The designing of ocean threat comics by elementary students

Abstract

A paucity of research has been conducted with learners in elementary classrooms on both the use of and the student creation of science comics. During the classroom-based research featured in this article, Grade 4 students designed ocean threat comics for the culminating activity of an interdisciplinary Ocean Literacy unit, one component of a larger study. Throughout the research, the students were afforded with opportunities to develop their visual meaning-making skills and competences, as well as their aesthetic understanding of and critical thinking about multimodal ensembles through participation in activities that focused on various elements of visual art and design, and conventions of the medium of comics. The visual and descriptive analysis of one student's ocean threat comics, which includes excerpts from the interview about her work, reveals her motivations for selecting and orchestrating specific semiotic resources to represent and express particular meanings that realized her objectives as a sign-maker. Overall, the descriptions of the pedagogy featured during the research and the student's ocean threat comics demonstrate how the development of student knowledge about elements of visual art and design, and conventions of the medium of comics can inform and deepen students' semiotic work of comprehending, interpreting and designing science comics.