Visual Narratives
Visual Narrative - A story told primarily through visual media - still images or multimedia.
Characteristics of a Visual Narrative:
Must tell a story - sequence of events
Contains little or no text/dialogue
Uses visual media to tell all or most of story
A story represents events taking place over time.
These events may be compressed into a single image that implies something that has already happened or is about to take place.
Must tell a story - sequence of events
Contains little or no text/dialogue
Uses visual media to tell all or most of story
A story represents events taking place over time.
These events may be compressed into a single image that implies something that has already happened or is about to take place.
Student-created Visual Narratives
Tip 1 – Freedom of expression: have students write daily without specific assignments or limitations. Writing can be as simple as drawing meaningful images, making a comic strip, or crafting a complete story. This writing will be read but NOT graded. By allowing students to focus on personal experiences or interests, students are more motivated to write. Students develop confidence and experience which will benefit them in their graded writing assignments. Tip 2 – Alternative assessment: have students create visual narratives as an assessment instead of taking traditional tests/quizzes. This gives students who may struggle with traditional assessments a chance to demonstrate their content knowledge. Tip 3 – Publish or perish: research shows that when students publish their work online, they are more motivated and invested in creating excellent writing. Use a site such as Figment, where students can post their work anonymously and receive feedback from other writers, readers, etc. |
Using Visual Narratives as an Instructional Tool
Tip 1 – Get the students interested in the scenario, connected to the characters, involved in the story. Use the story to start a discussion, as a springboard for a student writing assignment, or to introduce a new topic. Tip 2 – The eyes have it: many, perhaps even a majority, of students are visual learners. Using Visual (Graphic) Narratives to teach provides integration of textual language and visual images increasing student comprehension, interest, and involvement. Tip 3 – Pardon my mistake: The story includes an error – students dissect the error and brainstorm ways to do the activity correctly, resolve the conflict, etc. depending on your story content. Tip 4 – Play up the absurd: Use exaggerated situations and ridiculous scenarios to snag student attention. Tip 5 – Cry me a river: when emotions are involved, learners tend to be more invested in the lesson. Tip 6 – KISS: break the story down to its simplest essential components. Don’t overwhelm students with too much detail. Tip 7 – On the edge of your seat: make the story suspenseful. Consider a cliff-hanger ending where students have to discuss or write about what happens next. |
Visual Narrative Formats (and recommended creation tools)
Digital Art - Green screen without a green screen (paint.NET)
Digital Authoring - Comics and Graphic Novels (Pixton Comics)
Note: When students create comics to demonstrate content knowledge, the comics become less of a visual narrative because more text is needed. In both of these examples, while the images are very important to the story, the text is equally important. |
Digital Authoring - Graphic Poetry (Tagxedo and Word)
Digital Authoring - Picture Books (StoryBird and Shutterfly)
Note: Many online book creators moderate contributors' works before they can be shared through social media or embedded on a website. While waiting for moderation, authors CAN share the link to the online book.
Multimedia - Video, animation, slideshows can all be visual narratives (Animoto and Vine)
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Some well known Visual Narratives (or VN based on well known works) include:
Animated cartoons/movies, TV shows:
Pink Panther Cartoons Road Runner Cartoons Mr. Bean show Wordless, or almost wordless, comics:
Farside by Gary Larson Peanuts by Charles Schultz |
Movies:
All is Lost starring Robert Redford The Bear, director Jean-Jacques Annaud Scorpio Rising, director Kenneth Anger In the City of Sylvia, director Jose Luis Geurin The Silence, director Ingmar Bergman Castaway starring Tom Hanks (majority of movie) |
Graphic novels and comics:
The Odessey by Gareth Hinds Fahrenheit 451 by Tim Hamilton Pride & Prejudice by Nancy Butler The Picture of Dorian Gray by Ian Edginton Moby-Dick: A Pop-Up Book by Sam Ita Romeo and Juliet by Gareth Hinds |
Not all comics, cartoons, animated movies are visual narratives. Many works using these formats rely as much on the words as they do on the images.
Resources
Creation Tools
Comics Creators: Pixton Comics Chogger Bitsrips Make Beliefs Comix Graphic Poems: Tagxedo Photo Editing: paint.NET iPiccy - online photo editing software Picture Books: Storybird Shutterfly Shutterfly Photostory (app) StoryJumper Bookmon Picture Book Maker Canva MixBook MixBook Mosaic (app) Video: Animoto PowToon (cartoons) Vine (app) iMovie (app) Windows Movie Maker Videolicious (app) |
Other Multimedia:
Prezi eMaze Slide Rocket Smilebox Wondershare PhotoStage - free download examtime.com - create animated mind maps PowerPoint Inspiration (mind mapping software that creates slide shows from mind maps) Information - Articles, websites, books Sue's Collection of Digital Storytelling Resources Pearltrees collection of all things related to visual narratives and digital storytelling comicsineducation.com https://www.pinterest.com/glenrdowney/graphic-novels-for-kids/ The Graphic Classroom On Defining Visual Narratives - article The How and Why of Visual Storytelling Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles Visual Narrative Structure - article Visual Narrative Blog Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative, Will Eisner Instructional Books |