4. Co-Constructing a Graphic Text

• Anne Frank’s Diary: the graphic adaptation, Folman, A. and Polonsky, D. (2018)
• Lenses for Dialogue or Looking: Ten Times Two (optional)
• 'Making of the Graphic Diary - Anne Frank Fonds'
• Speech bubble exit ticket: jpeg
• ‘Claim, Support, Question’
• Graphic organiser- text to visual adaptation planner: docx PDF

In this stage of the sequence the focus is on guided practice, which enables teachers and students to jointly construct a text. It is recommended that students have read the graphic novel being examined before undertaking this stage.

It is strongly recommended that teachers review all suggested stimulus texts prior to their use to ensure their appropriateness and to enable rich, respectful discussion. For guidance on text selection refer to the department's Teaching and Learning Resources — Selecting Appropriate Materials policy.

Screen a stimulus such as 'Making of the Graphic Diary -- Anne Frank Fonds' to enable students to explore the decisions made by authors during a process of adaptation. Students use the ‘Claim, Support, Question’ routine to generate and record responses. Discuss responses as a group. The animated story ‘Lala’ would also work well as an additional stimulus.

Share a panel from ‘The Diary of Anne Frank: the graphic adaptation’ and invite students to engage in a thinking routine like Lenses for Dialogue or Looking: Ten Times Two to draw out their thoughts and ideas. If Stage three of this sequence has been used, invite students to use appropriate visual and graphic novel metalanguage to articulate their responses to the text.

Students share their responses with the class, focusing on the structures and features used by the authors to create meaning.

Enable students to engage in the ‘Claim, Support, Question’ thinking routine by providing further question prompts to refine the scope of students’ responses. Displaying relevant terminology and graphic novel metalanguage in the classroom may also support student learning.

1. Generating Ideas

Guide student participation in a doughnut sharing circle to generate ideas for the co-construction of graphic panel. Pose a question or statement for discussion and allow time for students to offer suggestions and opinions. For example:

• What sorts of structures and features can be used in graphic novels to communicate with the reader?
• How might the structures and features of graphic novels be used to create impact?

Using the ideas generated in the doughnut sharing circle, work with students to create a checklist of the structures and features that can be found in graphic novels.

If students require clarification on the composition of graphic novels, further information can be found in Stage three of this sequence.

Example checklist:

2. Collaborating and co-creating

Work with students to select a text to adapt from written to visual mode. For example, an historical text, information text, memoir, poem, or fictional narrative. For guidance on text selection refer to the department's Teaching and Learning Resources — Selecting Appropriate Materials policy.

Read the text together and decide upon the purpose of the graphic panel to be created. For example, could the panel explain, inquire, instruct, move, or persuade an audience?

In small groups, invite students to generate ideas about the information that could be included in a panel ‘translating’ the text into graphic form, and the techniques that could be used to communicate with an audience. A graphic organiser may help with this task.

Ask each group to allocate a spokesperson to feed ideas back to the class. A digital collaboration tool could also be used to encourage students to share and build upon the ideas of their classmates.

Using the checklist of structures and features created by students, make collaborative decisions about which written text will be used as a focus and which techniques will be used to co-create a panel.

Allow students time to collaboratively source images that could be used as visual prompts or to create a ‘mood board’ to inform the illustration. A digital design tool such as Adobe Creative Cloud (available free of charge to teachers and students in Victorian government secondary schools) may be a useful resource for this task. 

Use digital tools like Comic Life 3 to co-construct a graphic panel. Comic Life 3 is available free of charge to teachers and students in Victorian government secondary schools. Alternatively, a student volunteer may wish to use a storyboard to draw the panel for the class.

While the graphic panel is being co-constructed, it is important to:

• remind students about the protocols guiding respectful and appropriate conversation
• use visual and graphic novel metalanguage to accurately describe the process. E.g. we have decided to put a figure at the foreground of this splash to draw the reader’s eye to it
• prompt students for explanations about their thinking
• ask clarifying questions and paraphrase information
• elaborate on teacher and student responses
• ‘Think aloud’ to vocalise and articulate your thinking
• actively model drafting and editing processes where possible.

Once the co-constructed panel has been completed, invite students to reflect on the ‘successful’ and ‘less successful’ elements of the panel, using a ‘speech bubble’ exit ticket.

Enable students by working one-on-one or in strategically constructed groups to unpack the question prompts on the exit ticket. Ensure students are familiar with a selection of graphic novel metalanguage.

Extend students by inviting them to further adapt the original text by creating the next panel in a tier.

Anne Frank Fonds Basel, 2019. Making of the Graphic Diary – Anne Frank Fonds. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=pcuD39ZsuUk&feature=emb_logo&ab_channel=AnneFrankFondsBasel
[Accessed 15 March 2022].

Canva, 2020. Create Your Own Amazing Comic Strips Online with Canva. [Online]
Available at: https://www.canva.com/create/comic-strips/
[Accessed 15 March 2022].

Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2019. Project Zero: Claim, Support, Question. [Online]
Available at: http://pz.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Claim%20Support%20Question_0.pdf
[Accessed 15 March 2022].

Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2019. Project Zero: Lenses for Dialogue. [Online]
Available at: http://pz.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Lenses for Dialogue.pdf
[Accessed 15 March 2022].

Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2020. Project Zero: Looking: Ten Times Two. [Online]
Available at: http://www.pz.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Looking%20-%20Ten%20Times%20Two_0.pdf
[Accessed 15 March 2022].

Padlet, n.d. Padlet. [Online]
Available at: padlet.com
[Accessed 15 March 2022].

State Government of Victoria (Department of Education and Training), 2019. Literacy Teaching Toolkit: Modelling through think alouds. [Online]
Available at: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/english/literacy/speakinglistening/Pages/teachingpracmodelling.aspx
[Accessed 15 March 2022].

State Government of Victoria (Department of Education and Training), n.d. Comic Life 3. [Online]
Available at: https://arc.educationapps.vic.gov.au/software/sw32/details
[Accessed 3 March 2022].

USC Shoah Foundation, 2017. Lala (360). [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AgA68qG5C8&ab_channel=USCShoahFoundation
[Accessed 15 March 2022].