WEEK 12 POST - COMIX / GRAPHIC NOVELS

The use of comix to illustrate different events has been going on since hieroglyphics were first written on cave walls. Comix can be used to represent historical, current, future, or completely imaginary events. The purpose of this assignment will be to show students how comix have been used throughout history and their effect on pop culture today.

I would use cooperative learning to teach the use of comix/graphic novels (comix) as an avenue of expressing events. I would implement the following procedure for this assignment (assumes a 90 min class period):

1. Review some of the many different examples of comix that illustrate historical, current, future, and imaginary events. This task will show that comix are not just for entertainment, but can also be used to give readers perspective of different historical events. For instance, according to Wikipedia, “Sam Glanzman's A Sailor's Story, was a true-life, World War II naval tale.” Time spent will be 10 minutes.
   
2. Have the students work with their base group members (the class would already be set up for groups of three) to compile a group list of common societal views held during the time that the assigned comix was written and the time frame of the comix. For instance, Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus was written in 1986 about the World War II Holocaust. Obviously these are two very different times with different societal views. I would assign one of the comix shown to the class in procedure #1 to each group, but have two groups work on the same comix. If there were eight total groups, then four comix would be used for the assignment with two groups using the same comix. The purpose of this task will be to establish the societal views that the author was living in during their writing and the societal views that would have been held during the story. Time spent will be 30 minutes.
   
3. Once the groups had compiled their lists, I would pair one student from one group with another student from the group that had the same comix. The students would compare their lists. This two person group would then compile a list of similarities and differences between the two groups. The purpose of doing this task is for students to get a better idea of what the societal views were at that time. Time spent will be 10 minutes.
   
4. Everyone will get back into their base groups and review their findings from the two person groups. The groups will then edit their own lists if they feel that some of their information is incorrect or if they are missing some information that the other group had on their lists. Time spent will be 10 minutes.
   
5. Review the findings from the groups with the whole class. As a class we would help edit each set of base group’s lists. The purpose of this task is to show how societal views (both the author and story) are affirmed or challenged through comix. Thus illustrating the importance of comix on pop culture. Time spent will be 25 minutes. For homework, have each student find out one more societal view for each of their group’s two time frames (author and story).
   
6. In class the next day, have the students share their two new societal views with their base groups and update their group lists. This will then be handed in for graded. Time spent will be 10 minutes.