Calling All Heroes!
Calling All Heroes!
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A stream that allows students to explore the history, psychology, literature, and science of superheroes and comics.
A stream that allows students to explore the history, psychology, literature, and science of superheroes and comics.
Calling All Heroes! is a 12-week stream taught with four teachers. The stream teaches science, literary analysis, creative writing, and psychology through the lens of superhero science fiction and comic books.
I was directly involved in the original writing of the curriculum for the stream, and I've written all of the lessons for the literary analysis. I've also developed the stream's major writing assignments, which include one literary analysis essay, and one larger piece of creative writing.
With a team of other talented teachers, I've helped to create and hone the stream's two simulations: "PantherCon", which asks students to create their own superhero stories and put together a comics convention at our school, and "Panel Palooza," in which class sized groups of students work together to create and publish a comics zine.
I created all of the original artwork in these examples with the intention to give students a model of creative work that is imperfect but engaging and personal.
Over three years, I've meticulously developed my section of Calling All Heroes! while teaching different groups of students. I've worked with varying teams of teachers to develop the writing assignments, stream-wide projects, and simulations into some of the best our school has to offer.
Over three years, I've meticulously developed my section of Calling All Heroes! while teaching different groups of students. I've worked with varying teams of teachers to develop the writing assignments, stream-wide projects, and simulations into some of the best our school has to offer.
Calling All Heroes Stream Writings
Calling All Heroes Stream Writings
Below are descriptions of the major writing assignments of the stream. Every stream includes two of these "stream compositions," which are writing assignments that ask students to apply the knowledge and skills that they've been learning in their classes. The two described below are also a building block to helping students understand the role that metaphor plays in superhero and other fantastical stories. By the end of the stream, they will create their own superhero stories that have some metaphorical relationship to real-world experiences.
CAH Stream Comp 1 Prompt and Organizer.pdfIncredible Stories.
The first major writing assignment of Calling All Heroes! asks students to write a piece of creative fiction based on an ordinary event from their everyday life. Students are guided through the process of finding a metaphor for this ordinary experience after identifying how it made them feel. They use the steps of the hero's journey to outline their adventure, then work directly with their teachers as they watch their stories come to life on the page.
Before this assignment, my lessons focus heavily on metaphors in poetry and fiction, and how they relate to and reflect real-world experiences.
Literary Analysis: A Superpower.
For their second major writing assignment of Calling All Heroes, students are asked to read a comic book (The Flash #0), and then write their own literary analysis of the text.
The lessons I teach during this stream guide students through the process of literary analysis. They learn to ask three questions--How?; Why?; and So What?--to guide them through the process of finding meaning in a literary work. These questions provide a helpful map for students to identify literary elements, understand how those contribute to the development of a theme, and articulate the real world implications of that theme.
Even our reluctant readers tend to engage well with graphic novels, and the medium has the power to help students develop their inferencing skills. Using comics for literary analysis has allowed students to find deeper and more meaningful ideas in their writing about works of fiction.
Example Lesson: Mapping Meaning in Maus
Example Lesson: Mapping Meaning in Maus
This lesson serves as an introduction to writing a thesis statement for a literary analysis essay. By this point in our lessons, students have a clear understanding of metaphor, theme, and other literary elements. After reading an excerpt from Maus by Art Spiegelman, students are asked to identify literary devices the author uses, use those to find a meaningful theme, then describe the real world ramifications of that theme. Working with a partner, students create a "map" of their analysis of this text.
In later lessons, we'll connect the themes in Maus to those in Superman, and students will explore the consequences of being forced into hiding, literally or metaphorically.
Example Lesson: Under the Mask
Example Lesson: Under the Mask
After students have constructed their own analysis of Maus, they'll hear a mini-lecture connecting themes from Maus to those of Superman. Both of these stories illustrate the experience of being "othered" through metaphor. Maus uses its anthropomorphic animal characters to illustrate the dehumanizing effects of being forced into hiding your identity, and in having an identity imposed on your through prejudice. Superman establishes the most iconic superhero of all time as an immigrant who is forced into hiding his identity to blend in with the culture around him. Superman was created by two jewish artists during a time when many jewish people in entertainment would go so far as to change their names to protect their careers from rampant antisemitism.
Students are asked to reflect on the masks that they wear and the masks they have imposed on them by others. They consider how other people see them, what things about themselves they try to hide, and who they are underneath their masks.
Finally, students create a superhero mask using symbols, iconography, and visual metaphors--things we've learned about for weeks. On the front, they design a mask that illustrates how others see them, and on the back, they illustrate how they see themselves.
This lesson combines ELA standards with social and emotional learning in a way that builds empathy and asks students to consider the themes of a text from a personal, real-world persepctive.
Under the Mask Student Work Example
Under the Mask Student Work Example
Front: How others see me.
Under the Mask Student Work Example
Under the Mask Student Work Example
Back: How I see myself.
Stream Premise (1).pdfStream Description Updated.pdfPanthercon.pdfPanelpalooza (1).pdfPage updated
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