1. Introduction to Graphic Novels/Comic Life
Voices In History
December 4, 2010
Agenda
9-9:15 – Welcome, housekeeping and introductions
9:15-9:30 - Check in
9:30-9:45 - The Graphic Novel and Visual Literacy Presentation
● What’s the story behind the image and how does the presentation of the image make the message
compelling?
● What is a graphic novel?
● What are the elements that make up a graphic novel/comic?
9:45-10:00 - Turning Student Writing Into a Graphic Novel
● Content: Student writing piece
○ Create Driving Question for your graphic novel to explore
○ Include factual information that addresses the question
○ Include clear introduction and a clear conclusion
● Form: Comic Book/Graphic Novel using Comic Life software
● Genre: Non-Fiction or Historical Fiction
● Composition: Putting it all together
○ Write script from narrative
○ Selecting images to move the story forward
○ Storyboard to create blueprint for your graphic novel
10:00 - 10:15 - Gathering and Organizing Images
● Use copyright-friendly images
● Rename image files to reflect content
● Organize images in an asset folder on the desktop
● Populate storyboard with image file names
10:15-11:00 - Creating Your Storyboard -Independent Work
● Brainstorm with colleagues to develop a driving question
● Work with project planning sheets
● Populate storyboard with script and images
11:00-11:30 - Introduction to Comic Life
● Overview of the Interface
○ Library
○ Details
● Six basic elements of a graphic novel
○ Page
○ Panel
○ Picture
○ Caption
○ Speech Balloon
○ Comic Lettering

2. ● Saving and embedding Your Graphic Novel on your blog
● Do’s and Don’t of a graphic novel
11:30- 12:00 - Creating Your Graphic Novel - Independent Work
12:00- 1:00 Lunch
1:00 - 2:00 - Completing Your Graphic Novel - Independent Work
2:00 - 2:30 - Share-out and collection of projects - Save as a Movie project and upload to Host site.
2:30- 2:45 - Take-away
● Students will complete two graphic novels, including storyboards reflecting planning process: one
before Winter Break and one after the break , content reflecting social studies curriculum and
addressing driving question
● Continue gathering assets (images) for your next social studies unit and use the blog to upload images
and elicit student responses.
● Bring in exemplary student graphic novel and storyboard for conversion to a still-image movie
● Show a sample of upcoming project
2:45 - 3:00 Check Out and Closing Evaluation
○ Driving Question:
● Students assume the role of an individual from the time period being taught (based on your curriculum)
● Students will write a reflective journal in the first person, over a two week period via the comment
section of the post in their individual blog category
● Journal entries should be sequential and relate to the time and events as they unfold
● Students will comment to 2-3 of their peers’ journal entries using the “@” and the comment area
● Students will generate questions to ask the featured figures from history and post their questions to the
blog