It’s been a long time since I wrote about the work we’re doing at school using comics and graphic novels, but that is nothing to do with a lack of quality or effort. Some of the things we have been doing are things I’ve written about before, so it seemed unwise to waste everyone’s time writing about it again. However, in graphic novel club we have been experimenting with some new ideas and activities, which have paid huge dividends. So, my intention is purely to tell you about the amazing work by the children (I am purely a body in the room, they are all far more talented than I am!) and it may help some of you if you are intending to run your own club or want some decent activities to try.

Last year, I ran the club for most of the year and our goal was to create our own comics that we could share with other pupils. Sadly, we never quite got to the finished stage, but we had a lot of fun creating and the children who were in year 5 were desperate for the club to run again, even when I suggested lunch time might be more fun outside. I had a think about what we could do this year and whether we should take the same approach to the club. Eventually, I realised that the end goal could be the same but we needed to change how we got to it, and actually on reflection that meant I needed to hand over more ownership. Although I tried to structure their work in a supportive manner last year, they were slightly confined by the structural limits I put in place. I thought these would help to ensure all their work was high quality, but actually I think it played a role in lots of them changing their ideas a lot or attempting to modify their initial characters or plot. They had been tasked with creating a hero, villain, setting and rough story but a lot of them probably needed to have a few weeks creating their own characters etc. before then being guided on how they could interact or how they would work together in a story.

To start this year’s club I decided to go in differently and put more emphasis on them creating and me admiring. This way, I could make sure they were happy about what they were creating and it would help them work out how it would fit together as a story instead of me telling them how it could fit into a story. Their desire to change and adapt last year suggests they respond more to freedom, so I needed to give it to them. Our first activity was courtesy of the wonderful Authorfy, who have an unfinished page of Barb and the Ghost Blade available. Each child was given a copy and a free license to finish it how they saw fit. The only rule was that all the panels had to be used and we couldn’t have anything absolutely insane like a murderous gang of clowns firing rocket launchers. I knew they were big fans of Barb, so they loved having the chance to put their own spin on the character and story. After they had thrown out all their wild ideas, the group started to settle on more attainable ones and within two sessions (plus some time at home) they had drawn, coloured and written speech in the empty panels.

As you can see from the photos (these are about half the group) they all took a slightly different route. A personal favourite of mine was the entry that changed it to a spade instead of blade and gave us a talking spade which had contrasting ideas to Barb. A lot of them adapted the story in ways that I hadn’t even considered, ranging from a bullying intervention, dancing monsters to a good old fashioned scrap. This willingness to adapt and divert from the obvious in a lot of them made me realise that they didn’t need me to channel their ideas, they just needed a platform. As a result, we decided to have a go at making our own Battle Bunnies over the next few weeks. Using this site (http://mybirthdaybunny.com/make-your-own/ ) you can print off the original Birthday Bunny and then let the kids go wild on it and creating a new story in the style of Battle Bunny.

Again, they were all keen to modify and adapt the text to suit their style. Some remarked about how they had never been given opportunities like this before, which when you consider some of the English lessons they’ve completed it by now feels like a missed opportunity. Giving children a chance to change a pre-existing text can allow them to show skills that may not always appear in a self written piece of work or they may not consider without the prompts that are there. Very quickly I was greeted by conversations about bunnies who were filled with murderous rage while others explored the possibility of just having a mildly insane bunny instead. Either way, they were all happily creating and desperate to share their adaptations with me and each other. This activity took us about three sessions but some of that was affected by the Christmas run up, so you may be able to easily fit it into two.

Our last week was a simple task, tell me a festive story that uses up this sheet of blank panels. I will be given the finished versions of these during our first session back, but the starting entries looked brilliant and had some very different ideas. We had Santa going to the gym with Rudolph to hit their Christmas weight goals, Santa going on holiday and taking Christmas off (he was also sadly devoured by sharks) and of course people making Santa traps and using youtube to capture the man himself. Giving them the freedom of story and just providing a theme meant we spent less time re writing or starting again and more time focused on creating a festive read that would be enjoyable.

I don’t know what we will do for our next little project when we get back, but I am determined to keep giving the group more opportunity to express themselves without having to meet certain criteria from me. They need to feel empowered with their own creations and not like they have to limit them just to meet a set of rules that I set up.

Don’t forget my padlet is still up and running with regular ish updates : https://padlet.com/rruddick9zra/graphic-novels-73uh2srzpbia

You can also find these books and some manga titles that are suitable for primary here: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/great-graphic-novels-for-kids?

Secondary here: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/great-graphic-novels-for-secondary?

These links also help to support local book shops as a donation goes to them with each sale, I also receive a small commission but we all know that is just funding my book addiction!