Nuestro proyecto de "Cómic designer" en el salón #8 de Ninfa Laurenzo ECC (Houston, TX) va avanzando muchísimo. Ya hicieron sus cómics con imágenes, fotografias y otros recursos... siguieron los pasos de mi entrada "Cómic con herramientas básicas" con unos resultados increíbles,
!Felicidades, mis campeones y campeonas!
Pues ahora les ha llegado el momento de desarrollar su propia creatividad y dar rienda suelta a su imaginación, tal cual fueran un creador/a de cómics.
Para seguir hablando de lo que vamos a hacer, un cómic, mejor tenemos una breve definición para saber de que se trata: El cómic es una novela gráfica que narra una historia mediante imágenes y texto, y que necesita de otros elementos para completar y complementar la historia.
En el salón ya hemos visto qué es lo que se hace en esta profesión, de hecho, fue una de nuestras primeras preguntas. Vimos un video sobre esta profesión, que comparto también con ustedes, para entenderla un poco más:
En este otro video podemos ver un explicación muy breve y sencilla sobre las historietas o cómics, sus partes y cómo hacerlos:
Antes de proceder a la explicación de los pasos a seguir, me gustaría que hicieran un "diario", preferiblemente que fuera por escrito, me explico, que ustedes (papás y mamás) escribieran todo lo que hacen, por ejemplo en la manera en que han llegado a pensar en la historia, que expliquen y definan sus personajes, cuál va a ser la acción,... También sería recomendable que les hicieran fotos y/o videos que recojan su proceso en el trabajo, sus experiencias, todo lo posible.
Una vez hecha esta pequena aclaración les voy a recomendar estos pasos para realizar esta actividad:
Paso 1: La historia y el dictado.
Aquí nos dictan la historia que nos quieren contar, es decir, mientras nos cuentan la historia nosotros copiamos su mensaje. Esta historia nos servirá para crear la portada y el título del cómic, sin embargo, irá en la última página de nuestro proyecto con las familias.
En la historia podemos ver los personajes, las acciones y los lugares que aparecen en las vinetas del cómic, en otras palabras, formarán las escenas principales de las historias. Además, en las burbujas o globos - y en los recuadros también - podremos leer lo que nos dicen sus personajes, así como otra información de interés. Es importante que hagamos un esquema de los puntos principales de la historia.
En esta parte, si lo desean, pueden realizar una grabación de audio o de video donde se pueda escuchar o ver como realizan esta actividad. Recuerden, la historia debe ser creada por ellos/as, les puedo confirmar desde ya que tienen imaginación y creatividad suficiente como para crear sus propias historias. En el salón de clase lo llevan haciendo desde octubre.
Aquíos dejo una plantilla, como ejemplo, de organización del esquema:
Paso 2: La portada y el título.
Una vez hayan puesto fin a la historia, es necesario crear un título y una portada.
La portada irá en la primera página. En ella podremos leer el título con letras GIGANTES y con mucho colorido, además podremos ver el dibujo de su personaje principal o algún hecho importante de la historia. Para nuestros PreK campeones, hemos de decirles que hagan los dibujos grandes, al menos a mis campeones, he de darles esta instrucción cada vez que hacemos una portada ya que, como de costumbre, suelen hacer los dibujos mas pequenos.
Para la portada, los padres/madres/familiares haremos un gran rectángulo. Este rectángulo puede bordear el folio a 1 cm aproximadamente de su borde.
Ejemplo:
Y dentro del rectángulo hacemos el título y nuestro dibujo de la portada.
En este video podéis ver los pasos de como hacer las letras de los cómics. Es muy sencillo, primero escriben con lápiz y luego bordean a una pequeña distancia de lo escrito con el lápiz. Después pueden dar color y aplicar otras formas y colores en su línea exterior para su decoración.
Paso 3: Las viñetas
Las viñetas son los recuadros que van a contener la historia en imágenes, personajes, lugares, burbujas o globos,... En estas diapositivas podran serle útil para usted, ya que tiene toda la información sobre sus elementos y cómo hacerlas.
