My students adore graphic novels. They require depth of thinking ~ students must comprehend the story and "fill in the blanks" between the pictures and limited text. They are especially attractive to those creative minds that appreciate the opportunity to add their own thoughts to story lines.
When some of my students were inspired by graphic novels from some of these favorite authors, they decided to write their own graphic novels as part of their Passion Projects.
With a solid background reading a variety of graphic novels from modern-day authors, we decided to add a research component. Enter in Scott McCloud's works Understanding Comics and Making Comics. Both proved to be an invaluable resource to our budding author/illustrators.
Next, we added some fun graphic novel/comic book templates, and allowed the students to be creative. They welcomed the opportunity to branch out from the traditional forms of writing and and work to create original pieces of literature.
An example from a fifth grade student
Introduction of the characters:
A scene at school:
Passing out school pictures:
School is over for the day:
We can't wait to see how this story develops!
Link to graphic novel / comic templates
Do your students love graphic novels too?
What do you do to encourage their passion areas?
