LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

About this resource

Appropriate grades
9
Subjects
English language arts (writing), thinking skills (visual literacy), diverse learners (multiple intelligences)
Provider
IRA/NCTE

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Although the major focus of this writing experience is on revision, students engage in conversation and activities to get them thinking about their choices as writers and how they can best get their mental images out of their head, onto the page. After the teacher reviews ways that writers make their works interesting, descriptive, and detailed, students discuss a comic book that the entire class read for homework. Then, using an online resource, students identify the various people involved in comic book production and the parts of a comic book. The teacher provides several examples of comic book layouts and techniques and explores parts of a comic book script. Once students understand the difference between comic books and comic strips, they write their own comic book scripts using a general prompt. In the second session, students illustrate another student’s text, drawing a script as close to form as possible. When the writers receive their illustrated work back, they evaluate how clear, descriptive, and detailed their scripts were based on how well the artists’ visions matched the initial vision. As a homework assignment, students revise their scripts for clarity, detail, and description. Readwritethink provides several helpful web resources that explain techniques for planning, creating, and evaluating comic books.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 9 — English I

  • Goal 1: The learner will express reflections and reactions to print and non-print text and personal experiences.
    • Objective 1.01: Narrate personal experiences that offer an audience:
      • scenes and incidents located effectively in time and place.
      • vivid impressions of being in a setting and a sense of engagement in the events occurring.
      • appreciation for the significance of the account.
      • a sense of the narrator's personal voice.
  • Goal 4: The learner will create and use standards to critique communication.
    • Objective 4.01: Evaluate the effectiveness of communication by:
      • examining the use of strategies in a presentation/product.
      • applying a set of predetermined standards.
      • creating an additional set of standards and applying them to the presentation/product.
      • comparing effective strategies used in different presentations/products.
    • Objective 4.02: Read and critique various genres by:
      • using preparation, engagement, and reflection strategies appropriate for the text.
      • identifying and using standards to evaluate aspects of the work or the work as a whole.
      • judging the impact of different stylistic and literary devices on the work.
    • Objective 4.03: Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print and non-print critical texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
      • selecting, monitoring, and modifying as necessary reading strategies appropriate to readers' purpose.
      • identifying and analyzing text components (such as organizational structures, story elements, organizational features) and evaluating their impact on the text.
      • providing textual evidence to support understanding of and reader's response to text.
      • demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
      • summarizing key events and/or points from text.
      • making inferences, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on text.
      • identifying and analyzing personal, social, historical or cultural influences, contexts, or biases.
      • making connections between works, self and related topics.
      • analyzing and evaluating the effects of author's craft and style.
      • analyzing and evaluating the connections or relationships between and among ideas, concepts, characters and/or experiences.
      • identifying and analyzing elements of critical environment found in text in light of purpose, audience, and context.
  • Goal 5: The learner will demonstrate understanding of various literary genres, concepts, elements, and terms.
    • Objective 5.01: Read and analyze various literary works by:
      • using effective reading strategies for preparation, engagement, reflection.
      • recognizing and analyzing the characteristics of literary genres, including fiction (e.g., myths, legends, short stories, novels), non-fiction (e.g., essays, biographies, autobiographies, historical documents), poetry (e.g., epics, sonnets, lyric poetry, ballads) and drama (e.g., tragedy, comedy).
      • interpreting literary devices such as allusion, symbolism, figurative language, flashback, dramatic irony, dialogue, diction, and imagery.
      • understanding the importance of tone, mood, diction, and style.
      • explaining and interpreting archetypal characters, themes, settings.
      • explaining how point of view is developed and its effect on literary texts.
      • determining a character's traits from his/her actions, speech, appearance, or what others say about him or her.
      • explaining how the writer creates character, setting, motif, theme, and other elements.
      • making thematic connections among literary texts and media and contemporary issues.
      • understanding the importance of cultural and historical impact on literary texts.
      • producing creative responses that follow the conventions of a specific genre and using appropriate literary devices for that genre.
    • Objective 5.02: Demonstrating increasing comprehension and ability to respond personally to texts by selecting and exploring a wide range of genres.
    • Objective 5.03: Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print and non-print literacy texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
      • selecting, monitoring, and modifying as necessary reading strategies appropriate to readers' purpose.
      • identifying and analyzing text components (such as organizational structures, story elements, organizational features) and evaluating their impact on the text.
      • providing textual evidence to support understanding of and reader's response to text.
      • demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
      • summarizing key events and/or points from text.
      • making inferences, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on text.
      • identifying and analyzing personal, social, historical or cultural influences, contexts, or biases.
      • making connections between works, self and related topics.
      • analyzing and evaluating the effects of author's craft and style.
      • analyzing and evaluating the connections or relationships between and among ideas, concepts, characters and/or experiences.
      • identifying and analyzing elements of literary environment found in text in light of purpose, audience, and context.
  • Goal 6: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.
    • Objective 6.01: Demonstrate an understanding of conventional written and spoken expression that:
      • uses varying sentence types (e.g., simple, compound, complex, compound-complex) purposefully, correctly, and for specific effect.
      • selects verb tense to show an appropriate sense of time.
      • applies parts of speech to clarify and edit language.
      • addresses clarity and style through such strategies as parallelism; appropriate coordination and subordination; variety and details; appropriate and exact words; and conciseness.
      • analyzes the place and role of dialects and standard/nonstandard English.
      • uses vocabulary strategies such as roots and affixes, word maps, and context clues to discern the meanings of words.
    • Objective 6.02: Discern and correct errors in spoken and written English by:
      • avoiding fragments, run-ons, and comma splices.
      • selecting correct subject-verb agreement, consistent verb tense, and appropriate verbs.
      • using and placing modifiers correctly.
      • editing for spelling and mechanics (punctuation and capitalization).