Comics in the classroom as an introduction to genre study
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=188
A lesson plan for Grades 4–5 English Language Arts
In this ReadWriteThink lesson, students explore a variety of comic strips and discuss the different components and conventions of them. Teachers of reading and writing always look for new and engaging texts to use in the classroom. An often-overlooked genre is comics. While comics in the past were thought to not be challenging enough for students, the opposite is true. The space between the comic panels forces readers to infer, to let their imaginations take over. Comics are multidimensional-they combine both words and images. They can be used to teach a variety of things-character development, dialogue, transitions, conclusions, and much more. This lesson incorporates student interactives and links to web resources.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
English Language Arts (2004)
Grade 4
- Goal 3: The learner will make connections with text through the use of oral language, written language, and media and technology.
- Objective 3.01: Respond to fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama using interpretive, critical, and evaluative processes by:
- analyzing the impact of authors' word choice and context.
- examining the reasons for characters' actions.
- identifying and examining characters' motives.
- considering a situation or problem from different characters' points of view.
- analyzing differences among genres.
- making inferences and drawing conclusions about characters, events and themes.
- Objective 3.03: Consider the ways language and visuals bring characters to life, enhance plot development, and produce a response.
- Objective 3.01: Respond to fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama using interpretive, critical, and evaluative processes by:
- Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.
- Objective 4.03: Make oral and written presentations using visual aids with an awareness of purpose and audience.
- Objective 4.05: Use planning strategies to generate topics and organize ideas (e.g., brainstorming, mapping, webbing, reading, discussion).
- Objective 4.06: Compose a draft that conveys major ideas and maintains focus on the topic with specific, relevant, supporting details by using preliminary plans.
- Objective 4.08: Focus revision on a specific element such as:
- word choice.
- sequence of events and ideas.
- transitional words.
- sentence patterns.
- Objective 4.09: Produce work that follows the conventions of particular genres (e.g., personal and imaginative narrative, research reports, learning logs, letters of request, letters of complaint).
- Objective 4.10: Use technology as a tool to gather, organize, and present information.
Grade 5
- Goal 3: The learner will make connections through the use of oral language, written language, and media and technology.
- Objective 3.01: Respond to fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama using interpretive, critical, and evaluative processes by:
- analyzing word choice and content.
- examining reasons for a character's actions, taking into account the situation and basic motivation of the character.
- creating and presenting a product that effectively demonstrates a personal response to a selection or experience.
- examining alternative perspectives.
- evaluating the differences among genres.
- examining relationships among characters.
- making and evaluating inferences and conclusions about characters, events and themes.
- Objective 3.01: Respond to fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama using interpretive, critical, and evaluative processes by:
- Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.
- Objective 4.05: Use a variety of preliminary strategies to plan and organize the writing and speaking task considering purpose, audience, and timeline.
- Objective 4.06: Compose a draft that elaborates on major ideas and adheres to the topic by using an appropriate organizational pattern that accomplishes the purpose of the writing task and effectively communicates its content.
- Objective 4.07: Compose a variety of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama using self-selected topic and format (e.g., poetry, research reports, news articles, letters to the editor, business letters).
- Objective 4.09: Produce work that follows the conventions of particular genres (e.g., clarification, essay, feature story, business letter).
- Objective 4.10: Use technology as a tool to enhance and/or publish a product.