Las viñetas ya las hemos estudiado en clase, así que no será muy difícil para ellos hacer sus viñetas. Papá/mamá/familias, por favor, echen un vistazo a todos los elementos que tiene una viñeta, y así les podrán ayudar y guiar en todo este proceso.
Puntos importantes en este paso:
- Sería recomendable que antes de elegir cuántas viñetas van a crear para el cómic, lean de nuevo la historia e identifiquen las escenas que se van a querer representar, normalmente son las más importantes, las que nos cuentan la historia paso a paso.
- Una vez identificadas las escenas, contaremos cada escena y le asignaremos un cuadrado para la viñeta, es decir, si identifican 12 escenas se correspondería a 12 recuadros, si fueran 8 escenas se corresponderían a 8 recuadros.
Los recuadros de las viñetas, sería recomendable, que les ayudara usted, sobre todo por el asunto de la distribucion en las páginas y su tamaño, ya que unas escenas tendrán más contenidos que otras.
Algunos ejemplos o plantillas de organización de viñetas:
Palabras clave y su definición:
- Cuadro o Viñeta - Es un cuadro delimitado por líneas negras que representa un instante de la historieta. Las viñetas se leen normalmentede izquierda a derecha y de arriba abajo para representar un orden en la historia.
- Dibujo - Representa el ambiente donde sedesarrolla la historia (escenario) así comoa los personajes. Van dentro de la viñeta.
- Globos - Espacio donde se colocan los textos que piensa o dicen los personajes. Constan de dos partes: la superior que se denomina globo y el rabillo o delta que señala al personaje que está pensando o hablando.
La forma del globo va a dar al texto diferentes sentidos:
1.- El contorno en forma de nubes significa palabras pensadas por el personaje.
2.- El contorno delineado con tornas temblorosas, significa voz temblorosa y expresa debilidad, temor, frío, etc.
3.- El contorno en forma de dientes de serrucho, expresa un grito, irritación, estallido, etc.
4.- El contorno con líneas discontinuas indica que los personajes hablan en voz baja para expresar secretos, confidencias, etc.
5.- Cuando el rabilo del bocadillo señala unlugar fuera del cuadro, indica que el personaje que habla no aparece en la viñeta.
6.- El globo incluido enotro globo indica laspausas que realiza el personaje en suconversación.
7.- Una sucesión deglobos que envuelven alos personajes expresapelea, actos agresivos.
8.- El globo con variosrabillos indica que eltexto es dicho porvarios personales.
- Texto - Forma gráfica que está presente en una página. Si la situación a contar lo requiere, la tipografía se endurece, o se agranda, se hace minúscula porque se está hablando despacio, o se desgarra porque el mensaje es sangriento. Puede haber un tipo de letra para cada personaje, o puede hablar con el sonido del mismo. Dentro del texto escrito hay un elemento que es propio y característico del género.
- Onomatopeya - Elemento gráfico propio y característico de la historieta, este elemento imprescindible se ubica dentro del texto apoyando la direccionalidad que enfatiza la narración. Palabras como Bang, Boom, Plash, etc. cuya finalidad es poner de manifiesto algún sonido no verbal, pero que se expresa por medio de una verbalización de dicho ruido mediante una especie de transcripción fonética del mismo. Aparecen indicadas en la superficie de la viñeta.
This post is a justification and reflection upon the project we are currently doing at the school where I work, Ninfa Laurenzo ECC. My project is about the profession of comic creators because my students decided to do it. I am glad to guide them in a project like that since for years I have been the coordinator of reading programs for children and families at different schools and libraries in the region of Seville, Spain.
Having a comic or a story as a vehicle for learning is not new; indeed, it is one of the most used procedures at schools and education all over the world. The literary texts that the students listen with attention raise their message with extra and enriching information: socio-cultural conditions that will allow listeners to know about events, information and signals. And by understanding the story, remembering it and expressing it according to their feelings and experiences, primary students will personally participate in the reconstruction of the literary message, value it and interpret its contents making them theirs even if they are in the new language.
