and the students decide on how best to share the
responsibilities. The agreement can be re-negotiated as the project
progresses, and it can be handed in to the teacher, with progress
check notes, at the end of the project. Whatever shape or form
the assessment mechanism takes, the goal is to motivate the students
to be supportive of one another so that they collaborate on all
phases of the project.
Step 3: Choosing a topic
Some schools have an integrated curriculum that concurrently
addresses themes across a range of subject areas. This means that
at some stage during the school year the math, literature, and
social science teachers all cover the theme of, to choose a few
examples, the environment, health, or space exploration. The EFL
teacher has the advantage of tapping into an established subject
area to find a theme or topic for the sequential art project.
If the EFL program is self-contained or an independent institution
altogether, researching issues that touch upon the students’
lives should be part of the syllabus-building phase anyway. To
find new themes for this particular project, newspaper articles,
conversations in the cafeteria, public announcements, and, most
importantly, the students themselves are good places to start.
While it is not necessarily a good idea to have all groups tackle
the same topic, there are advantages to having different groups
deal with the same theme through different stories. The theme
of bettering one’s country’s educational system, for
example, can rally the entire class to identify different issues
and to explore solutions from a variety of angles. This will add
to the depth and breadth of knowledge about a theme for the entire
class, especially when the final products are shared. It also
fuels a shop-and-share approach as the projects are progressing,
encouraging students to discover ways in which the variations
on a common theme are inter-related.
To ensure ownership of the project, student groups should be tasked
with specifying their topic, within a given theme, and putting
it into a local context. Whether it’s the absence of after-school
recreational space in a neighborhood, the lack of textbooks and
other resources in school, or the shortage of universities for
a country’s high school graduates, there is an abundance
of topics on any given theme. The more specific and local the
topic, the easier it will be to deal with, especially with younger
students. Firsthand knowledge of a brother or cousin who could
not enter the university despite a relatively high score on a
national entrance exam, for example, is better material for a
story than a table with statistics. And the fact that a group
of after-school mates has to interrupt their street game of soccer
every time a car goes by will add tenfold to better grasping the
issue of neighborhoods lacking play-space. If this stage of the
project is managed correctly, the result will be a thesis statement
with a few colorful examples.
Step 4: Researching the topic
It is important to set specific deadlines for each of the next four steps as they could easily go on for days, if not weeks. This is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if students are busy learning and using the target language. But teachers and students alike generally appreciate a time line for the project. As a rough frame of reference, a class that meets three hours a week can work through the entire project in about four weeks, assuming some of the work can be assigned as homework. The research phase should last about one week, with students beginning by debating among themselves some of the more fundamental questions at play:
- What are the key problems? What are the causes?
- What are the various points of view on the issue? Who is
behind each of these opinions?
- What are some of the ways in which the key problems can be
solved?
- Have any of the solutions been attempted? Why or why not?
Are there any negative consequences to these solutions?
- Who stands to benefit most from each solution? Who benefits from not having the issue addressed at all?
Armed with some possible answers, and hopefully with even more
questions, the students should decide among themselves who will
investigate what. One possible division of labor is to have specific
students be responsible for obtaining information from neighbors,
government offices, businesses, and so on. All group member should
tap into more widely available sources of information, such as
newspapers, books in the community or school library, if one exists,
and the Internet.
A viable approach to the research is to have students investigate
a group of questions related to one specific aspect of their topic.
With the topic of a resource-strained school, for example, one
student can research historical changes in the availability of
resources while another looks at future plans. A third group member
can investigate the teachers’ current needs. Some degree
of overlap is natural and should be perceived as a way of strengthening
the story.
Step 5: Developing the story
At the risk of oversimplifying the structure of a story, and
with reckless disregard for culture-sensitive genres and the work
of many best-selling authors, there are three basic parts to most
stories: a beginning, middle, and an end. Sequential art is no
different. The beginning sets the scene, familiarizes the reader
with the characters, and introduces the problem, issue, or concern.
The middle is usually a series of episodes or adventures, often
presented as hurdles or difficulties that need to be overcome.
These episodes add detail and substance to the story and flesh
out the characters’ ideas and personalities. The ending
is the climax, where the problem is resolved, for good or for
bad. To certain kinds of stories we can also add a moral or coda
to the ending. This helps place the problem in a larger context
and gives the reader food for thought.
