Suggested Why Comics? KS2 Art and Design Lesson Plans

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Suggested Why Comics? KS2 Art and Design Lesson Plans

Why Comics? Key Stage 2 (age 7-11) Art and Design Lesson Plan: Tackling Racism

IntroductionLooking to engage your students in contemporary human rights and social issues? Based at SOAS University of London, Why Comics? Education Charity brings contemporary humanitarian and social issues into the classroom (such as racism, conflict, migration, trafficking and climate change) through interactive literary comic books based on real-life testimony.

Our free easy-to-use KS2-5 resources build empathy and enhance learning for 7-18-year-old students and teachers alike, alongside UK national-curriculum relevant lesson plans to support multiple subjects.

Each sample UK National Curriculum based Lesson Plan is provided as a Word.doc – so you can use it as a building block. Please feel free to adjust the content to suit your teaching style and students’ needs, all the content is only suggested.

Our innovative resources help enhance learning to support multiple subjects (such as English, ESOL, Personal, Social, Health and Economic [PSHE] education, Citizenship Studies, Art, Media Studies and Geography). Our support materials are intended to inspire teachers and enhance teaching practices and different ideas.

Why Comics? resources are embedded with a wealth of age-appropriate contextual multimedia (such as news articles, maps, videos, infographics and reports) to educate and inspire pupils across a wide demographic.

Our materials encourage learners to make connections between their own lives and the lives of others throughout the world, promoting critical and reflective thinking on vital global themes. In this way, Why Comics? can help combat racism and intolerance in schools.

Already, over 600 schools in 27 countries have provided detailed feedback on our free interactive educational resources to overwhelmingly positive feedback. From September 2017, our materials will be disseminated to over 25,000 schools worldwide.

Please help us by filling out a short anonymous SurveyMonkey questionnaire after you have used our materials for our funders. This helps ensure that our great resources remain free.

Please email info@whycomics.org for more information. Thank you.

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Suggested Why Comics? KS2 Art and Design Lesson Plans

Why Comics? Charity number - 1172791

Table of Contents

Introduction............................................................................................................................................2

UK National Curriculum Art and Design requirements:............................................................................3

Suggested Why Comics? Art and Design Lesson Plan...............................................................................4Aims:................................................................................................................................................................4Learning objectives:..........................................................................................................................................4

Lesson plan 1:.........................................................................................................................................4

Please help us by filling out a short anonymous SurveyMonkey questionnaire after you have used our materials for our funders. This helps ensure that our great resources remain free..................................5

Follow-up Lesson plan: Create your own comic.......................................................................................5

Feedback................................................................................................................................................5

Future Plans............................................................................................................................................5Who backs Why Comics? - About PositiveNegatives..........................................................................................6

UK National Curriculum Art and Design requirements:[Source: UK Gov KS2 Art and Design Subject content and assessment objectives]

Art, craft and design embody some of the highest forms of human creativity. A high-quality Art and Design education should engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. As pupils progress, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. They should also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.

Aims

The national curriculum for Art and Design aims to ensure that all pupils:

produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences; become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques ; evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design; know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural

development of their art forms.

Attainment targets

By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study.

Key Stage 2 Subject content

Pupils should be taught to develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design.

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Suggested Why Comics? KS2 Art and Design Lesson Plans

Pupils should be taught:

to create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas; to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture

with a range of materials (for example, pencil, charcoal, paint, clay); about great artists, architects and designers in history.

Please note teaching notes are in purple.

Suggested Why Comics? Art and Design Lesson Plan Here is a suggested Art and Design lesson plan aimed at producing creative work, exploring the ideas of racism and discrimination, practicing drawing skills and evaluating and analysing comics as an artistic medium. This lesson plan can be used in conjunction with the stories of Daria, Zein, Sagal and Shamso. Both the two lessons included are 45 mins long, consisting of a reading in class, followed by group discussion and an assigned homework. The class can either read the comic collectively via projector, or at home via the web (www.whycomics.org/comics/).

Communication through comicsIn this lesson, we learn how to create a literary comic, and how comics can be used to address important issues. We will also be looking at racism, told through Daria, Zein, Sagal and Shamso’s eyes.

Aims: This session will explore the use of literary comics to communicate important issues.

