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TitleUsing Comic Books
SourceCASLS Activity of the Week
Body

by Kai Liu

Comic books can serve as authentic materials for learning about a target culture. The interesting visual aids and brief texts in comic books could be used to initiate classroom interaction and spark discussion about a certain topic. The activity below aims to help intermediate-high learners of Chinese review the Chinese philosophy Taoism they have learned and gain a deeper understanding of Taoism by sequencing the pictures of stories and interpreting the stories in comic books. Although it is targeted towards Chinese learners, it could be adapted to any similar language and culture learning activity in the target language.

Outcomes: 

  • Students will be able to sequence the pictures based on textual cues.
  • Students will be able to retell the story in the comic book in their own words.
  • Students will be able to interpret the story using Taoism principles learned in the previous class.

Resources:

  • Stories selected from the Chinese Comic book: Cai, Z. (2009). Comics Taoism. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
  • Scissors to cut the prints of comic books into separate pictures.
  • Projector: groups use the projector to demonstrate the story they put together to the whole class

Procedure:

Before class

  1. Establish activity objectives (see outcomes above) and select a technique: problem-solving. Students will collaborate with work members to sequence the pictures given based on the visual cues and texts in each picture.    
  2. Determine interaction types: before the task: T-S; during the task: S-S; debrief: S-S and T-S.
  3. Choose a grouping technique/strategy: divide students into groups of three to four people. Each group has a different set of pictures (a different story).   

During class

  1. Initiate interaction. The teacher will review the basic principles of Taoism with students. To introduce the genre of comic books, the teacher could ask students if them have read comic books in English or Chinese.
  2. Give explicit instructions. The teacher can focus on the following aspects:
  • Three tasks students need to complete: (1) Work in small groups to solve the “puzzle” by sequencing the pictures; (2) Retell the story in their own words; (3) Think about the Taoism philosophical principles behind the story/ how the Taoism philosophical principles can be applied to explaining these stories.
  • Time limit for the tasks: 10 min.
  • Rules: (1) Everybody needs to speak the target language in their groups; (2) When someone tries to sequence the pictures, he/she has to provide reasons to convince the others in the group; (3) Each group picks two representatives to present the story and philosophical principles to the whole class. 
  1. Model the activity. The teacher can put a set of pictures under the projector and work with the whole class to figure out the first picture.
  2. Monitor the activity. After the task is set in motion, the teacher can circulate among groups making sure everyone is obeying the task rules. The teacher can provide suggestions to solving the puzzle and collect common errors for the debriefing.
  3. Debrief. Group will take turns to present their story to the whole class and share how they solved the puzzle in their group. Other groups can comment on the story and the application of the philosophical ideas. The teacher will also provide feedback on each group’s performance. 

After class

Reflection: Think about the challenges students had during the task. What could you have done differently to change the situation? Were your questioning strategies and suggestions helpful for making the activity more interactive? Did students know how to infer, hypothesize, and suggest in target language when they worked together to solve the problem?

Publishdate2014-08-11 02:15:01