Why Comics? GCSE Art and Design Lesson Plan

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Why Comics? GCSE Art and Design Lesson Plan

Why Comics? GCSE (age 14-16) Art and Design Lesson Plan: Creating Comics

IntroductionLooking to engage your students in contemporary human rights and social issues? Based at SOAS University of London, Why Comics? Education Charity brings contemporary humanitarian and social issues into the classroom (such as racism, conflict, migration, trafficking and climate change) through interactive literary comic books based on real-life testimony.

Our free easy-to-use Key Stage 2-5 resources build empathy and enhance learning for 7-18-year-old students and teachers alike, alongside UK national-curriculum relevant lesson plans to support multiple subjects.

Each sample UK National Curriculum based Lesson Plan is provided as a Word.doc – so you can use it as a building block. Please feel free to adjust the content to suit your teaching style and students’ needs, all the content is only suggested.

Our innovative resources help enhance learning to support multiple subjects (such as English, ESOL, Personal, Social, Health and Economic [PSHE] education, Citizenship Studies, Art, Media Studies and Geography). Our support materials are intended to inspire teachers and enhance teaching practices and different ideas.

Why Comics? resources are embedded with a wealth of age-appropriate contextual multimedia (such as news articles, maps, videos, infographics and reports) to educate and inspire pupils across a wide demographic.

Our materials encourage learners to make connections between their own lives and the lives of others throughout the world, promoting critical and reflective thinking on vital global themes. In this way, Why Comics? can help combat racism and intolerance in schools.

Already, over 600 schools in 27 countries have provided detailed feedback on our free interactive educational resources to overwhelmingly positive feedback. From September 2017, our materials will be disseminated to over 25,000 schools worldwide.

Please help us by filling out a short anonymous SurveyMonkey questionnaire after you have used our materials for our funders. This helps ensure that our great resources remain free.

Please email info@whycomics.org for more information. Thank you.

Why Comics? Charity number - 1172791

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Why Comics? GCSE Art and Design Lesson Plan

Table of ContentsIntroduction.....................................................................................................................................................2

UK National Curriculum Art and Design requirements:..................................................................................3

Why Comics? Art and Design Lesson Plan: Creating Comics...........................................................................4

Aims:............................................................................................................................................................4

Learning objectives:.....................................................................................................................................4

Lesson plan:.................................................................................................................................................4

Additional Follow on Lesson: Creating Comics.................................................................................................5

Feedback..........................................................................................................................................................5

Future Plans.....................................................................................................................................................6

Who backs Why Comics? - About PositiveNegatives..................................................................................6

UK National Curriculum Art and Design requirements:[Source: UK Gov GCSE Art and Design Subject content and assessment objectives]

Subject content:

GCSE specifications in art and design must require students to learn through practical experience and demonstrate knowledge and understanding of sources that inform their creative intentions. Intentions should be realised through purposeful engagement with visual language, visual concepts, media, materials and the application of appropriate techniques and working methods.

GCSE specifications in art and design must require students to develop and apply relevant subject-specific skills in order to use visual language to communicate personal ideas, meanings and responses.

GCSE specifications in art and design must require students, over time, to reflect critically upon their creative journey, and its effectiveness in relation to the realisation of personal intentions.

Students can work entirely in digital media or entirely in non-digital media, or in a mixture of both, provided the aims and assessment objectives are met.

GCSE specifications in art and design must encourage students to:

actively engage in the creative process of art, craft and design in order to develop as effective and independent learners, and as critical and reflective thinkers with enquiring minds

develop creative, imaginative and intuitive capabilities when exploring and making images, artefacts and products

become confident in taking risks and learn from experience when exploring and experimenting with ideas, processes, media, materials and techniques

develop critical understanding through investigative, analytical, experimental, practical, technical and expressive skills

develop and refine ideas and proposals, personal outcomes or solutions with increasing independence

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Why Comics? GCSE Art and Design Lesson Plan

acquire and develop technical skills through working with a broad range of media, materials, techniques, processes and technologies with purpose and intent

develop knowledge and understanding of art, craft and design in historical and contemporary contexts, societies and cultures

develop an awareness of the different roles and individual work practices evident in the production of art, craft and design in the creative and cultural industries

develop an awareness of the purposes, intentions and functions of art, craft and design in a variety of contexts and as appropriate to students’ own work

demonstrate safe working practices in art, craft and designPlease note teaching notes are in purple.

Why Comics? Art and Design Lesson Plan: Creating Comics

Here is a suggested Art and Design lesson plan aimed at teaching use of visual language to communicate personal ideas, meanings and responses. This lesson introduces some of the social and humanitarian issues featured in our comics. Students will learn how to create a literary comic, and how comics can be used to address important issues. Both lessons are 45 mins long, consisting of a reading in class, followed by group discussion and an assigned homework. The class can either read the comic collectively via projector, or at home via the web (www.whycomics.org/comics).Aims: This session will explore the use of literary comics to communicate important issues.