Students will read a literary comic; Students will learn about racism; Students will explore their understanding of and feelings about racism after reading the chosen

comic; Students will learn how to make a comic;

Learning objectives: By the end of the session, students will be able to:

Understand what a literary comic is; Explain what racism is; Understand how comics can be used to tackle issues such as racism; Make their own short comic.

Lesson plan 1:1. Read through the comic as a group – Project the story in class and go through the comic panel by

panel. Ask different pupils to read out each page. If there is time, you could explore several of the additional resources in the interactive boxes dispersed throughout the comic. (20 mins)

Teacher note: As a bridge to the lesson’s main activity, give a short summary and suggest students think about the discussion points included at the end of each comic.

2. Classroom Discussion – ask the class what they think racism is and how the comic made them feel about it. Discuss how comics can be used as a powerful tool of communication. (20 mins)

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Suggested Why Comics? KS2 Art and Design Lesson Plans

Teacher note: What is Racism? Play this short video on Racism in class.

3. Assign the class a homework – Give each student a print out of one page of the comic. Ask them to stick the print out in their sketchbook and write 10 things they liked or disliked about the comic. (5 mins)

Please help us by filling out a short anonymous SurveyMonkey questionnaire after you have used our materials for our funders. This helps ensure that our great resources remain free.

Please email info@whycomics.org for more information. Thank you.

Follow-up Lesson plan:Create your own comic

Please refer to the Aims and Learning Objectives outlined in the previous session.

1. Summarise the previous lesson – recap on the comic and what the class discussed. (10 mins)2. Classroom Activity – ask pupils to draw a comic about a time they felt excluded or left out. (30

mins)3. Assign the class a homework – ask the class to finish their comic and bring it to the next lesson. (5

mins)

FeedbackPlease help us by filling out a short anonymous SurveyMonkey questionnaire for our funders. This will help keep our great resources free . We will be happy to hear about how it works in the classroom, and are keen to receive any comments or feedback.

We are particularly interested if you would like to receive more resources like this. If so please include on the SurveyMonkey questionnaire which topics you would like us to cover (e.g. Divorce, Migration, Racism/Prejudice, Cyber/Bullying, Identity, Memory, Racism, Conflict, Natural Disasters, Human Trafficking/Slavery, Asylum/Refugees, Homelessness, Climate Change, Remittances & Migrant Workers, and Drug Trafficking & Addiction).

We are also interested to have feedback from pupils so if it is possible, please pass on the SurveyMonkey questionnaire link to them as well. Many thanks again, your help is most appreciated.

Future Plans

Over the coming year, we’re intending to expand our bank of database for KS2 (age 7-11) and KS3 (age 11-14) and KS4-5 (age 14-18) and their teachers, and produce national curriculum based accompanying lesson plans for multiple subjects. You can view all our resources on our Teachers Resources page.

We will continue to design and test our resources to ensure that they are made by teachers for teachers.

If you would like any more information or would like to be involved further, please contact info@whycomics.org. Thank you.

With very best wishes,

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Suggested Why Comics? KS2 Art and Design Lesson Plans

Dr Benjamin Dix

Director: Why Comics? Education CharitySenior Fellow: SOAS University of London

Web: http://www.whycomics.org/ Email: info@whycomics.org Twitter and Instagram: @WhyComicsOrg Facebook: Why Comics? Education Charity

Why Comics? Education Charity is based at the Faber Building, SOAS University of London.Why Comics? Charity number - 1172791

Who backs Why Comics? - About PositiveNegatives

The award winning non-profit PositiveNegatives produce literary comics, animations and podcasts about contemporary social and human rights issues. We combine ethnographic research with illustration and photography, adapting personal testimonies into art, education and advocacy materials. PositiveNegatives has worked extensively for over five years for an array of international organisations such as; United Nations (UN), Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Open Society Foundations (OSF), The Nobel Peace Centre, The Guardian, BBC, and with leading academic institutions such as; Harvard South Asia Centre, SOAS and University of Sussex.

Our work endeavours to combine literature, journalism and education. Visual story-telling engages audiences of all ages, backgrounds and levels of literacy. Approaching subjects like conflict and forced migration through the prism of personal narratives emotionally engages general readers and students alike. We have developed comics from research, policy papers and first hand testimonies for organisations such as these and many more. Each comic has reached over 2 million viewers, and many have been translated into multiple languages reaching diverse international stakeholders.

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