Graphic+Novel+adaptation

Graphic Novel Adaptation
Students will create a graphical representation of a scene in //Mister Pip//. Students will have the option of taking pictures with a digital camera or illustrating the panels themselves. Some students can use Photoshop to manipulate their images, but they must also pay attention to the conventions of graphic novels by noting how dialogue, sound, or narration are employed. Students will pay attention to color, to action, and to the order and form of their panels.

This activity will force students to focus on pivotal scenes, and also force them to choose the most important lines of dialogue to include. Students who create their graphic novel with a camera can use techniques, depending on the photo program, such as greyscale or any of the artistic functions that distort color, resemble chalk drawings, or various other effects in order to make their graphic novel cohesive and adequately represent their analysis of the passage in a visual way. Illustrators will have similar concerns, but will face the challenge of creating the panels from scratch rather than manipulating images. The techniques used will not be prescribed but the teacher should realize the depth of effort students can put into the project if properly motivated.

After taking a series of photographs or creating illustrations, students will arrange these visual representations in such a way as to make them look like a graphic novel. These representations could then be posted on a class website, with later classes developing the entire plot of //Mister Pip// by inserting graphic novels to connect parts of the novel that aren't yet represented. They will also be analyzed by the students as an in-class lesson in order to critically analyze the choices illustrators or photographers made in their graphic novel.

The benefit of such a project would be a close reading of the test that motivates students to identify critical dialogue, key themes, and create tableaus in order to represent meaning. Since students will have varying levels of artistic ability, the opportunity for students to create a storyboard should also be considered.

Possible group work: The project should be considered as something students do in groups, but I wouldn't think more than 2-3 students per group. This way the students must work together to synthesize the meaning behind the images and the meaning behind the text.

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