2.++Close,+But+Not+Quite+Project+Based+Activity

I had idealistic hopes that I was to accomplish all my Cohort II goals within the first semester. I had a really great idea for a Project-Based activity -- but did not pretest prior to the launch of it -- but thought it was worth it to share the lesson/activity anyway.

The moral of this lesson -- ALWAYS GIVE A PRETEST so that you can compare the growth following with a Post Test!!!! This was a good warm up, however, and did prepare me for ways to initiate collaboration and research into lessons.

At Lincoln, we had the wonderful opportunity to meet famous cartoonists for "Cartoon Career Day". Comic strip, editorial, caricaturists, storyboard and gag cartoonists came to present and give talks to students about cartooning and illustrating for a living. I was approached by Ken Alvine, a local cartoonist about the opportunity and jumped at the chance -- and knew we could tie this into our graphics curriculum somehow.

Prior to the cartoonists visiting, I created a cartoonist wiki and had students draw names of the visiting cartoonists and to collaborate on researching the cartoonists, their area of specialty, and style of cartooning. Students worked on bringing information to the wiki and it really worked well.

We then worked on drawing cartoons, studying various styles in newspapers and observed how other cartoonists approached drawing facial features, hair, and body proportion. Students worked on a self portrait and could work in caricature or cartoon style. Students then jumped into Photoshop and working in layers by scanning their cartoons. This was our first activity using Photoshop, and it was amazing how quickly the students grasped concepts and how many objectives were covered in one large lesson. (layers, selection tools, gradients, fill bucket, patterns, dodge and burn tools, foreground and background colors).

We had the cartoons printed and decorated in our library for when the cartoonists came to visit. Students, having some experience working with cartoons, having done research on the cartoonists, knew which cartoonist table sessions they were most interested in visiting and asked very good questions in the process. Students wrote reflectively in their own wiki portfolios about creating the cartoons. Attached as a PDF of a student's reflection.