The advantage of popular literature is that the content that children access has the peculiarity that they exist in almost every culture in the world. All histories share an underlying basis and a relatively invariant structure, despite some differences. Obviously, they have some aspects or parts in common, like an introduction or presentation of the characters and the setting; a plot, in which the action is developed; an end with a final outcome of events. Another important thing in common is the fact that children feel sympathy for characters according to their features; they predict the action of the wicked witch, for instance, and are sure that the prince will save the princess after conquering a thousand dangers and obstacles.
They can also anticipate moments or episodes in the story, like the climax around which the action is organized. As they expand their knowledge and the volume of stories they hear, they manage to structure the stories according to a repeatable internal pattern, those discussed above. They also delimit the different characters and roles they play in the story. And finally, they participate in creating the story, using their language or the new, with a motivated attitude, a meaningful behavior and a learning process as effective as pleasant.
In this early stage of education, working with language and literature with comics and storytelling is benefitial since they can start to understan how a language works, as a system of signs that structures and formalizes experience and reality. Language and literature are elements of culture that complement each other, hence the contents of this area should enable the acquisition and mastery of the language, as well as knowledge of the various literary manifestations for their formative value as a universal heritage. This shows the interest in initiating the student in children's literature. In line with what has been pointed out above, recent studies show how the student acquires better the knowledge of a language if it is taught as a subject studied and not as a subject of study.
Telling a story to someone who wants to listen to it, entertaining themselves by learning about the art of telling an anecdote or a joke: all are entertainments, but also interpretations or representations of real life. They can be models of behavior beyond history and that is why they tend to have a teaching, because we project them, somehow, with our reality, no matter how far we look at it. The existence of archetypes shows a need to organize within history so that the pedagogical contribution goes from simpler to more detailed and complex. The models used have formed and will form a common base and memory for the society that listens to them and many of the models of behavior or interpretations of reality will undoubtedly form part of a know how to act or know how to solve.
When working with stories, the content of the lessons becomes more important than the language itself and this means that it is easier to relate the lessons to the experience and self-interest of the students. In addition, as we have already pointed out, such work helps the learning process as students can associate words with functions, structures and situations with a particular story or "reality". It is clear that the association contributes to have a good memory and improve their thinking levels as well as motivation for learningl; and learning a language in a given context helps understanding and memory.
The storytelling, on the other hand, allows to deepen in the issues that arise with depth and rigor and develops reactions and feelings in the students that, otherwise, can not demonstrate with so much clarity in a textbook. The teacher's work, in this type of approach, provides a personal touch to the lessons, since it is the educator who knows the pace of classroom learning and of the students - and their needs - in particular, when they need more vocabulary or require communicative experiences.
- Word processor to add titles, bubbles and other comic characteristics.
First of all, a design of the story is strongly recommended, I mean, what story your students want to tell. You, as teacher/parent/educator, can help them with the topic of the story.
One idea is to ask for some topics they are interested in and the do a survey with all your students. In this way you encourage them to participate as well as they feel motivated. Once your students have decided what to tell, it is time to organize the story. In my case, I teach them that every story has three mainly parts, remember that it is focused on PreK students: beginning, middle and the end. And please, try to help them with examples of stories they already know (and even better, the most recent stories told in classroom) and let them identify each part.
The story decided to tell is about the recess time, since today it had rained early in the morning and some parts of the garden were wet. I tried to help them by asking them how we usually prepare to go to the outdoor learning area. Then, one by one started to tell me how: they are in a line, the students in charge of the doors go to their positions,... other students wanted to share other ideas to use in the story. After that, I looked through the window and everything was wet, my next question was what would happen if you were in the garden. Again, help them, please, with connections to their experiences... until some of them can say something to add to the story; indeed, they gave us some ideas for the story. And eventually we got this amazing story with my "champions".
If you have a tablet with an ebook reader app you can download this file https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4elwj35ibmYNm9mLVFmX0hkMzQ/view?usp=sharing and they can read it.
Calameo is a free web that sets your documents as a traditional book. When you and your children finish your comic, you can save it as a .pdf file, then upload it on this web. There, you can have more options to choose and share it with your friends.
