COMICS IN CLASS
In this lesson, comics have been the tool
to work with. First of all, the teacher has shown us interesting information
about “Nello and Patrasche, a dog of flanders” that is an 1872 novel by English
author Marie Louise de la Ramée. The story, of English origin, is widely read
in Japan,
and has been adapted into several films and anime. Even if the novel has been written
by English author, the character on the movies were created by Japanese. For
instance, if we look at the film we can see that the characters wear
traditional Flemish clothes. In contrast to reality that clothes are old-fashion,
but a clue and an example for stereotype we have from other cultures and countries.
This reality I also can see in my country. I
live in the Basque Country, in northern Spain. In spite of being part of Spain, we have
our own language (Basque), that no has similarities with Spanish. Because of
this reason, Spanish people have some stereotype of Basque people and culture. A
clear example of this is “Ocho apellidos vascos” film. For more details, Emilio Martínez-Lázaro is the director of
this film. He was born in 1945 in Madrid
and he is a famous Spanish film director.
In this film, the characters are wearing
clothes that are “typical” in Basque Country, but not everybody in the Basque
Country wear this clothes in their daily live. In conclusion, stereotypes are
everywhere in our world.
Furthermore, in this lesson we have learnt
a different way to create a comic, taking into account different comics that
the teacher brings to the class. First of all, he exposes the material we will
use during creation of the comic. Six big paper piece were spread on the class
and we made groups of three in each paper piece. After that, everybody chose a
figure to be the character of the comic. In our paper we draw something related
with our character. We continue the activity going from one paper to the other
adding different elements, such as pictures, drawing, letters, significant
pictures from the news paper… One we add something to the others paper, we returned
back to the initial one. At that point, all the paper was full of drawings and
words creating this:
After doing all those steps, it was our
turn. Taking into account what we had in our paper, we had to create our comic
based on all the elements we could see there.
I have to say that I like this lesson. We
have to bear in mind that a lot of children deny their ability to create. In my
opinion this activity that I have experiment on, is a wonderful “warming-activity”
to flourish their on creativity, without giving chance to think on what they
can do or not. Moreover, throughout this activity children will be free to add
all the imagination they want, to move around the class, to speak and contrast
with their peers. It is a fantastic activity to implement in the class leaving
behind those art lessons where the children are sitting in a chair, in front of
a table with a marker box, and a white paper.
I could notice MOVEMENT, IMAGINATION and
CREATIVITY if I implement in the future with my pupils, and I really like it!