• Students will read a literary comic • Students will learn about a contemporary world issue• Students will explore how the comic made them understand the issue and how it made

them feel about the issue• Students will learn how to make a literary comic.

Learning objectives: By the end of the session, students will be able to:

• Understand a contemporary world issue• Explain what a literary comic is • Understand how literary comics can be used to build understanding and empathy • Make a short literary comic.

Lesson plan:

1. Read through the comic as a group - Project the story in class and go through the comic panel by panel. Ask different pupils to read out each page. If there is time, you could explore several of the additional resources in the interactive boxes dispersed throughout the comic. (20 mins)

Teacher note: As a bridge to the lesson’s main activity, give a short summary and suggest students think about the discussion points on the slide found at the back of the chosen comic.

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Why Comics? GCSE Art and Design Lesson Plan

2. Classroom Discussion – Go through the discussion points featured at the end of the comic. Ask the students how the comic made them think/feel about the issues featured. Discuss how comics can be used as a powerful tool of communication. (20 mins)

3. Assign the class a homework – Ask the class to interview a friend, neighbour or family member about a time they moved town/city/country. Ask them to take pictures of the person and anything relevant to the story and bring it to class. (5 mins)

Please help us by filling out a short anonymous SurveyMonkey questionnaire after you have used our materials for our funders. This helps ensure that our great resources remain free.

Please email info@whycomics.org for more information. Thank you.

Additional Follow on Lesson:Creating Comics

For the Aims and Objectives, please refer to the previous lesson.

1. Summarise the previous lesson - recap on the comic and what the class discussed. (10 mins)

2. Classroom Discussion - show the class the PositiveNegatives methodology for creating a literary comic. (10 mins)

Teacher note:

PositiveNegatives methodology can be found at: http://positivenegatives.org/about/methodology/

3. Classroom Activity - Ask the class draw the first draft of their literary comic using their homework story and photographs. (20 mins)

4. Assign the class a homework - Ask the class to show their first draft to the person their comic is about. Students should write notes on the protagonist’s comments and should ask what they need to change in order to make the comic as close as possible to the true story. Ask the students to bring the notes to the next lesson to draw the final draft of their literary comic. (5 mins)

FeedbackPlease help us by filling out a short anonymous SurveyMonkey questionnaire for our funders. This will help keep our great resources free. We will be happy to hear about how it works in the classroom, and are keen to receive any comments or feedback.

We are particularly interested if you would like to receive more resources like this. If so please include on the SurveyMonkey questionnaire which topics you would like us to cover (e.g. Divorce, Migration, Racism/Prejudice, Cyber/Bullying, Identity, Memory, Racism, Conflict, Natural Disasters, Human Trafficking/Slavery, Asylum/Refugees, Homelessness, Climate Change, Remittances & Migrant Workers, and Drug Trafficking & Addiction).

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Why Comics? GCSE Art and Design Lesson Plan

We are also interested to have feedback from pupils so if it is possible, please pass on the SurveyMonkey questionnaire link to them as well. Many thanks again, your help is most appreciated.

Future Plans

Over the coming year, we’re intending to expand our bank of database for KS2 (age 7-11) and KS3 (age 11-14) and KS4-5 (age 14-18) and their teachers, and produce national curriculum based accompanying lesson plans for multiple subjects. You can view all our resources on our Teachers Resources page.

We will continue to design and test our resources to ensure that they are made by teachers for teachers.

If you would like any more information or would like to be involved further, please contact info@whycomics.org. Thank you.

With very best wishes,

Dr Benjamin Dix

Director: Why Comics? Education CharitySenior Fellow: SOAS University of London

Web: http://www.whycomics.org/Email: info@whycomics.org Twitter and Instagram: @WhyComicsOrg Facebook: Why Comics? Education Charity

Why Comics? Education Charity is based at the Faber Building, SOAS University of London.Why Comics? Charity number - 1172791

Who backs Why Comics? - About PositiveNegatives

The award-winning non-profit PositiveNegatives produce literary comics, animations and podcasts about contemporary social and human rights issues. We combine ethnographic research with illustration and photography, adapting personal testimonies into art, education and advocacy materials. Since 2012, PositiveNegatives has worked extensively for over four years for an array of international organisations such as United Nations (UN), Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Open Society Foundations (OSF), The Nobel Peace Centre, The Guardian, BBC, and with leading academic institutions such as; Harvard South Asia Centre, SOAS University of London and University of Sussex.

Our work endeavours to combine literature, journalism and education. Visual story-telling engages audiences of all ages, backgrounds and levels of literacy. Approaching subjects like conflict and forced migration through the prism of personal narratives emotionally engages general readers and students alike. We have developed comics from research, policy papers and first hand testimonies for organisations such as these and many more. Each comic has reached millions of viewers, and many have been translated into multiple languages reaching diverse international stakeholders

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