A while back I was in an English 425 class that based our readings and popular culture media on comic books, we were asked at one point to share a lesson plan we could teach using a comic book, using social media, comic panels, and an activity for the children to work on in a 1-hour session. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to show the progress of my plan, how I created my lessons, where I got my resources, and increase my learning on the multimedia principles for learning objectives required for assignment 3 in my EDCI 337 class.

I started my lesson plan with a summary, detailing all the steps and processes I went through to outline to my professors my idea of a lesson plan. We were given three different comic books to choose from, I went based on Ms. Marvel: No Normal comic which is the newer version of the Ms. Marvel comic series featuring the first Muslim superhero. In my lesson plan, I largely only focus on this comic based on the values it holds for younger audiences.

Summary

1. Subject(s): Ms Marvel: No Normal Comic
2. Topic or Unit of Study: Define comics by specific panels.
3. Grade/Level: 12
4. Objective: Key elements, notion of a single, all-encompassing (or unifying them)
5. Time Allotment:  30 mins

I then write my implementation, specifically telling my readers what panels we are focusing on, and how to engage the class in the subject of this comic.

Implementation

Plan: Look at the 5 panels of pg 22 of Ms. Marvel: No Normal, As a class

1. Watch 5 mins clip:  Comics 101
2. Discuss what we see in these panels. ( negative space- blackness/ darkness, flash of red light?, character feeling anxiety, breaking free from the cocoon, the crash of glass.)
3. Look at the words used in the panels, the yellow and white text
4. Identify Themes of the graphic novel ( Culture/ Religion/ Acceptance/ Friendship), social and political conflicts in characters life
5. Put into groups for 10 min discussion questions and creating web map – put questions on the board
6. Come back as a class and discuss what we thought to the questions
7. Watch:  15 mins – This TED Talk by co-creator and editor Sana Amanat is a useful entry point into the book, drawing out themes of stereotypes and inclusive representation.

• Amanat’s presence also allows you to discuss Kamala as a corporate co-creation of multiple voices    
•  Homework: Kids get to create their own Panels, with related themes, and key elements, kids use Kamala in different scenarios.

Getting the kids to engage in a video helps their creative mind, this links back to what we learned in our Multimedia design lesson of Modality. This uses the visual and narration on a video to work the brain in helping process channels using the Dual coding theory.

Modality: People learn better from a multimedia lesson when words are presented in spoken form. Visuals and narration are better than visuals and on-screen text. This reduces the amount of processing required by one channel, and involves both the visual and auditory channels in the process!

(Nicole Crozier, EDCI 337)

During the 10 min discussion question time, I have outlined the questions I wanted each group to ask each other and get their brains thinking about the key concepts of the comic book. This would be using active processing and Personalization principle in the Multimedia Learning principles. Here I have outlined the question they would ask. The knowledge that is transferred based on multimedia is the use of videos, comic panels, discussion, and the assignment that engages the class. Kids use previous knowledge they know about comic books and use the narration from the videos, the words and guidance from the teacher teaching the lesson, and the groups/discussion questions as a final understanding for the basis of the lesson.

Discussion Questions

1. The author uses Kamala’s family to illustrate the cultural differences between growing up in America and growing up in Pakistan. How does this difference come through in their conversations?
2. How does the author use Kamala’s friendships to show her strengths? weaknesses? Cite examples from the story.
3. Kamala’s family seems to be more protective of her than they are of her brother. Why is this? Where do you think these differences come from?
4. One of Kamala’s struggles was deciding how much of her culture to share with the people in her school. How should she have handled that? 

Cite: Adam Kullberg, Matt Slayter 

Staff, PCC Editorial, and Name *. “Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal.” Pop Culture Classroom, classroom.popcultureclassroom.org/teaching_guides/ms-marvel-vol-1-no-normal/. 

After creating my discussion questions I wrote out my entire lessons plan for readers to understand what was going on in my mind and my reasoning behind all my planned activities.

Word Plan

For Grade 12 literary students the class will go over together text, scenarios and key elements of comic books. Introducing a lesson the day before on comic books and their relevance. The students will be able to see the narrative of the story in the text, the understand of how panels are placed, learning comic vocabulary. Grid, Panel, Frame, Gutter Caption, Word Balloon, spread and Bleed are some examples. Some Key elements such as dual identities, struggling with a shared culture and identifying themes of the comic Ms Marvel. Key themes such as culture, religion and friendship. Watch a 5 mins video on comics 101 and the difference of Ms Marvel/ Captain Marvel. After using a projector to showcase the 5 panels on pg 22 and discuss these 5 panels, what do we see? How do these panels relate to the key theme and elements. Culture, Religion, Friendships, and acceptance, breaking free from our bonds. Next the class looks at the texts used in the panels, the white vs yellow texts, what do these mean and the differences. The thought bubbles and the speech texts, do these incorporate the feelings of the character. I then will have the kids grouped together to talk about the 4 discussion questions that have been provided by Pop Culture Classroom.  The kids will also create a web chart to help them answer the question and discover the themes and key elements for those who need more visuals, at this point I will put my own example of my own web map related to Ms Marvel on the projection and discuss what they need to write in their own web map. After about 10 mins we will come back as a class and discuss the question and what we wrote on our web maps. After this we will watch the last video clip for maybe 10 mins depending on time. We probably won’t watch the whole thing about Myth, masks and Misfits. If we have run out of time for 30 mins the homework for the students will be to create their own panels and text boxes with the character Ms Marvel. This is too teach them about placement of the panels and how to incorporate key elements and themes in each panel. While defining the comic academically, criteria that holds a comic to its standard.

Finally, I have added the comic template I used to discuss to the class and a that the youth can create in their discussion groups. This

I think this lesson fully incorporates what Multimedia Principles we have been learning so far in the class of EDCI 337.

I also added to my project a short video that promotes the event lesson so I can grab all those interested in learning more about comics.