Fictionalizing a topic of social concern is no easy task. But
it can be made easier by localizing the events, using familiar
characters, and allowing the students’ imaginations to explore
a variety of scenarios. Once the topic is chosen—let’s
take the environment—and localized—the Aral Sea, for
those of us living in Central Asia––the group needs
to find a storyline, or plot. As background for the story, student
research should have already generated the following general information:
The Aral Sea...is a landlocked sea in Central Asia. Since the 1960s the Aral Sea has been shrinking, as the rivers that feed it were diverted by the Soviet Union for irrigation. The Aral Sea is heavily polluted, largely as the result of weapons testing, industrial projects, and fertilizer runoff before and after the break-up of the Soviet Union. (Wikipedia 2007)
Familiarity with fiction and the ability to think creatively
are usually all the students need. A good group brainstorm, together
with some input from the teacher, if even necessary, might help
the group come up with the idea of some friends unwittingly going
on a fishing trip to the Aral Sea. Or the story could be about
a family member who has been away in Russia for many years and
decides to return to her hometown, a village that used to be near
the shore of the Aral Sea. Students should be thinking about the
various problems that could present themselves and about how the
characters will react to each of these problems. There could be
bad weather, health issues, or a disingenuous bus driver. These
hurdles should help shed light on the main social concern. They
should also give the characters reasons to interact and talk,
simultaneously breathing life into the story and the characters.
In short, the group members’ imaginations should be allowed
to wander while keeping in mind an overall message.
Sequential art lends itself to stereotypes and allows students
with basic drawing skills to build a personality with a few symbols
rather than through a detailed drawing. A pair of glasses can
represent someone who has studied long and hard. A large belly
can represent a character with a more relaxed approach to life.
And in Central Asia, a man with a white beard can represent truth
and wisdom. In his superb book Making Comics, Scott McCloud
(2006) recommends basing characters on certain well-known formulas:
the stereotypes of the classic hero with superhuman powers and
the villain with a penchant for dark magic; Jung’s four
types of human thought—intuition, feeling, intellect, and
sensation; the four elements of earth, air, fire and water; astrological
signs; the four seasons; historical figures; and favorite animals.
To these I would add the personalities of famous people in the
students’ native culture and the group members’ own
personalities.
With a strong story and characters, an ending should emerge with
considerable ease. Surprises add to the appeal of a story but
are not essential. Subtle twists often work just as well. The
fishing buddies might pull out THE last fish of the sea (appropriately
labeled in the panel) and the girl who has returned to her village,
now miles from a sea that once provided a livelihood for all,
might find comfort or a fighting spirit in wise words from her
grandmother, one of the few remaining villagers.
Step 6: Structuring the story
The group now needs to fit the story into panels and write an
accompanying script and captions. For teachers and students just
beginning to work with this art form, I recommend three A4 pages
doubled over to create a 12-page booklet. This makes a front and
back cover with 10 pages in-between. Each page (half of the A4
sheet of paper), can be divided into four equal quarters, each
of which will become a panel. I recommend adding a space between
each panel—known as the “gutter”—as that
adds to the visual appeal of the book and allows for one to fit
in larger amounts of text in the form of speech bubbles, thought
clouds, and captions. Be sure to leave a larger outer margin for
the binding. This is usually just a few staples down the folded
middle and should be the last step in the book-making process.
The front cover includes the title, authors, and a catchy visual.
This is often an enlargement of one of the more attractive panels
in the story, so it can be decided upon after most of the artwork
is finished. The back cover should contain a short summary of
the story that piques the readers’ attention but avoids
giving away the ending. It does not need to have artwork on it,
but it will be more appealing if it does. A picture that offers
only the scenery from one part of the story works best. Again,
this could be an enlargement of one of the panels, with text in
the place of the characters.
Page 1, the inside front cover, is known as a “splash”
page and is usually one large panel that introduces the characters
and establishes the setting. A caption often helps provide some
background information about the story. If one sticks to four
panels per booklet-page, pages 2 to 9 should have a total of 36
panels. They will contain the plot and climax. To cut down on
the total number of panels, and to add visual variety, consider
having students experiment with one wider or longer panel by bringing
two panels together. To gain a sense of how the story will fit
into the panels, all students should draft a panel-by-panel map,
or outline, of the story. Chilcoat (1993) recommends introducing
students to the following structure for each panel:
Scene/Panel 1, 2, 3 and so on...
