Digital Story: Comic
The following comic, "Joey's Source Quest," follows a little boy named Joey who got assigned a paper to write on any topic he wishes and he chooses to write about the sun. He travels from various sources to try and learn the temperature of the sun. He learns how some sources lack validity until finally he comes across the answer.
I based the subject of the comic on the Virginia SOL Grade 8 Writing Assessment, specifically the Grade 6 Standards of Learning as seen below:
6.9
The student will find, evaluate, and select appropriate resources for a research product.
a) Collect information from multiple sources including online, print, and media.
b) Evaluate the validity and authenticity of texts.
c) Use technology as a tool to research, organize, evaluate, and communicate information.
e) Define the meaning and consequences of plagiarism and follow ethical and legal
guidelines for gathering and using information.
The comic primarily focused on (a) and (b).
What I learned from creating this comic was how easy it was to create and design a story for a specific learning standard. At first, I thought it would be difficult to come up with a story that could be a lesson plan in of itself, or to at least aid a more general lesson plan. But it didn't take me long to come up with a story about a boy seeking reliable sources. I really wanted to draw this comic but I was having difficulty doing so (drawing is definitely not on my list of talents) so I decided to gather all these images from Creative Commons sources. I hoped to find an animated boy that had various standing positions but it didn't quite work out. Even with the limitations I faced with finding images, I'm happy with my first attempt at creating a comic. I'll definitely continue using comics to teach specific topics and hopefully I'll get better at it!
