For a recent school assignment, I took Garfield comics like the one below:
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| (Pls don't sue JD - It is because I enjoyed your work so much growing up that I use it now for educational purposes) |
I digitally removed the speech bubbles and then photocopied them for my classes and told them to fill in the blanks with anything they liked. The students took that visual stimulus and came up with some very interesting and varied narratives...
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| Garfield cavalierly comments upon Jon's creeping insanity |
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| Jon's callous unconcern for Garfield's well-being |
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| A reversal of Garfield's defining character trait or a medical problem? |
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| Fashion statement |
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| It was all a hallucination!!! |
Before I presented this lesson, I was told by teachers that it might not work because students are not used to writing completely original sentences. I was a little worried about it too, but in the end the students excelled at this project. The idea for it came from the webcomic
Hark, A Vagrant. A friend of the author did something
very similar. I think this is the sort of creative activity that is very useful for classes with several students that have very different levels of English ability.
