Lesson Plan
What is Manga?
| Subject: | Literacy |
| Grade span: | 8 to 12 |
| Duration: | Four to five 30-minute sessions |
Description:
Many adolescents are fascinated with Japanese manga and American graphic novels, often featured in popular fiction sections of public libraries because they are so requested by teens. This activity, requiring 4-5 thirty to forty minute sessions, asks students to look into the history and content of both American and Japanese versions that target the teen market, providing opportunities for cross-cultural learning, development of discussion skills, and practice with essential comprehension strategies.Learning Goals:
- Practice social skills for good discussion - listening to others, contributing in turn, questioning, forming opinions, and negotiating positions
- Learn to apply research-based comprehension skills to popular fiction - analyzing formats, questioning, connecting to experience, visualizing, forming predictions, making judgments, etc.
Materials:
- Description of good discussion process and behaviors http://www.litcircles.org/
- Information on manga (Japanese comic books) characteristics and culture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga
- Sets of manga in translation and American graphic novels for discussion groups (work with students' own copies and/or libraries to obtain sets of different stories/same type, or sets of the same story - or order them online) http://bargainanime.com/
- Chart of comprehension skills - http://nationalserviceresources.org/ (PDF)
Preparation:
- Investigate resources and advice for planning literature circles http://www.webenglishteacher.com/
- Lead a discussion to determine student exposure to Japanese manga and American graphic novels (who's read what, what's popular?)
- Distribute information about Japanese manga and discuss/chart what students already know/ want to learn about the formats and topics in both Japanese and American graphic novels
- Working with what students want to know and their own book recommendations (above), locate book sets for use in literature circles
What to Do:
- Allow students to form groups based on their preferred type of graphic novel, American or Japanese in translation
- Introduce discussion skills and behavior and demonstrate the use of the comprehension chart (both listed above) to guide the groups
- Schedule a series of regular meetings, allowing half time for reading and half for discussion
- Work with students to develop outcomes for these meetings (what they want to learn and achieve)
- As students read, they mark sections they want to talk about with sticky notes
- Monitor groups during each meeting, coaching if difficulties are observed (staying on task, deepening discussion, etc.), asking a successful group to model for others
- Work with students to develop extension activities (drawing a manga episode, writing reviews, interviewing elders about favorite graphic novels, etc.)
Evaluate (Outcomes to look for):
- Student engagement and enjoyment in sharing responses to popular fiction they have selected
- Evidence of good discussion skills (taking turns, listening attentively, generating questions, negotiating differences, etc.)
- Ability to apply comprehension skills independently and with peers
- Interest in extension activities and further learning