Narrative: (general description of the panel)
Dialogue:Character 1:
Character 2:Caption:
Scene: (visual description of scene)
This brief description of each panel will allow students to adjust or re-write parts of the story before the artwork begins. It is also a good place to conduct a round of peer editing. Feedback from a number of readers will help the group determine whether they need to re-think any aspect of the story or the position and choice of any of the panels. This is also the time and place for the teacher to give feedback on the language used in the dialogue and caption. If the booklets are to remain in a classroom library for other students to read, it is worth having the students work on polishing certain aspects of the language and on inserting expressions that are appropriate to the level of the students. The idea is not to correct every single mistake or reshape the text to the teacher’s liking, but to turn the language into a slightly more refined form so that it becomes a learning tool for the group and for future readers at that language level.
Step 7: Adding the artwork
Often one group member excels at drawing, or “penciling.”
This is a positive circumstance and is one of the reasons groups
are formed in the first place. However, all students need to be
included in the artwork phase of the project. One way of doing
this is to have the artistically challenged students “pencil”
easier objects, add detail to characters and objects, or work
from images or models provided by the group’s artist. Less
demanding alternatives include tracing over the penciled sketches
with ink, “inking” in the world of sequential art,
or coloring in the sketches, unless you opt for a simple black
and white approach. All students can “letter” the
speech bubbles, thought clouds, and captions.
To help cut down on the need to start all over again, make sure
students do not begin “inking” a page until speech
bubbles, thought clouds, and captions have been “penciled”
in. This stage is also the best time at which to conduct a second
round of peer editing that focuses on the artwork of the story.
Groups should share their sketches with one another and be encouraged
to comment on the clarity and effectiveness of the drawings, the
visual representation of the characters, the connection between
speech and character, the choice of the panels to tell the story
and convey a message, and the visual cohesiveness of the overall
story.
Once students have critiqued the drawings and agreed upon which
ones to include, it is advisable to photocopy, if possible, each
“penciled” page before students begin “inking.”
Photocopy again, if possible, before the pages are colored. This
way the team will have back-up originals in case a mistake is
made.
Rather than having the students do their artwork directly on the
three stapled A4 pages, it is easier to have them work with half
sheets of A4 paper or even smaller pre-cut panels and then glue
them into a stapled booklet of blank pages. There are several
advantages to working this way. First, you avoid the confusion
of having to keep in mind which page follows which when working
with whole sheets of paper. Second, it avoids doing artwork on
the back side of a page with other artwork, something that can
prove messy and distracting to a reader depending on the quality
of the paper and the ink. Third, it adds extra weight to the finished
product, giving it more durability and the heavier feel of a book.
Finally, it provides the option of displaying the entire story
on one large poster board instead of, or before, converting it
into a book. This is an important advantage, as we will see in
Step 8.
The panels in most English language comic books and graphic novels
are read from left to right, starting with the top row of panels.
Speech bubbles, thought clouds, and captions within each panel
are read in the same way—left to right, top to bottom. This
should be “discovered” by students when they answer
question six in Step 1, “Exploring sequential art.”
Students need to follow this convention when creating their artwork
in order to avoid confusing the reader. (The only exception I
have come across in English language sequential art is “native
manga,” which maintains the authentic Japanese format of
right to left pagination and speech bubble order. However, the
English text, for obvious reasons, is read left to right.) Despite
any native language reading and writing conventions, students
should adopt the English language convention of reading left to
right in pagination, speech bubble order and, actual text. Once
they have perfected the art form, students may want to try being
more adventurous. For example, some students with whom I worked
created a reader’s-choice approach to plot sequence; they
had the reader skip to different pages based on a decision the
reader had the characters make.
Many students may try to avoid being involved in any way with
artwork, especially if they feel it can lead to embarrassment.
The teacher can encourage students by working closely with the
school’s art teachers on the project, if that is an option.
The teacher can also tap into a variety of online resources that
take students step-by-step through the sketching of people, objects,
and scenery. As with language learning itself, it is critical
that teachers show some sense of risk-taking themselves. Trial
and error, mixed with a sense of humor and a healthy dose of courage,
are usually enough to get students beyond a simple stick-figure
approach to characters.
Several alternatives to drawing offer different approaches to
the visual nature of the project. One of the simplest solutions
is to trace characters from a magazine, book, or newspaper. The
resulting realism can often have a humorous effect. The disadvantage
is that if there is only one perspective of the character, and
the character appears in three or more panels, it can be monotonous
for the reader and the artwork can begin to lose its appeal.
More creative solutions involve avoiding human characters altogether
and personifying objects or using symbols to represent those characters.
