Manga & Comic Con Project Based Learning

This post is a little different. I’m going to share with you a PBL that I did at my elementary school which led to a school wide convention. You do not necessarily need to have a con as your POL, and you don’t need to have every grade participate as we did.

Students creating artwork. — Two students working on their own manga, using instructional drawing texts.

This was a collaboration with my school’s speech teacher, Ms. Toles, who did supplementary lessons with the students she supports around speech concepts, so it is possible that in other settings this may take a little more time. We are also a small school, which is why we were able to do this as a whole community. I cannot minimize how much this was a collaborative effort with Ms. Toles, who created an incredible video for our students with anecdotes from older fans and representatives from Blerd Con. I think in a larger setting, done only by a librarian with less support, this might be best for the 3-5 range. I also think this can be easily adapted for middle and high school with alternate anchor texts.

Children working with perler beads. — Students create peeler bead artwork.

If you have never seen an artist alley, or don’t know what the experience is like, it is essentially a marketplace for fanmade artwork in various mediums. Here’s a video on how to setup an artist alley booth that might be useful for getting an idea of what these events are like, or even if you’ve decided to go full force at the high school level and do a real artist alley.

I used The Discovery of Anime & Manga, but I also think that A Kid’s Guide to Anime & Manga: Exploring the History of Japanese Animation and Comics (Advanced Upper Elementary & Middle School), Con Quest! (Middle School), or A History of Modern Manga (High School) would work as great anchor texts.

If you would like to replicate the Donors Choose I did for this convention and acquire similar materials, here is the link!

Without further ado, here’s the PBL. Feel free to edit and use it as you need! You can also find it as a Google Doc in this folder, which includes all of the associated lesson plans and documents. Please feel free to make a copy of any documents necessary!

I used Maura Madigan’s outline from her book Project-Based Learning for Elementary Grades, a resource that I cannot recommend highly enough if you are doing any level of PBL. I find her method of thought organization so helpful in doing this work. I also use Sharon Fox’s lesson plan template during the school year, because it is so easy to utilize.

Students in cosplay. — Our speech teacher brought in some of her cosplay gear so students could try out cosplay for themselves!

Topic: Literacy, Art, Media, Economics

Content Area(s): ELA, Art, Library, Speech

Grades: K-5

Driving Question:

How can you, an artist, create a product that appeals to anime and comic book fans?

Scenario:

You are an artist, and you will be tabling at the super incredible (Your School) Manga & Comic Con! To table at this event, you will need to create a product. This product may be a comic, manga, sticker, button, or some other cool item that anime and comic fans will love.

Print & Digital Resources:

Create a Comic Worksheets

How to Draw Kawaii Manga Characters (Learn Manga with Misako) by Misako Rocks

How to Draw Anime and Manga for Beginners: Learn to Draw Awesome Anime and Manga Characters – A Step-by-Step Drawing Guide for Kids, Teens, and Adults by Shinjuku Press

Draw Your Own Manga World: Invent Characters that Leap Right Off the Page by Arunyi

Materials: