Comic Strip Stories: 4 Week Workshop

Comic strip style stories use drawings, speech bubbles, and captions to tell a short story.  They can focus on any topic… a superhero adventure, a favorite animal, a real-life event, etc.  These tiny stories are also a wonderful way for learners to experiment with adding writing to their drawings.  For many learners, this is the first step in story writing.   As learners create their comic strips, there will be opportunities to think about story sequence, characters, beginnings, and endings which can help them grow into more confident writers, and also supports reading comprehension skills.
  
Each class will start by talking about comic strips - discussing one element of a comic strip story.  Then we will brainstorm story ideas, getting our creative juices flowing. For the rest of the class, everyone will work on their own comic-strip stories.  As we work, learners can share their ideas and help each other if someone gets stuck. The goal is not to complete a finished product by the end of each class, but for learners to get started on this process together, and over the course of the week to ignite an interest in creating their own comic strip stories at home.  

Week 1: Favorite story characters 
I will share a comic strip I made featuring one of my favorite comic strip characters and class members will share their ideas for comic strip characters.  We will talk about the basics of getting started on making a comic strip and everyone will have a chance to start making a comic strip about their favorite characters.

Week 2: What are the characters saying?  What are they thinking?
We will look at a comic strip with no words and then come up with ideas for using speech bubbles and thought bubbles.  As learners work on their comic strips, we will share ideas about what the characters might say or think during the story.

Week 3: What will happen next?
We will look at the beginning of a comic strip and brainstorm all sorts of different directions the story could take and in the process think about story sequence and which parts of the story to include in the comic strip.  We will also notice how captions can help us understand story sequence in a comic strip.  Learners will work on their own comic strips and be invited to share ideas for captions and story endings. 

Week 4: Sound Effects & Action
We will end our class with a "bang!" as we brainstorm sound effect words to add to comic strips and think of ways we can use our drawings to show action.  Our last class will also include time for talking about turning a comic strip into a simple comic book.  

This class is designed for children with a range of literacy skills.  The way each child engages with the activities in this class will depend on their stage of literacy development (they may be drawing, writing letters, words, and/or sentences).  If your child is slightly outside of the age range, but you believe they would benefit from this class, feel free to reach out to me to see if it is a match.  I strive to provide an inclusive learning environment and celebrate all levels of literacy development.  

If your learner would prefer an ongoing version of this class, take a look at these weekly workshops:
Ages 5-7:
https://outschool.com/classes/comic-strip-stories-weekly-workshop-3dlkfdjc?usid=3CuwGyJY&signup=true&utm_campaign=share_activity_link

Ages 7-9:
https://outschool.com/classes/creating-comics-weekly-workshop-s5HxRw2y?usid=3CuwGyJY&signup=true&utm_campaign=share_activity_link

I look forward to creating comics together!