Sunday, February 26, 2012

Comic Life: A Bridge for Graphic Novels

I was reviewing the lesson on Comic Life in the text that Bear Grylls presented a few weeks back. I never got a chance to play with the idea of how Comic Life can be used to teach the basics of graphic novels, which is tragic due to my obsession with graphic novels. I typically considered using Scott McCloud's texts alone, prior to having students read something by Miller, Moore, or Spiegelman. Yet one could easily create a transitory lesson to ease students in the analysis of graphic novels. Using a project with Comic Life will create a much more interactive form of learning the basics of comics. After hearing all the positive things that Fockler and Bear Grylls had to say about Comic Life, I decided to mess around with it-- and I know that this program will be implemented in my lesson plans for units on graphic novels. The simple learning curve of the program makes it quite accessible to students, allowing me to teach it in one class period. I am probably going to harass a few people I know who are teaching graphic novels now, and suggest they look into Comic Life as well.
Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

1 comment:

  1. I'm assuming you would have the students take pictures to incorporate with comic life? I think this would be interesting and after I work with you all on the language of film I'll be eager to see if you take that into account. One thing that I like about comic life is that it is very, very easy to learn to use. You know how I feel about visual learning, so that's another reason why I love comic life.

    I also wanted to touch upon the podcast post you wrote. I can understand the time factor as being a problem. I think one of the reasons that I like podcasting as a form of assessment is because it enables students to talk. Sometimes a student may articulate him or herself through speaking and I think this would be a great way to do this without having them stand in front of the class for a formal presentation.

    Thoughts?

    ReplyDelete