Graphic+Writing

Graphic Writing has gained popularity at the same time as Graphic Novels have surfaced as 'real' reading. I grew up with comic books and Astrix. Our school library did have Astrix but not other comic books. 'Comics' weren't real reading. The thinking has changed and now students are encouraged to read graphic novels. They are great to convey concepts concisely and a billion dollar industry. Boys and struggling readers do learn successfully with graphic novels.

It makes sense if they become readers through graphic writing that students should also be able to writing graphic. There are several tools available now. Comic Life is one of the oldest software tools used in education (after hypercard but with much enhanced interface and options).

Check out [|HERE] for Free Clip Art from Plasq

One can have students use paper and pencil to plan out their writing very effectively. I would even suggest printing blank templates from Comic Life to get students to think about scenes, events, and ordering. Writing a story within a blank frame of a comic helps to look at story elements as 'snapshots.' You Could could storyboard your characters, or events.

Storyboarding is generally done in the planning stages of a writing; however, Comic Life is an acceptable form of writing and publishing as well. Many classic novels are being re-written as graphic novels which make them high interest but lower reading difficulty.

http://www.storyboards-east.com/storybrd.htm - examples of real storyboards

[|https://www.cs.tcd.ie/~mclough/Portfolio/vision%20web/aboutme5.html] - working with storyboards

Comic Projects can be used for preparing for longer text based stories, or they can be used to publish ideas that have traditionally been done in text form such as book reports and science experiments.

Consider:


 * How To .... with images and text


 * Each student summarizing a chapter of a class novel - then 'publishing' as a graphic novel


 * Retelling a field experience



Sample Grade 3 writing following the pattern from the book Last Night I followed my cat. My cat was asleep. I was asleep. My cat awoke. My cat dressed up. He went to get in a taxi.I woke up and didn’t see my cat, so I looked for him.I saw him in a taxi.





The following is another sample from Grade 3 writing a story from an animal's perspective. The students first wrote their story using a comic life blank frame.





= Additional Resources = Check out - www.Plasq.com Check out - http://delicious.com/amboe_k/storyboarding Samples from Grade 2 students http: //plasq.com/component/option,com_joomlaboard/Itemid,55/func,view/id,1888/catid,11/ To Explain understanding http://www.instructables.com/id/Soda-Bottle-Rocket./

Consider other software solutions http://www.toondoo.com/ - http://www.toondoo.com/user/barrydahl http://www.toondoo.com/ViewBook.toon?bookid=3029 http://www.toondoo.com/View.toon?param=38056

The ability to create and communicate graphically is pretty much limitless now.

A few to start your journey might include: Comic Life ToonDoo Pixton.com Kerpoof Strip Designer Animoto Voki.com

Graphic Writing is not just for students. Teachers often need concise instructions on using various tools. Here is one we created on using a projector.