In the Aral Sea story, homes, rivers, and even rocks could be
main characters. Doonesbury, a popular comic strip in the United
States, has successfully used punctuation marks and a cigarette
with arms and legs as characters. Another possibility is to use
pictures of people from magazines or newspapers and to fill in
only the background with students’ artwork and text. And
yet another approach that has worked well is to have students
take photos of themselves posing as the story requires, gluing
the photos to the page, and then adding speech bubbles. For those
teachers with computers and basic graphics software, scanned drawings
or photos can be touched-up, cropped, and arranged on a page with
inserted speech bubbles and thought clouds. Yet another idea is
to make a series of panels on the wall or floor and to then fill
them with life-size outlines of the characters and have students
color them in and add speech bubbles.
Step 8: Sharing the finished product
Ensuring a sense of audience from the very start is an important
part of any successful writing process. (Before beginning Step
1, teachers will want to tell students what will happen in Step
8.) Knowing their audience motivates students, stimulating interest
in their topic and ensuring a higher regard for quality in their
work. It also maximizes the language learning experience: students
like to read and discuss the work of peers. In this project, the
added graphic dimension of sequential art makes the finished product
that much more appealing.
In order to create a visually stimulating experience for all students,
Bryan, Chilcoat and Morrison (2002) recommend a trade show in
which each group displays their work. The half A4 size pages can
be mounted on a poster board, or even directly taped to the wall,
for all to see. Students then move from story to story, taking
notes on their favorite artwork, characters, scenes, quotes, and
overall stories. They should also jot down questions they have
for the groups. The teacher can provide a handout with evaluation
criteria or write the criteria on the board to help guide this
process. Once this viewing phase is done, each group discusses
its work in front of the class and answers questions.
The booklets can be shared with other classes as well. One of
my English language teaching colleagues sets up a “Comics
and Graphic Novel Fair” every year in his school; at the
fair, students’ creations are circulated and rated by a
slightly younger group of readers. As students know this from
the start, one of the goals of the story-writing process is to
try to create a storyline and characters that appeal specifically
to younger readers. The younger audience writes comments about
each work, choosing best stories, favorite characters, funniest
lines, and the most interesting scenes. The school’s administrators
are invited to hand out awards for the works that have generated
the most interest, and a small contribution from parents helps
publish the winning works.
Another follow-on project is for the students to act out their
stories. Sequential art lends itself well to dramatization because
it already contains visual cues and a script. In fact, several
graphic novels have already served as storyboards for films, including
Harvey Pekar’s brilliant American Splendor. As
speech bubbles are usually not enough to support the story entirely,
students should be encouraged to add additional lines and scenes
in order to fill in any gaps in the storyline. Stories that jump
often in time and space, as is the case with some graphic novels
and comic books, usually require more effort. One possible twist
to this activity is to have other groups act out the story and
then have the original artists or other student groups rate the
actors’ interpretation of the story. A simpler approach
is to have other groups use the story as a roadmap for an oral
re-telling of the story.
Collecting and preserving the students’ stories should be
one of the teacher’s main goals. A shelf or bookcase of
the students’ creations in the classroom will naturally
attract students and will motivate them to create high quality
books, especially if they realize a younger brother or sister
might read their book in the future. The teacher can set up a
classroom library with the works, assigning them as reading outside
of class. The booklets also serve as writing models when new groups
of students begin working on new projects.
Another important step is to share the social concerns that have
been addressed in the stories with the school community as a whole.
If an integrated approach to the curriculum has been taken into
consideration from the beginning, with the topic fitting into
a general theme that is being covered in one or more other subjects,
then there should be an opportunity to make the artwork and story
part of a larger display at school. A school newspaper, wall board,
and website are a few ways to showcase students’ work and
bring attention to the issue. The neighborhood may have an art
gallery or community center that can also display the work. Finally,
it is also worth considering using work and research that has
gone into the sequential art project as a foundation for more
sophisticated writing projects such as newspaper articles and
even grant proposals.
Conclusion
The idea of using pictures to tell stories in all likelihood
predates the Altamira cave drawings made 14,000 years ago. The
invention of the alphabet gave us a more efficient way to convey
ideas, often relegating graphics to the role of supporting illustrations.
