Pamela M. Fowler
Objectives
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Ss will hear sounds and make up words representations of sounds
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Ss will see special words peculiar to comics. Ss will contribute words to the class reference list
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of words for comics.
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Ss will use words from this list in writing his/her own comic.
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Ss will learn the use of capital letters to catch a reader’s attention.
Materials—chalk, objects in room (door, desk, paper, etc.), newspaper, magazine (comic book)
Activities
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1) Illus. different sounds through the use of objects that make different noises.
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-How do you think this sound would look if you wanted to write it on paper? Examples put on board.
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Thump desk, rip paper, Open Blinds
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-What do you think these things would sound like?
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Kicking a door in; Breaking a window; Starting a Corvette; A TV under water; A pizza in the face; Lightening
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2) Refer to Dr. Campbell’s lesson yesterday on Capitals.
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-Why do we use them? When? eg. Newspaper front page, comic cover. Why do we want to attract attention?
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3) Comics always have special words to represent sounds. These words are always in CAPS. why?
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-If you saw CHAWHAM on the page, what might it represent?
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-What about SWOK SPLOOSH KAWWHANG
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* not conventional words, but they do represent very graphic sounds.
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4) Group work—make up own word list in each group; each list will be made part of a whole list for the whole class (might be able to come up with more words if in smaller groups)
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Follow through—Collect each group’s list of words and print on ditto for distribution. Each student will illustrate one word for his/her own story at later date.
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FUMPPH
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THUVOOM
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KAWHAMP
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FDAK
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KRAK
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SHKROW
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KAWHANNG
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SSHHRAMM
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KRATCH
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CRUMP
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THRAK
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FWRAK
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BOM
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FAM
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KRAKOOM
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SWOK
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SWAK
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KPOW
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FWAM
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KRAK
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FWAP
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KACHOW
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SSHHRAKK
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KABLAMM
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SHKAROWM
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WHABOOM
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Action So far most of the work for the comic strip narrative is completed; the hero, the villain, the setting, and the action vocabulary. Now the task of writing is upon us.
The teacher writes the word ACTION in the center of the blackboard and circles it. Ask the class what things come to their heads when the see or hear the word action. As the students begin to tell you what they think of write all the thoughts on the board steaming from the nucleus work, action. Attach the ideas that are somewhat related to each other and continue this until the students run out of ideas or begin repeating themselves (or get silly!). Explain to them that this is a way of starting a story.
The clustering form helps drive out ideas that may be suppressed for one reason or another. Ask the class to look at the cluster they just did, look at and praise the ideas they came up with, ask for ideas that may make a good story. At this point you will notice that eyes will light up with ‘bright ideas’ and they will want to start writing before they forget. Don’t discourage that, but try to make them wait until more ideas are thrown out onto the floor, after all another thought might sound better than the first one. After approximately five to ten minutes, let the class begin writing. Have them use the cluster and the words on the board. They will want to take a peek at their neighbor’s work or ask the teacher for help. Encourage the sharing of ideas to develop excitement in the class. This type of excitement is a positive aspect for the class, it keeps the writing project full of life and enjoyable rather than a chore, and keeps the ideas and thoughts flowing. The actual writing will take an average of seven to ten days.
After completing the first draft, have the students rewrite it skipping every other line on the paper. This will then be handed into the teacher for grammatical editing. Once they have handed in this paper I found it advantageous to have them work on drills in grammar. (see following section) The paper is then returned for rewriting and correcting and again handed in for editing by the teacher. This process is repeated until the paper is virtually error free. When this event takes place the teacher sections the story so the student can begin creating the comic book. The easiest way to do this is to mark off where one idea begins and a second one starts in a red pen or marker like this [ ]. In addition to these corrections and editing the teacher holds conferences with the students individually to clear up any confusions.