Illuminated Term Papers

Consider the many ways that visuals can enhance the traditional term paper.

Combine Photos & Drawings

The Adventures of Riley books combine photographs, drawings, text, and fact boxes to tell fact-based stories. Go to Adventures of Riley website for lots of examples.

From hand drawings to photographs there are many ways visuals are used in graphic materials. Read The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders from First Second by Didier Lefevre & Frederic Lemercier & Emmanuuel Guibert (Doctors without Borders). Create your own graphic documentary that combines photographs and digital paintings or drawing.

Illuminated History Projects

Use The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam by Ann Marie Fleming as an example of an illustrated memoir. Based on a documentary, this work contains a wide variety of images from hand drawings to screen shots from videos. Examine a page from the book and notice how historical photos and other images are used. Also example a page with still images from the documentary.

Also explore Satchel Paige, Houdini, Thoreau and Kampung Boy for ideas.

Illuminated Social Studies Reports

Pyongyang by Guy Delisle is a non-fiction account of the author's travels in North Korea. Rather than assigning the traditional country report, ask students to write an account of a fictional trip to another country.

Use Comic Life to create your own travel stories. Check out Annette and Larry's Travels.

Sharing Options

Think about how blogs can be used for sharing. Use the artwork of others as inspiration. Explore the Terrible Yellow Eyes blog to see how people have been inspired by the work of Maurice Sendak.

Consider sharing your projects online. It's easy to use Google Docs for sharing. See a Comic Example.

Try It! Try Pixton
Try online tools such as Pixton for making your own interactive web comics.

Try It! Social Networks and Comic Creators for All Ages
Keep in mind that these have the potential for inappropriate content.
Bubblir!
Strip Generator
ToonDoo
Toonlet

Consider adding animation to projects. Example of Goanimate projects (Project 1 and Project 2). Go to Goanimate and create your own animation.

Try It! Go Animate
Explore Goanimate as a tool for projects.

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