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Processing the Graphic Bio of Kwame Nkrumah

Julianne Horowitz

I walked away from the Mike Vann thread last month reenergized for teaching with Graphic Biographies.  Thank you to everyone who participated; the conversation really made me think and rethink so much about how we approach these resources in the classroom.  I have used so many, and I have always done the layering ("First look at the visuals, then look at the text...") but I never actually SEPARATED them until now.  Such a simple idea! Such a big impact! (Such a pain to do ahead of time though!)

Here's what it looked like for the Unit 8 End of Empire Lesson on Kwame Nkrumah. I only handed out one layer at a time.

   

Having no text to read for the first look totally slowed down their reading and ignited more wondering.  Doing this also made a noticeable difference not just in the reading/analysis process but also in the creation process.  As some of you may have seen, I've played around with this idea for a few years now and have been assigning students various graphic tasks throughout the 1750 course. 

This time we worked backward from the Kwame Nkrumah extended biography included in the teacher materials for this lesson, thinking about what the authors' planning page might have looked like:

After that, it made more sense to the students when they were asked to transform their research about an example of decolonization into a "draft" of a graphic narrative.  I really could not believe the difference as far as the clear thought they were putting into their plans.  I snapped a few pictures while walking around the room - it was just about every kid, every level learner, every level of usually bored:

Final drafts are due tomorrow! Hopefully, they will be further evidence that this strategy promoted growth. 

Thank you so much  and  and to all who asked such great questions in that thread!!

I know it has not been very long since then, but has anyone had a chance to put one of those ideas into action yet?   

  • this is an amazing demonstration.  I'd love to see the further evidence....

  •  , this layering process is amazing! Thank you so much for sharing with the community. I can't wait to see the final drafts. 

  • in reply to Kathy Hays

    Hoping it will be the best batch yet.  We've come a long way from their Unit 2 days Joy.  I knew it was going well when Mr. Listless himself asked if he could borrow a fine-line marker for Study Hall.  

  • This is so amazing! Thanks for sharing so many examples and for tagging me here  . I have definitely had productive discussions with my students about the layout of the pictures and text, and like you, found that they generally engage more deeply with the text if they have given some thought to the layout and flow. It's a bit of a first read. I do intentionally make that connection to help them see that 3 Close Reads is a skill that should be applied to many different text styles. Since I do have a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) of having my students create their own graphic biographies for a person they've encountered in BHP, your images give me the confidence that I can definitely pull it off! How are they doing the images? Are they drawing them by hand or using a digital drawing program? We just started using Procreate on iPads in digital art, and I'm seeing that as a potential cross-curricular connection!

  •  This is awesome! I love the idea of working backwards. Would love to see some model end results when you get them! 

    I was able to use the Henrietta Lacks graphic bio for BHP (that I mentioned in our prior thread). My students LOVED it ! I have to admit, I was nervous going into this because I have never spent a full period on a graphic bio. The students were more than willing to jump right with excitement- simply because colored images were involved! After teaching the lesson, I can confidently say more students than usual left with a clear meaning of who Henrietta Lacks was and why ethics in science are so important to uphold. I adapted the graphic biography three reads tool to fit my students needs. Instead of calling it a "three close reads" I called it an "observe, understand, connect chart". Similar to a see, think, wonder. 

    I really like your idea of having students create their own graphic bio! I will share this idea with my school's Global History team since they did not teach decolonization yet!  check this out! 

  • in reply to Trevor Getz

    Coming off a much-needed, sunny, Spring recess, and I'm ready to post some samples :)

    Overall, this batch of student work was a reminder to celebrate the process not just the final outcome.  I say that because I genuinely saw students putting effort into this task in all the right ways (following the Kwame model I explained in the original post), but the end products didn't knock my socks off as a whole.   Parts of them were fantastic, though, so I'm going to post some small-scale successes I found in addition to a few full graphics.

    Here are a few "whole" samples:

    And here are bits and pieces I found to be evidence that SLOWING down the graphic biography analysis - (1. art-only, then 2. text-only, then 3. whole graphic) - made a DEFINITE impact on their creative expression of historical content.  It's all in the details, right?

    Sample Parts to Celebrate