The Heroes & Villains module has been designed for pupils to “explore the power of story to activate imagination, interest, and enjoy the English language in new and creative ways (KSSR, 2012). Comic books have been recognized as a viable means to produce effective learning opportunities in the English classroom and can teach literacyand critical thinking skills in ways that other formatscan’t (Rapp 2012).
In the Heroes & Villains Module participants are encouraged to engage their imaginations while using critical analysis to respond to problems that are presented in the comic book genre. Participants discover the excitement of creating their own fictitious character, which opens the door to further conceptualizing-of adventures and settings, conflicts, social concerns, and unique methods of resolution (Rapp 2012).
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module participants should be able to:
Develop an awareness of literary/descriptive devices used in characterization through comparing and contrasting a familiar hero and villain.
Brainstorm real-world, societal problems as a class and address them in imaginative ways, individually and in small groups
Apply their knowledge of characterization by creating their own heroes or villains, gadgets, and settings by completing module 2 and module 3.
Collaborate in small groups to exchange constructive feedback.
Reflect in writing on the ways in which people (and super-characters) solve problems.
Create a comic book strip that has a logical sequence and progression of events
Verbally present their characters to the class in an organized way.
Module Overview
Input
Phase
Time
Descriptors
Module One
Orientation
2 hours
Watch the Incredibles or Kung Fu Panda, video and examine heroes and villains function, gender, societal roles.
In primary schools, develop a questionnaire or gap fill activity to keep students engaged, enclosed with PPT presentation.
In adult classes, pay attention to stereotypes that characterize comic books heroes or villains.
Module Two
Enhancing
5
Introduce comic books.
Continue to discuss Heroes and Villains and graphically organize innate skills and abilities
Combine your hero story to fight against one of the selected villains in the class.
Module Three
Mirco-Teaching
Enhancing
3
PPT presentation on the making of comic book strip bubbles (Features of Comic Strips PPT) that describes the purpose of close ups, sound effects, speech bubbles to add dramatic effect to the comic book characters plot and storyline.
Start developing Comic strips that include introduction body, conflict and resolution. Heroes save the day or foil villains and villains have grand plots that never quite come off. The aim of a hero plot and aim of the villain plot, storyline must be highlighted to identify genre characteristics.
Module Four
Synthesis
2
Create a classroom comic book, may use animation software, internet tools to help produce the work.
Develop a hero/villain theme song,
Create full comic book using technology
Comic book PDFs
Feedback Form
Alternative idea: Full comic book Drama
Module Five
2
Presentation of comic books or full drama.
Module One
Objectives
To identify the main characteristics of heroes and villains.
Organize the qualities and characteristics that define heroes and villains
Note how heroes and villians are drawn to indicate their role in the comic book genres
Next with a partner, graphically DRAW the 6 main STORY moments from your comic book below:
In the box below write down and summarize the main ideas, plot (pictures above) from the comic book story:
Next, in groups SHARE your drawing an pictures with another group
Check answers together as a whole class.
Discuss as a class and add new information to your list.
Part 2: Identify and Organize
Procedure
With a partner, select ONE of the Heroes or Villains from the comic books OR select below.
Read the following heroes and villain biographies. Then fill in the appropriate information in the Heroes and Villains Profile Form.1
Once complete, as a class DISCUSS your hero and villains.
For EXAMPLE:
Emblem
Hero/
Villain name
Real name
Super Powers
Personality traits
Weakness and arch enemy
Superman
Clark Kent
The man of steel can fly, has super strength, laser vision, super hearing. Super speed. Cannot die, Super hearing, Super breath (can produce gale force winds)
Bullet proof.
Superman and Clark Kent live a double life. Where superman is incredibly confident and competent, clark kent is a just the opposite and not that successful in his everyday life.
Superman only has one weakness Kryptonite, that takes away all of his superpowers and makes him an ordinary man.
Superman’s enemy and villain adversary Lex Luger.
Hero/Villain
Profile Form
Character Name:_____________________________ Super Hero Super-Villain Male Female
Describe your character’s superpower(s), special knowledge, or special ability:
What is your character’s goal or purpose? Be creative and specific:
What does your character look like? Include as many details as you can think of:
What helpful gadget(s) does your character use? Does he or she drive a special vehicle? Describe it:
What kind of landscape does your character live in? What kind of home or hideout does he or she live in?
Does your character have any weaknesses? Other important things to know about him/her:
Super Hero Name: Colossus
Real Name: Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin
Height: 6'6" , 7'5" when Armored
Weight: 250 lbs, 500 lbs when Armored
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Black
Powers: Mutant ability to change his body's tissue into an organic steel like material. This gives Colossus superhuman strength(can lift at least 70 tons) and his armor grants him steel durability.
How and Why he became a superhero: His mutant powers first emerged during his adolesence and at first were used to help his fellow farmers. When Professor X organized a new team of mutants to help rescue the original team of Xmen Colossus was recruited and afterward remained with Xavier training the mutants.
Super Hero Name: Iron Man
Real Name: Anthony Stark
Other Alias and Nick Names: Tony Stark, Golden Avenger
Height: 6'1" With Suit: 6'6"
Weight: 225 lbs With Suit: 425 lbs
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Black
Powers: Tony Stark has no superhero powers aside from being a genius and extremely suave. The Iron Man suit that he created on the otherhand has the capability to fly, grants Stark superhuman strength and is weaponized to destroy just about anything you would come across in the marvel universe.
