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Project Write-Up: Due Date: December 17, 2008
Project Presentations: December 10 & 17, 2008

Please post your lesson plans to this page.
(Max)
Library Lesson: Making a comic strip (Gr. 3-4-5)
Overview and Purpose:
Identify how a joke is written into a comic strip.
Identify elements and narrative process of a comic strip.
Adapt a written joke into an illustrated 3 panel strip.
Educational Standards
Read, view and listen for information presented in any format (e.g. textual, visual, media, digital) in order to make inferences and gather meaning. (AASL, L. 1.1.6)
Demonstrate creativity by using multiple resources and formats. (AASL, L.1.2.3)
Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding. (ELA, 1)
Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression. (ELA, 2)
Students will read, write, listen, and speak for social interaction. (ELA, 4)
Objectives:
Students will be able to identify elements in a short visual narrative.
Students will apply this knowlege towards constructing their own short visual narrative.
Materials Needed:
For instructor:
Smartboard; projector; computer with Notebook software and internet access.
Backup materials: large drawing pad, markers.
For students:
Joke books selected from library's collection.
Photocopied paper with pre-drawn three panel grids, plus space for name and title of work.
Pencils, markers, colored pencils.
Information:
1. Comic strips have a beginning, middle and an end.
2. Jokes also have a beginning, middle (response) and an end.
3. Jokes typically end with a "punchline," the element most intended to provoke laughter.
4. In comic strips, the joke (or "punchline") usually comes in the last panel.
5. In the library, joke books can be found in the 800's (808).
(ELA Standards 1, 2, 4)
Assessment:
1. Students will be able to identify elements of a comic strip and a joke.
2. Students will be able to read and perform jokes to an audience of their peers.
3. Students will use knowledge of these elements to adapt a written joke into a visual narrative (comic strip).
Activity:
Part One:
1. Students will read from joke books projected onto Smartboard.
2. Students identify different types of jokes and their narrative elements.
3. Students review joke books and choose intended joke(s) to perform in front of class (individually or in pairs).
Part Two:
1. Students read three-panel comic strip from Smartboard or large notepad.
2. Students identify visual and narrative elements of a comic strip, and compare comic strips with verbal jokes.
3. Students and instructor collaboratively adapt a written joke from the previous lesson into a visual narrative; activity explained.
4. Students review joke books and choose intended joke to adapt into comic strip.
5. Students will work on illustrating comic strips with instructor supervision.
Notes
*Joke books must be kept out of circulation for duration of project.
*Approximately 20 minutes in the 2nd session should be devoted to illustration.

Being persuasive... Final Project Idea
Will the podcasts be shared with other classes in the school? Posted online? Sounds great.

Developing web resources - Final Project
I think Google is a great place to start because it's familiar to many folks and it has a lot of functions that make sense for schools, such as the calendar, as you mention.

I think a survey is a great idea as well, and also something that can be done for free. Also maybe a space to submit a comment on the site once its up will result in feedback from your most frequent users?

Expanding Student and Collection Space
I wonder if book wrapping could exist in a kit format so it could be done in multiple places. But then I suppose the question becomes where to store the kit and what kind of vessel to house it in.

Expanding Student and Collection Space
For my final project I plan on reorganizing the office space of the library in order to increase the space for student use and the collection. The fact that the room used as the office is located in the center of the library can cause some problems as the students are reluctant to go through it or use the computers in it.
In order to accomplish this I plan on going through and weeding the large collection of professional development materials that the media center has acquired, many of which are outdated and have not been used in many years. I also plan to reorganize the way that book wrapping is done by finding a location that can be used solely for this activity so that student desk space is not taken up. The space that is freed up I plan to use in order to display portions of the collection in order to reduce the use of high shelf space that can be difficult for younger students to reach.

Developing web resources - Final Project
These are all great suggestions. I would like to add student work to the site, so I'll talk to the LMS and teachers.

Developing web resources - Final Project
Maybe your LMS knows if there any major curriculum projects that you could create a webliography for and then you could present it to the subject teachers that way? That way they get a sense of what a great resource it could be for the students.

Or you could document some the art and projects in the school and put it up on the site to get to the teachers that way?

You could easily put up a free survey from survey monkey on the site to garnish feed back from current users.

Being persuasive... Final Project Idea
I have been looking at Voicethread... but we did already buy a microphone for the podcasts.

To create/edit we are going to use garage band since the school has macs. I think that my LMS wanted to start by me doing the creating the podcast while teaching her how to do it at the same time. That way she can continue to make them, or teach the kids later on.

I have been considering the idea of having the kids vote on which reviews they think are the best though.

Still need to figure out some of the details.