Explore curriculum & build meaning in your classroom community with creative COMICS PROJECTS …
Here are some models!
JUMP TO: Civics | History | Literature & Language | Math | Science
CIVICS
NH State COMICstitution
Adapting the state constitution’s text into stick-figure visuals…
What are rights? How do we enact them, in actions & symbols? How do various rights & interests fit together in society?
DRAW THE LAW: US Criminal Codes
Adapting selected sections of the US criminal codes into black & white comics.
“Rebellion or Insurrection” (18 U.S. Code § 2383):
“Seditious Conspiracy” (18 U.S. Code § 2384):
“Civic Ignorance”: David Souter on Civics Education
Adapting a 2012 talk given by the former Supreme Court Justice.
HISTORY
The Freeman Colby Series
Graphic novels drawn directly from primary sources — the journals, letters, & even artwork of eyewitnesses to history!
VIDEOS: “How to Draw Freeman Colby”
Up-close demos of stick-figure cartooning techniques, coloring, page layout, & more…
WORKING WITH PRIMARY SOURCES:
ARTICLE: Freeman Colby: From Primary Sources to Comics
Featuring multiple Civil War source texts & images from my research…
Hospital Cat 1: Finding F.A.S.T. in Primary Source Texts
Simple visual tools & markups to help your historical comics come to life on the page!
ACTIVITY: Comics Timeline
Classroom project outline for creating a visual timeline of a historical era.
UNIT: Civil War Comics Camp
Overview of an integrated middle school program, researching + transcribing + drawing from the prison diary of a Union veteran.
LITERATURE & LANGUAGE
POETRY COMICS
Drawing out verses & lines in panels & pages…
Woody Guthrie’s “Tom Joad”
= Drawing out Guthrie’s musical adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel!
“El viaje más caro / The Most Costly Journey”
Life stories told by undocumented migrant farmworkers & drawn by cartoonists…
MATH
Mathematicomics
My random sporadic math cartoon feature, addressing various topics in math & art & logic…
“One Monster Invites Another…”
SCIENCE
“1 Day in the Life of the Granite State”
= 650 million years in just 24 hours (& 8 pages)!
Drawing sequence & detail from a source text.
The Weeks Act Story (Comic)
A basic narrative of how the National Forests came to be! Includes source links to the image gallery I used in my research.
John Weeks, 1911 (Music Video)
It turns out there’s poetry hidden in the congressional record! Lyrics by John Weeks, music by Big Paws.
LoonToons
Learn about the amazing lives of loons — by cartooning them!
“Black-Capped Chickadee” (Bird Book mini)
Info-doodles about this outgoing species!
Backed w/ HOW TO DRAW demos…
Chickadee Cupboards (mini-comic)
Observations of wintertime behavior around a backyard birdfeeder.
“Magnet Migrants” (mini-comic)
My 3rd grade comics students got me wondering about how magnetism affects bird migration…
