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Maus:
by Art Spiegelman
Post-reading
Strategy: Style Study-Mimicry
Maus is a great story, and that's enough reason
to read it, but it's also a graphic novel and that makes
it ripe for style study. This may be the first
time that some students have ever read a graphic novel,
and I want them to take home the message that they're
not all about superheroes and fantasy. The
activity essentially asks the students to make their own
comic book with a small group of peers. They will
choose a topic, research it using the internet or
library, and then produce a short graphic novel in the
style of Maus. I want them to focus on
serious topics, but that doesn't mean they can't use any
humor. I think there is a lot of value in copying
the style of something, to entice you into empathy with
the author and artist, as well as develop an
appreciation for the thought process that goes into
creating art and text. This activity will help the
students to see graphic novels as a potentially valid
forum for writing and storytelling.
I will give the class a list of possible
topics to choose from, including:
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Political events; Civil Rights,
Women's Suffrage, founding of the country, etc.
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War; the first Gulf War, the War
on Terror, Vietnam, World War II, or any other
war. Perhaps even the Wars on Drugs or
Poverty |
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Genocide; Native Americans, Darfur,
Sudan, etc. |
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Historical events; just about
anything you can think of. Ask me if you
have something you want to try
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Click the link below to
see a formal lesson plan introducing this activity. The
document is available in either Adobe Acrobat or
Microsoft Word formats.
Style Study-Mimicry Lesson Plan
or [MS
Word]
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Literacy
Philosophy
