Day 1: Mini Lesson - Students Learn About the History of Newspaper Comics in America

Students have finished reading The Undersea Adventures of Capt'n Eli graphic novels. In the middle school setting, it works well to have the language arts teacher assign the reading of the book, and the art teacher then has a basis for launching this lesson. In the elementary classroom, this interdisciplinary approach is also beneficial and in a self contained classroom. It will be a natural flow from reading the book to integrating it with the other content areas.

As a whole class, recap the highlights of Eli's adventures. You can talk about characters, plot and action. (If needed, refer to the Language Arts lesson for details). As you talk about the theme of good vs. evil, ask the class how Eli responded to situations where injustice occurred. You can chart their responses on the projector with the laptop connected or on large chart paper in front of the classroom. As a general overview, explain that for the coming week, they will be learning more about the history of comic design and artistic elements/techniques used when developing a comic strip. Talk about the difference between a sequential comic strip and a graphic novel and that they will specifically be focusing on the newspaper comic strip genre.

On your landing page in StudyWiz or as an e-bulletin, include hyperlinks for this in class activity. If you are not using StudyWiz, you can write the Web Address on the board for them to type in a browser. Decide how you will divide the class into groups of four and proceed to share with them the task for today.

As researchers I would like you to find out information on the history of newspaper comic strips. We will be using the think-pair-share strategy to complete this task where each group will be reading about the history of newspaper comics in America and making a timeline with the important dates and comic information provided. Create five Keynote slides with information from the timeline and one on your assigned comic strip. Use both text and graphics in your slideshow. [If you do not have enough computers for the class to create the slideshow, they can present the material orally to the class.]

ARTICLE - American Comic Articles
Allow time for each group to read the article and plot the dates on a timeline. This can be done in the Keynote or drawn out on paper.

Great Online Timeline Tool-Use this free timeline creation tool.