If you prefer to do it by using an app with music, you can use Adobe Spark Video. Open this app and add the pictures that you and your children have selected to create a comic. Besides, you can add some music.
Have you seen how easy it is? Do you think you can do one comic with your children? If so, it is going to be a good time to enjoy creating a story together.
If you want to share your beautiful and awesome story, please, leave a comment with your file.
The time has finally come for our annual EXPO, a time in which a school wide topic or theme is chosen and broken down by classroom. In the past we have done everything from life cycles, animals, countries, wildlife, etc. This year our school EXPO at Ninfa Laurenzo ECC will focus on Community Helpers.
In my classroom the students were interested in learning more in about a Comic Creator-Designer. The students with the help of their families, brought comics to discuss with their classmates and identify the parts of a comic: comic strip, bubbles, shapes, and characters.
This article comes as a summary of what our project entails, the process in which we form our project, and the final outcome
Are your students interested in learning? Are the topics adapted to their learning process? Are they active participants in their learning process? Do you take their opinions into account when planning? These questions are some of them that any teacher should ask to enhance participation and motivation.
What is PBL?
PBL stands for Project-Based Learning. PBL is an active methodology in which students carry out a research process to answer a complex question, a problem, or a change. Students have autonomy and decision-making ability in the development of projects. During taking so much time to create and complete the project, one might wonder how a project like this can be planned, designed, and developed to enable students to learn core content that align with the district guidelines. This methodology helps our students to develop the 21st century skills and create quality products and presentations along with working on skills such as collaboration, communication, and critical thinking. Through the project based learning, students learn to work cooperatively and creatively.
In project based learning, the most important thing is not the product or final result, but the process of learning and the development of the different thinking-level abilities and diversity in the classroom. In order to have a successful project and to achieve the learning goals, teachers should let the students gear their learning in the direction of their interests. A little bit of history: It emerged in the United States at the end of the 19th century at the hands of educator William Kilpatrick, a collaborator of John Dewey. The philosopher John Dewey insists that the best way to learn is "doing." Children have to become protagonists of their own learning and for that nothing better than offering them experiences that help them understand the world around them. The mission of teaching is not to fill the heads of content, but to help the student acquire a global and integral knowledge of the world.
Kilpatrick elaborated the concept and made it famous through "The Project Method". Theoretical Framework The Theoretical Framework of project-based learning is mainly composed of three pedagogical foundations: constructivism, Learning by discovery, and interdisciplinary learning.
In addition to these three, depending on the type of project to be developed, others such as Multiple Intelligences may be incorporated, for example. Constructivism, based on Piaget and Vygotsky's ideas and works, tells us that knowledge is built as a process of interaction between the information that comes from the environment and the information that the student already has, and from which new knowledge is built by itself. The idea of scaffolding arises from this interaction in knowledge formation, which is the link that allows new inputs and previous information to generate new information or knowledge. Decroly's idea is interdisciplinarity in learning. Learning concepts or units are learned together, not in isolation. Therefore, the learning units are formulated in different curriculum areas. It consists of focusing study topics on the students' interests, as their curiosity leads them to investigate and describe the parts of the whole. Learning by discovery is Brunner's contribution. This type of learning happens when the teacher presents the learners with all the necessary tools to discover what they want to learn for themselves. Research skills development is put in the foreground and has an impact on problem-solving.
Basic requirements of PBL
As teachers, what do we plan to achieve with project-based learning?
We hope that this type of learning fosters the interest and motivation of the students and therefore the desire to learn and do will be aroused. In addition, with this new methodology, teachers will innovate in their teaching skills by seeing how everything that is taught and created makes sense to students. From this learning experience, all students' skills and abilities will be improved and developed in an integral way. As a teacher if you would like to have your students think outside the box and create a meaningful project then here are some steps to consider:
Go beyond the old school
A project can not cover the same range of content, skills, procedures, and attitudes as other types of methodologies, on the contrary it allows students to work more in depth into a particular subject and explore the subject thoroughly. Therefore teachers should choose the most significant content, objectives, and skills for the project, taking into account the curriculum and what is most important from their point of view. Project-based learning arises from the need to present new alternatives, ideas or innovative experiences.
