comics in education
Comic capers Alfriston College continues to provide useful insight in to the part the disciplines around comic art and storytelling can play in student achievement. Deputy principal STEVE SAVILLE describes their approach.
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he development of meaningful collabora- that idea by a set deadline. tion and fluid groupings of learners quickly The real challenge with this group was that became a feature of the class … in the past I was working with learners who The way learners learn and the delivery of already had the passion for comics and most learning at Year 9 has undergone a huge reim- had a good knowledge regarding how comics aging at Alfriston College in 2015. worked. Many were also accomplished artists Single core subjects have been replaced by an and also highly imaginative. integrated approach called authentic learning This time the class were all Year 9 learners; where skill mastery is prioritised over the mere they were new to secondary school and had delivery of pure content. a wide range of abilities. A couple were obviOut went the concept of one class, one room, ously talented but most, to put it bluntly, were one teacher and one subject and in came a not far beyond drawing stick figures. more flexible and personalised approach, cater- Anticipating this meant that I had prepared an ing more for learner need. extensive course outline available as a google Part of this ‘brave new world’ has seen the tra- doc to the class. They had full access to ipads ditional concept of options at Year 9 replaced to use the course outline and the related tutoriby ICI classes. ICI stands for ‘imagine create als and links. They could also trawl the web to innovate’, where options could reinvent them- find tutorials best fitting their own needs. I was selves into a more modular, product based confident I had provided enough in the way of entity and also where the opportunity was resources without swamping them. provided for more creative and imaginative I probably spent too long on these tutorials, options to be offered. and on reflection the outline would have been An ICI class lasts for one school term. One of better used as a resource they could refer to the key concepts here was the desire to take when and if they needed specific assistance learners on a journey from play to passion and guidance on a particular aspect of comic through to purpose. This was the natural place creation. Trying to get the whole class to go for me to further investigate the validity and through an introductory stage at the same role comic creation can play in a modern edu- pace was not fuelling their creative juices. cational environment. Once they provided me with evidence of their For several years now I have been encouraging students to create comics as a valid outlet for their creativity. Most of these situations have existed as a type of school club alongside their traditional subjects, or as a ‘virtual’ class. This was my first real opportunity to see how comic creation would operate as a ‘class’ in the traditional concept of what a class is.
scripts, character profiles and other necessary preplanning documents, and once they had gone through enough of the course outline to gain a basic understanding of layout, character design etc they were cut loose to work on their own comics, and I slowly transitioned from a teacher to an advisor to an editor.
What worked well was that some of their comics were artistically sound and some had a good narrative structure, and on rare occasions some had both. Some learners struggled with all of this and were reluctant to commit to final copies as they were aware of the shortcomings evident in their work. They didn’t lack ideas but some were frustrated at their artistic limitations. Most were able to move on and produce comics with an interesting narrative making up for some of the rudimentary art.
“This was my first real opportunity to see how comic creation would operate as a ‘class’ in the traditional concept of what a class is” What I was pleased to observe was that the development of meaningful collaboration and fluid groupings of learners quickly became a feature of the class as learners would group with different classmates depending on what they were currently working on. In the same way I was lucky the classroom space was big enough for learners to work by themselves when they wanted to and in groups at other times, allowing for choice when it came to how individuals wanted to work during that particular lesson.
I found as the more adept creators progressed they tended to remove themselves from the The hope was they would play with their crea- group environments, and from me, as they The purpose was the same as it had been in the tions and through play find a passion which were comfortable with what needed to be past where learners take an idea and produce would lead to a purpose [a finished comic] they Continues over page... a publishable two-three page comic based on pursued with enthusiasm.
Life is a ‘toon Comic creator Linda Yang has been drawing for at least eight years and working in the comic creation class at Alfriston College gave her the opportunity to complete a comic for the first time. Linda found working through a comic project to publication stage extremely rewarding. In particular, inking of her original pencil work was a challenge but especially satisfying when she saw her finished product. Linda draws her inspiration from her wide reading of a variety of genres and her love of manga comics. She is also influenced by her keen observation of life and is often inspired by what she sees and hears around her as she goes through her everyday life. This helps her develop an awareness of dialogue, apparent in her comic work. Her wide reading means she is well aware of how to structure a story it is developed and has the appropriate pace to keep a comic reading audience interested. Still a Year 9 learner, Linda is another one to watch for the future. - ET
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