While there are excellent examples in the history of art of both
literary and graphic forms merging to tell a story, including
the elegant Japanese “Ehon” illustrations and the
Soviet children’s picture books of the 1920s and 1930s,
none of these forms “superimpose…the regimens of art
(e.g., perspective, symmetry, brush stroke) and the regimens of
literature (e.g., grammar, plot, syntax)…upon each other”
(Eisner 1985, 8) in the same way that graphic novels or comic
books do. Sequential art presents us with a unique blend of the
representational, or art itself, and the abstract, words. It captures
human movement and communication on a page, in the here and now,
unlike any other art form or medium.
Sequential art offers students a powerful tool with which to express
themselves. Whether “noodling,” a combination of note
taking and doodling (Cary 2004, 146), creating a three-panel cartoon
to contextualize a newly learned idiom, or creating a short graphic
novel to address a social concern, the art form should play a
central role in the learning of a language, native or foreign.
It can be as simple as putting pen to paper or making sketches
on the wall or blackboard. It can be as sophisticated as posting
episodes of a story on a website or self-publishing a book. In
short, sequential art is an accessible learning tool requiring
the very minimum of a drawing tool, a space on which to draw,
and one’s imagination. “No matter how many tons of
ink we’ve spilled on it over the years,” Scott McCloud
explains, “comics itself has always been a blank page for
each new hand that approaches” (2006, 252). The eight steps
presented above should serve as an introduction for filling in
many blank pages and for filling students with an enhanced understanding
of the target language, the target language culture, their own
culture, and critical issues in the rapidly changing world around
them.
References
Bryan, G., G. W. Chilcoat, and T. G. Morrison. 2002. Pow! Zap!
Wham! Creating comic books in social studies classrooms. Canadian
Social Studies 37 (1): 1–13.
http://www.quasar.ualberta.ca/css/Css_37_1/FTcomics_in_social_studies.htm.
Cary, S. 2004. Going Graphic: Comics at work in the multilingual
classroom. Portsmouth:
Heinemann.
Chilcoat, G. W. 1993. Teaching about the civil rights movement
by using student-generated
comic books. Social Studies 84: 113–120.
Chilcoat, G. W., and J. Ligon. 1994. The Underground Comix: A
popular culture
approach to teaching historical, political and social issues of
the sixties and
seventies. Michigan Social Studies Journal 7 (1): 35–40.
Csabay, N. 2006. Using comic strips in language class. English Teaching Forum 44 (1): 24–26.
Dorrell, L., and E. Carroll. 1981. Spider-Man at the library. School Library Journal 27: 17–19.
Eisner, W. 1985. Comics and sequential art: Principles and practice of the world’s most popular art form. Paramus: Poorhouse Press.
Hayes, D., and M. Ahrens. 1988. Vocabulary simplification for
children: A special case of
“motherese”? Journal of Child Language 15:
395–410.
Krashen, S. 2004. The Power of Reading. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
McCloud, S. 2006. Making comics. New York: Harper Collins.
Mulholland, M. J. 2004. Comics as art therapy. Art Therapy:
Journal of the American Art
Therapy Association 21 (1): 42–43.
Ujiie, J., and S. Krashen. 1996a. Comic books reading, reading
enjoyment and pleasure reading
among middle class and chapter I middle school students. Reading
Improvement 33 (1):
51–54.
Ujiie, J., And S. Krashen. 1996b. Is comic book reading harmful?
Comic book reading, school
achievement, and pleasure reading among seventh graders. California
School Library
Association Journal 19 (2): 27–28.
Wertham, F. 1954. Seduction of the innocent. New York: Rinehart.
Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_sea
Williams, N. 1995. The comic book as course book: Why and how.
Paper presented at the 29th
international convention of Teachers of English to Speakers of
Other Languages, Long
Beach, California.
Wright, G., and R. Sherman. 1999. Let’s create a comic
strip. Reading Improvement 36 (2):
66–72.
Websites of Interest
Beginning drawing
http://www.fundoodle.com
http://www.unclefred.com
http://www.ababasoft.com/how_to_draw/
Comics for social action
http://www.worldcomics.fi/home_about.shtml
Manga
http://www.emi-art.com/twtyh/main.html
Online comics
http://www.comics.com
http://www.thecomicportal.com
http://www.marvel.com
http://www.comics.org
Student-made Comics
http://www.amazing-kids.org/index.html
http://www.dubuque.k12.ia.us/Fulton/Cartoon_Club/cartoonists/
David Fay is the Regional English Language Officer
for Central Asia. Before joining the State Department, he worked
as a teacher and trainer in Turkey, Costa Rica, Spain, and the
United States.