The fundamental idea of this active methodology is to keep students engaged and motivated throughout the learning process, through research. In this way we enter into a learning that stimulates their cognitive, communicative, social and emotional skills, among many others, it is a cooperative learning full of challenges with an interdisciplinary approach.
A driving question
Teachers can motivate this need to know new things and develop the project through an initial activity that arouses interest and gives rise to questions. It could be a video, a debate, a guest in class, a book … Once the situation has been raised, it is necessary to create a question to which the work is directed. It must be clear, have an open response and connect with the skills and knowledge that students must work and acquire. This element is basic and must always be present. An example. If we are working on a topic of contemporary literature: How could we share with our grandparents what we have learned about a book?
Autonomous learning
During the work, the students have to be the protagonists: to decide, to choose and to make the decisions. However, it is necessary to adapt this general approach to the reality of the classroom. So different levels of "autonomy" can be established:
Lowest level. Students can be told which subject to study and even how to design, create and present the final products.
Intermediate level. Give a series of options (limited) to prevent students from being overwhelmed by the possibilities.
High level. All decisions are for students, for example what product to do, what process to follow. They can even choose the topic and the initial question.
21st Century skills
These skills are: collaboration, communication, critical thinking and use of new technologies. They must be taught explicitly (giving guides, advice, materials) and also offer opportunities for students to put them into practice through the tasks and activities proposed in the project. That is to say, to create a virtual resource (a map for example) we can give the students a tutorial on how to create them but also our project should contain a task in which the students create a digital map that serves to present contents, support some exhibition , Perform a collaborative work ...
Explorers and discoverers
Real research takes place when students follow a process like this: they raise their own questions, seek resources and respond to those questions, they generate doubts and question, review and draw conclusions. This research brings with it real innovation: new questions, new products and new solutions emerge.
The new doubts that arise must be incorporated gradually. It is all about promoting the generation of doubts, criticism and collaboration.
Review and feedback
While working, they review each other's work by reference to the rubrics and examples.
It is necessary to teach students to evaluate the work of others by reference to rubrics. We can even use external experts and collaborators to evaluate the work. For example, if we organize an exhibition on health Why not invite medical staff from the medical centers in the area?
Show and Tell
Once you and your classroom finished the project, you should present it not only to teachers and colleagues but to a general audience. It can be done to an exhibition (with the aid of a presentation, a video) in the classroom but also to create a web page or to make an exhibition of works to which are invited parents, students of other centers ...
PBL and Bloom’s Taxonomy
Once we put a challenge we can ask so many questions about the development of our students’ skills and learning process. To overcome the proposed challenging task, the students have to find the information, process it, elaborate it and share it. In addition, the students have to apply all this information to the solving part of the problem or challenge. Therefore, all the process will be significant and has a purpose for our students, improving their motivation, attitude and participation.
If we compare this way of learning with the traditional one, we can find more ways of treating the information and our relationship with it, that is, our students can go beyond understanding and memorizing concepts. Indeed, with this active method that implies exploring and discovering, our students will work out their skills to find out information and its source, they will be able to choose, discuss, apply, make mistakes, correct them,... This can be a good opportunity to understand other ways of interacting with their learning process, a more active one.
Types of learning styles in PBL
Everything will depend on the characteristics of the class groups with which we work. PBL is effective in all levels and subjects. It is applicable in regulated education but also in other forms of education and training.
-Meaningful learning
This type of learning is characterized by the fact that the individual collects the information, selects it, organizes and establishes relationships with the knowledge that he already had previously. In other words, it is when a person relates the new information to the one he already has.
-Cooperative Learning
Cooperative learning is a type of learning that allows each student to learn but not only, but with their peers. Therefore, it is usually carried out in the classrooms of many educational centers, and groups of students usually do not exceed five members. The teacher is who forms the groups and who guides them, directing the action and distributing roles and functions.
