March 2009 Blog Posts (5)

Teaching Watchmen at the High School Level

Recently, I wrote an Op Ed piece on Graphic Novel Reporter about my experiences teaching the Watchmen. Some exciting things have happened as a result of my teaching the novel here at Williamsport Area High School. One of the other English teachers will be borrowing my class set and teaching Watchmen for herself. And last weekend, my cousin took her daughter to Hot Topic, and some Watchmen fanatic started talking to her. He said that he heard some guy was teaching the book at the high school. My… Continue

Added by John C. Weaver on March 17, 2009 at 1:30pm — 1 Comment

Barack Obama Poster Parodies

Everyone, by now, has seen the famous, colorful Barack Obama poster that debuted during the election season. But how many of us have seen the various parody posters that were created, as a result of the original? I invite you, once again, to surf over to The Media Literacy Clearinghouse for a look. Frank Baker

Added by Frank W. Baker on March 10, 2009 at 8:00pm — 2 Comments

new column: teaching with comics

I guess I'm sounding a pretty one-note tune here: self-promotion and comics. But hey--go with your strengths, that's what I always say.

This month's column at Comixology is a reflection on some of the issues raised at my NYCC panel, "Graphic Novels and Academic Acceptance." That session forced me to rethink even more the recalculations about how comics fit into curricula, a process begun at the Graphica conference at Fordham in late January.…

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Added by Karen on March 6, 2009 at 9:19pm — 4 Comments

Visual Grammar lesson for HS history

This amazing lesson on deconstructing WWII posters is British but would be a great additional to a HS (or advanced MS) history class: http://aspirations.english.cam.ac.uk/converse/movies/visual_grammar.swf . Kids get to look at WWII propaganda posters and decide which emotions are being appealed to (excuse the passive voice!!) by each one.

Added by Kelly Farrow on March 5, 2009 at 3:31pm — 5 Comments

Gcast - instant podcast from your classroom!

Have your students give a daily recap of what they learned, podcast directly from a field trip, or say pretty much anything on an insta-podcast! All you need is a cell phone. Check it out at gcast.com. I plan to use this w/ my first-grade gifted and talented program; at the end of each session, one lucky kid will get to give the daily diary of what we did, plus one other shout-out they feel like doing!

Added by Kelly Farrow on March 4, 2009 at 7:08pm — 3 Comments