November 2, Mr. Philip Barrington’s English 9 class and Ms. Jacquelin Collins Art 10 class worked together to form the “Graphic Novel” project. Students were tasked with building, writing and drawing their own graphic novel that would be created in a span of three weeks.
Working in partners, Mr. Barrington’s class students wrote the story-line and Ms. Collins class designed and drew the illustrations, to bring the stories to life. By collaborating, communicating and using teamwork to create their own graphic novel, students were put to the test on their creativity.
Grade nine Riverside student, Alannah Kestila, from Ms. Collins Art 10 class, described this project as a great opportunity to work collaboratively with another person to create a fantastic graphic novel. “I think this project gave students a chance to learn from each other when creating ideas and working together,” said Kestila.
Another grade nine student, Walwala Tata, from Mr. Barrington’s English 9 class, described this project as helpful for students who would like to pursue becoming a graphic novelist in the future. “This project helped me realize what a graphic novelist does daily, when collaborating with their illustrator, writing the storyline, and putting in all the time and effort,” said Tata.
Barrington described the Graphic Novel project as a great opportunity to work with new students and encouraged his students to use their knowledge of plotlines while creating their graphic novels. “You are all capable of creating a plotline after learning how to identify them in short stories,” said Barrington, to his class.
The two classes also received help from student teacher, Ms. Phoebe Nezil and Mrs. Susan Henderson while creating and building their graphic novel.
In the art room, Nezil also taught the art ten students how to sketch and draw the characters, landscape setting and other illustrations while Ms. Collins supervised.
“I think it is very important to be able to communicate visually and bring together artwork and narrative,” said Nezil. “I think this project’s main focus was the ability to develop a visual story and to bring students together to collaborate.”