- Collaborative Learning
Collaborative learning is similar to cooperative learning. Now, the former differs from the latter in the degree of freedom with which the groups are constituted and functioning. In this type of learning, it is the teachers or educators who propose a topic or problem and the students decide how to approach it
-Emotional learning
Emotional learning means learning to know and manage emotions more efficiently. This learning brings many benefits mentally and psychologically, as it positively influences our well-being, improves interpersonal relationships, promotes personal development and empowers us.
-Observational learning
This type of learning is also known as vicarious learning, by imitation or modeling, and is based on a social situation in which at least two individuals participate: the model (the person from whom one learns) and the subject who observes of such behavior, and learns it.
-Experiential learning
Experiential learning is learning that results from experience, as its name implies. This is a very powerful way to learn. In fact, when we speak of learning mistakes, we are referring to the learning produced by our own experience. Now, experience can have different consequences for each individual, because not everyone will perceive the facts in the same way. What brings us from simple experience to learning is self-reflection.
-Discovery Learning
This learning refers to active learning, in which the person instead learns the contents passively, discovers, relates and reorders the concepts to fit their cognitive scheme. One of the great theorists of this type of learning is Jerome Bruner.
This information has been translated into English, adapted and selected from this article about the ways of learning..
Roles in PBL
In opposition to the traditional methods of learning, the role of the learning components change:
The students don’t have a passive role, but an active one. They don’t wait for the teacher’s speech, they participate actively on high-level thinking like problem recognition, information research, comprehension and interpretation of data, making connections and associations, drawing conclusions and critical revision of their ideas and believes.
The teacher is not the source of information, but a facilitator, is a mediator in the learning process, who guides students. He/she can help students solve some situations and difficulties, control time, and observe, assess and evaluate his/her own work, students’ work and the project.
The information and knowledge is not a possession of the teacher that the students wait to be transmitted. Within PBL information is searched, must be understood as part of the learning process. This information and knowledge are elaborated by the students by their questions and conclusions.
7 Steps to Create a Project
How do we create project-based learning?
First of all we must put aside the textbook and immerse ourselves in the wonderful world of research and experimentation. The concerns and interests of our students will be the engines of their own learning, in which they will acquire knowledge and skills in a motivating way.
1. Selection of the guiding question.
Part of real situations or that reflect reality.
Lean on personal or real experience.
Use sources such as audiovisual media, newspapers, magazines, to get ideas.
It involves the educational community: teachers, families, students, …
The more involved they are in the selection of the project, the greater their motivation and participation.
2. Specify the curricular objectives.
When designing, be clear with the objectives, skills and knowledge that you want to develop.
From news or cases to design the project.
The project can be very motivating and at the same time it updates the curricular contents.
3. Contextualize the project.
Relate the project to reality
Where does the idea of the question guide come from?
Why is it important?
4. Establish the curricular areas involved.
The more areas or subjects, the more enriching the process and the more complete the end result.
Add an intercultural and multilingual dimension to your projects.
5. Final product with brainstorming
Collaboration, collaboration and collaboration: key to the success of the PBL.
Coordinate with other teachers and experts from the areas you are going to develop.
Develop a mental map that serves to debug and consensus the project, activities, criteria and evaluation tools and the definition of the final product.
6. Sequencing of the 4 phases: analysis, investigation, resolution and evaluation.
It elaborates a project timing, specifying what resources, references, activities and digital artifacts will be used in each phase of the project.
Give meaning / purpose to all activities and prepare the way to the final product.
7. Critical analysis on the quality of the project.
Self-reflection and critical collective reflection on the success of the project and on whether it conforms to the principles of the PBL:
Does it motivate and appeal to students?
Is it based on a real situation?
Is it appropriate to the cognitive and emotional level of the students?
Are your multidisciplinary goals holistic?
Does it cover the didactic objectives of the subjects involved?
Is it well structured?
Do digital activities and artifacts make sense and provide something necessary to reach the end product?
Puntos importantes en este paso:
La forma del globo va a dar al texto diferentes sentidos:
