This week, we had an open evening for prospective year 3 parents. As part of the evening, each class was running activities with a small group of children and then the people walking around could see some of the work we do and also had the chance to join in if they wanted to. Somebody kindly volunteered me to run a graphic novel activity and show how they can be used to support learning. Initially, I thought about going down the art route but felt like I should use the chance to do something a little bit more thought provoking and focus on how the texts can support learning in all areas of the curriculum.

My activity was called How to be a hero and it focused simply on identifying the hero in four different extracts and thinking about what made that person a hero. What were they doing on the page to be a hero and why is that behaviour considered heroic? One of the pages was from Miles Morales: Shockwaves so that there was an easily identifiable hero and one that people may be quite familiar with. Some of the young children wandering round with their parents could spot him and talked about their love of Marvel. The other pages contained less established characters and required the children to explore the page and work out either who the hero was or think carefully about why they might be considered heroes. The pages were from City of Dragons, Meg, Jo, Beth & Amy and I Survived 9/11.

To start with the group were excited to explore all the pages and talk about their experiences of reading the books in class. After the initial burst of excitement, they started to focus more on the content and drawing out conclusions from the extracts. Even the supposedly simpler page from Miles Morales led to a lot of discussion about how his heroic behaviour was more than just saving people, there was his willingness to risk harming himself to help others and we also discussed how he could potentially be helping people who aren’t nice, respectful or law abiding. This got the ball rolling and they felt more confident analysing the behaviour of the other characters and working out who was a role model to follow. After exploring all four pages it became evident that the more ‘normal’ or simply ‘human’ characters were actually more heroic than we first realised. In fact, it made it clear that all of us can be heroic on a daily basis and may not even realise it.

Discussing the bravery and courage of firefighters allowed us to look at the reward and respect they are given for constantly risking their lives despite the poor pay and difficult working patterns. When exploring Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, the group were passionate about how brave Meg was to stand up for her friend and fight for what is right. They talked at length about how she focused on what was right rather than what would be best for her. Standing up for what you believe in and fighting for equality or justice isn’t always acknowledged as a heroic act but it has the potential to change lives and improve the future which is a truly heroic act.

After all of this analysis, the group were given the chance to create their own heroes. When the sheets were given out at the start they all discussed how they were going to be making super vegetables that could fight crime, jedi based assassins and one boy was planning to create an even more muscular version of Superman. Yet, when they were actually given the chance to fill in those sheets they all created heroes that were based in reality and had very human characteristics. They focused on the personal qualities of these heroes and ensured they were good role models and fought for what was right. Some had heroes who were kind, caring and empathetic, whilst others ensured theirs would fight for equality and create a better future. Seeing them so passionate about displaying these traits showed they had really thought about how lots of people are heroes every day but are never celebrated or praised for what they do. The only downside was they ran off with their designs before I could grab some photos.