Lesson Plan: All About Csar Chavez

Target Audience: Grade:3

In third grade we study Freedom Fighters and it involves 9 freedom fighters. For this particular
lesson I focused just on one freedom fighter. However, the students would have a choice as to
which freedom fighter they would like to focus on.
Instructional Design Process:
Objectives:
*The student will be able to describe the cultural and geographic systems associated with the
historical figures they need to study. (Csar Chavez, FDR, Mary Bethune, Eleanor Roosevelt,
LBJ, Paul Revere, Susan B Anthony, Frederick Douglas and Thurgood Marshall)
*The student will be able to discuss the lives of these Americans and their character traits of
those who expanded peoples rights and freedoms in a democracy.
Procedures:
After discussing various Freedom Fighters and the rights and freedoms they stood for, students
will choose a freedom fighter to research and using a comic or graphic novel format will create a
6 slide comic strip or two page graphic novel showcasing their freedom fighter and what they
stood for. Students can choose from a variety of apps to demonstrate their knowledge. I would
first have the students design a storyboard on details of their freedom fighter's life, then using the
storyboard, create a comic of their freedom fighter.

The final project will use the following rubric:

Comic/Graphic Novel Rubric - Freedom Fighter

Student:________________
Category

Wow (5)

Total:____/15 _______%
Good (3)

Needs Work
(1)

Text

Text is
completely free
of grammatical
errors. Text was
creatively used
in at least three
slides.

Text is mostly
free of
grammatical
errors. Text was
creatively used
in only two
slides.

Text has a lot of

grammatical
errors. Text was
creatively used
in only one slide
or not at all.

Design/
Appearance

MInimum of 6
slides for comic
and two pages
for graphic
novel. Images
appropriate and
title and student
name are
present.

5 or less slides
for comic or
one page for
graphic novel
were created.
Images are
appropriate.
Title and
student names
are present.

Slides or novel
are incomplete.
Images not
appropriate.
Title/student
name are
missing or
incomplete.

Inductive
Reasoning

Clear research
has been done
on the specific
freedom fighter
and story
follows a logical
sequence.
Details are
interesting,
specific, and
very clear.

Research was
conducted but
some details
are very
general. Story
follows logical
sequence.

Little or no
research was
done.
Information is
made up.
Specific details
are missing and
out of sequence
and the comic is
not very
interesting.

Multimedia and Elements of design:

Score

The multimedia principles I incorporated in my comic were:

Modality Principle
Visual and Auditory: Both visual and auditory together, use both pictures and spoken words mixed mode. In each of the slides I incorporated both picture and spoken words.
Contiguity Principle:
Spatial: words and pictures are presented near each other rather than far. Here I put the speech
balloons close by the person who was speaking.
Temporal Contiguity: animation and narration are presented simultaneously rather than
successively in my comic.
Personalized Principle: Present in conversational style, Learner-paced segments, not continuous
and several short animations
The elements of design I chose to incorporate were:
Size/ scale: I tried to show the largeness of the man in charge of the workers in the field giving
him an aura of importance versus the smaller workers in the field. Also the smallness of the
workers against the crops gives one a sense of a long and tedious job with no end in site.
Color: Having the slides have a bluish/ gray tint in the ones that were in the fields gives a sense
of gloom and sadness portraying the plight of the workers. I used red text to show excitement.
Focal Point: I made Csar the focal point in a few of the slides as he is the main character in my
comic story and I wanted to show that he was a strong man with strong beliefs that people looked
up to.

Reflection:

Graphic novels are books written and illustrated in the style of a comic book. To be considered a
graphic novel, rather than a picture book or illustrated novel, the story is told using a
combination of words and pictures in a sequence across the page. With more and more graphic
novels coming out for the younger set (pre-teen), they are a great way to get even the most

stubborn of kids to read as they can be pulled into the story through the visual elements. Graphic
novels also have rich, complex plots and narrative structures which are also satisfying to
advanced readers. From what I have read, all graphic novels are comics but not all comics cannot
be graphic novels as it depends on the length. Comics that remain under fifty pages stay as such
and more than fifty are considered graphic novels. A cartoon is a single panel image usually used
to convey an idea whereas a comic is a story told using sequential panel images. To be honest, I
have never been a fan of graphic novels nor comics. However, this class has intrigued me to give
it a try again and I am looking at graphic novels for seven and eight year olds to use in my class
next school year to teach various concepts. Funny enough, graphic novels have been around for
ages in France. Both kids and adults in France read them voraciously and I was always shocked
at how many graphic novels there were in the bookstores in France. There were always quite a
few adults reading them as well.
Using a comic or creating a graphic novel to tell the story of any famous person would be a lot of
fun for students. As they would be doing the research and creating the visuals for the comics this
would help in retaining the content. I had a lot of fun creating the comic. ToonDo is not the most
user friendly app, but after a few tries, I got it going. I was able to create the slides quickly and
add more defined details as I got more comfortable with the app. I think this app might get some
younger students frustrated as you cannot move the slides around so one really has to plan out
their thoughts first. Perhaps with the paid version you can, but I was not able to move my slides
around, causing me much frustration at the beginning. A storyboard is most imperative for this
project as it helps to avoid any uncertainty.

The visual media of comics and graphic novels embraces all senses. One almost feels as if
theyre watching a movie of the story in their imagination as graphic novels are literature that
appears almost in a cinematic format. Of course, the action based story lines keep students
interested in the action and comprehending the meaning. Comics are a great way to teach
punctuation as well as you have to relate punctuation to the dialogue balloon. Comics and
graphic novels can help with complex reading skills as there are very little text and students must
rely on images to draw on inferences and make conclusions. As a result this would allow
students to engage in some really good dialogue with their peers as to the interpretation of the
comic or novel. Students not only receive information passively they also interact with text and
images to construct understanding (Cutler 2014). Due to the fact that there is less text creates
students to develop critical thinking skills to determine what may happen next.
Graphic novels and comics also bridge the gap between media we watch and media we read.
Readers control the information coming in decreasing cognitive overload. Students can fast
forward and rewind as often as they want. This is most helpful for English Language Learners
(ELLs as well as students who cannot comprehend as quickly as others. Because comics reflect
larger social issues in our society they can help students understand how these issues are
addressed in our society (Sibaja 2010). The exaggerated visuals lend appeal to a younger
audience and help to make the information more retainable. As well, the close connection of
visual and text help reach all readers and even bring the teacher closer to the younger generation
(Sibaja 2010).
While there are still many teachers reluctant to try comics and graphic novels as part of their
teaching repertoire, all the evidence points to the positive in that it creates interest for students

along with much needed critical thinking skills and strategies that are most important for today's
world as one cannot solve problems with knowledge only.
References
Cutler, D. (2014). Reading with Pictures: Serious Learning Through Comic. Edutopia. Retrieved
June 24, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/reading-with-pictures-learning-comics-davidcutler
Sibaja, Rwany. "Comic Books in the History Classroom." Web log post. Teaching History. N.p.,
2010. Web. 24 June 2016.