How to Read Graphic Histories
1GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHIES LESSON PLANWhen you’re trying to teach the entirety of human history, it’s easy to get lost in a forest of content. It’s even easier to miss the trees for the forest—that is, you find yourself talking about world history only as a series of large-scale events, processes, and structures. Suddenly, you realize that you’ve hardly mentioned any individual humans!That’s exactly why you need the power of OER Project’s graphic biographies: They help students put the humans back in human history. These small stories give students evidence they can use to challenge the big, world-historical narratives they’re learning in your class. And while they’re at it, students will develop new forms of literacy as they learn to decode the combination of visual and textual elements in comics. In this short lesson, students will use our Three Close Reads—Graphic Biographies Tool and an introductory activity to learn how to read comics. Then, they’ll apply what they’ve learned to a graphic biography about the tensions between history and memory. They’ll conclude the lesson by thinking about how their own personal or family stories fit into the vastness of human history.OverviewLength: One lesson, which should take one or two class periods. Learning Objectives• Understand and identify the elements of a typical comic, including panels, gutters, and types of text.• Develop literacy skills that help students make sense of comics by combining textual and visual elements to make meaning.• Learn to write a short comic that contextualizes students’ own lives within the history they’re learning.
2Lesson: How to Read Comics Description:In this introductory lesson on reading comics, students begin by watching a short video that introduces OER Project’s graphic biographies and explains why students are reading them. Next, they’ll encounter a tool for reading graphic biographies. To introduce them to how to use the OER Project’s Three Close Reads—Graphic Biographies Tool, they’ll complete an introductory activity featuring graphic history author and world historian Trevor Getz—in comic form! Then, they’ll put their new skills to use as they read a one-page graphic biography featuring Dr. Getz’s own family history. Finally, they will create a graphic biography about their own lives or family histories in a quick closing activity. Opener: Graphic Biographies Introduction VideoThis short video introduces OER Project’s graphic biographies. It explains not only why students have to learn all this stuff but also why they might actually want to! History isn’t just dates and empires and kings. Individual everyday people—including students themselves—are also part of the story. Have students watch this quick video, and then ask them to write two “yeah, but” sentences—which the video models—about how their own stories challenge historical narratives. These sentences should feature one historical statement followed by a statement about their own lives or family histories. For example:• The American Revolution embraced Enlightenment ideas about human equality. Yeah, but as Black people living in America, my family was excluded from these ideals.• The Second World War was fought by male soldiers.Yeah, but my great-grandmother worked in a factory that supplied the military with tank shells. • Over the last 500 years, the world has gradually grown more interconnected, thanks to new technologies.Yeah, but my experience has been that although technologies like social media make it easier to communicate across distance, they make me feel alienated, and the connections I make don’t feel genuine. Tool: Three Close Reads—Graphic Biographies ToolHave students review this tool before they begin the activity. Comics may look like an easy read, but decoding a graphic biography requires developing a new set of literacy skills. This tool for reading graphic biographies—and really, any graphic history—walks students through the three steps they should take when reading comics: 1. Observe. 2. Understand. 3. Connect. The tool ends with an optional second page that invites students to become cocreators as they consider how to extend the story.
3Activity: Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios—IntroductionThis activity introduces the Three Close Reads—Graphic Biographies Tool, explaining how to use the tool and walking students through the steps of reading graphic biographies. Graphic biographies might look simple at first—after all, they have pictures!—but there are layers of meaning embedded in them. Graphic biographies help students support, extend, and challenge historical narratives by introducing them to a variety of individuals whose life stories might not agree with the dominant historical narratives. In this activity, students will learn how to read graphic biographies at three different levels: observing, understanding, and connecting. They will also learn how to use the Three Close Reads—Graphic Biographies Tool as a graphic organizer as they respond to the comics and become cocreators of them!Graphic Biography: History and MemoryHistory and memory serve different purposes, but both help us understand our world. In this graphic biography, students learn about this dynamic through one family’s history. The story challenges students to think about the differences between history and memory and the various purposes each might serve. As they read the comic, students should be using the Three Close Reads—Graphic Biographies Tool and referring to the introductory activity for guidance on how to read and what to look for.Closer: How Do You Rewrite History?Now that students have learned how to read comics, it’s time to return to the “yeah, but” statements they wrote for the opener activity. They should choose one of them—or write a new one—and base a one-page graphic biography on it. How does their story or their family history fit into the history they’re learning? How could their history or their family’s memories transform the way another person understands the past? Remind students that they don’t need to be good artists to do this—stick figures are totally fine! When they’ve finished, ask students to share their comics with a peer and discuss connections to what they’re learning.