Known Relatives: Howard Anthony Stark (father, deceased), Maria Collins Carbonell Stark (mother, deceased), Morgan Stark (cousin), Edward Stark (uncle, deceased), Isaac Stark, Sr., Isaac Stark, Jr. (ancestors, deceased)
How and Why he became a superhero: Tony designed and sold weapons through the company his father Howard started Stark Industries. On a certain weapons venture where Tony was displaying a new missile the caravan Tony was a part of got hit by terrorists. Tony sustained injuries from a bomb that exploded and shot shrapnel into his chest. When he woke up he found that he was being held prisoner in the cave of the terrorists along with another man named Ho Yinsen, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. To save Tony's life Yensen constructed and inserted a powerful magnet into Stark's chest to keep the shrapnel pieces from entering his heart. Shortly after waking up Tony is greeted my his jailer Wong-Chu and told he is to create weapons for his terrorist group. Tony instead deceives Wong-Chu and designs a battle suit to escape from his prison. During the escape effort Yensin sacrifices his life to save Tony's and after getting some revenge Tony escaped. After fine tuning the suit it became what we know today and Tony decided to use the suit for the good of the world.
The Green Lantern Emblem
Hero Name: The Green Lantern
Real Name: Alan Scott
Powers: The Green Lantern Ring manifests the user's imagination making it possible to have near limitless power. It is only limited through the barriers of the user's mind and will power. For example if one were to imagine a machine gun it would appear in whatever fashion imagined with whatever firepower imagined with it and the amount of firepower will be determined by the user's own will power. There has yet to be a limit to the Green Lantern rings and they are known as the most powerful weapons in the universe.
Magneto
Villain Name: Magneto
Real Name: Max Eisenhardt
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 190 lbs.
Eye Color: Greyish Blue
Hair Color: White
Powers: Magneto can manipulate magnetism and all forms of electromagnetic energy. Using his power he can move anything that has even the smallest amount of metal that has magnetic traits. He can also use his power to create forcefields and with the assistance of his metal armor fly. In his possesion he has a helmet that can block mutants with telepathic abilities.
Base of Operations: Mobile
Known Relatives: Unidentified parents (deceased), Magda (wife, presumed deceased), Anya (daughter, deceased), Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch, daughter), Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver, son), Lorna Dane (Polaris, daughter), Vision (son-in-law), Thomas (grandson), William (Wiccan, grandson), Crystalia Maximoff (Crystal, daughter-in-law), Luna Maximoff (granddaughter), Joseph (clone, deceased)
How and Why he became a super villain: As a child during World War II Max and his parents were placed in a Nazi controlled concentration camp. Witnessing his parents and many others die brutually at the hands of the nazis Max learned first hand the terrors humans were capable of. Max befriended a fellow prisoner Magda while serving his time in the camp and the two survived until World War II came to a close. After they regained their freedom Max and Magda got married and had a Daughter named Anya. One day Anya got trapped in a burning building, her faughter faught with the crowd and pleaded they let him through to save her. The crowd did not let him through and his daught died. Infuriated with the crowd and at his daughters death Max's dormant mutant powers surfaced and he used them to slaughter the crowd. Freightened of her husband Magda fled to Wundagore Mountain where she gave birth to twins that Max didnt even know existed. Max searched everywhere for his wife eventually hiring a forger who gave Max the identity Erik magnus Lehnsherr. Erik never found his wife and never learned of his twin children Wanda and Pietro. Erik settled eventually settled in Isreal where he met Charles Xavier where they spent much of their time debating on the co-exhistance between "their" kind and humans. A mutual friend Gabrielle Haller was abducted by Baron Von Strucker and his employed agents from the group known as Hydra. the pair of mutants rescued her and also came upon a cache of Nazi gold. Erik knowing Xavier and him viewed the correct political sides of mutants differently took the gold and fled.
Personality: Peter is neurotic, accident prone, and anti social. When he is Spiderman he is heroic, brave, and even funny with his tag lines.
Powers: Spidey can crawl on walls, has superhuman strength, and has spider senses that go off when something bad is going to happen. Peter created a compound to serve as spider web and has wrist bound launchers to use his web in a variety of ways.
City Base of Operations: Queens, New York City
Known Relatives: Richard Parker (father, deceased), Mary Parker (mother, deceased), Benjamin Parker (uncle, deceased), May Parker (aunt), Will Fitzpatrick (grandfather), Benjamin Reilly (Scarlet Spider, clone, deceased), Kaine (clone), other clones (deceased)
How and Why he became a superhero: Peter Parker's goal was to be a photographer, he was a normal unpopular high school student. then one day on a class trip to a science exhibit, Peter was bitten by a radioactive spider. Peter gained the power to adhere to walls as well as super human strength. At first Peter was thinking as many of us would in reality to monetize his new powers. He tried to use his powers as a novelty television star, and one day while not in the mind frame of superhero yet an armed robber stole money from the producer of the television show and Parker didnt stop him. The thief continued out of the building where Peter's uncle Benjamin was in the car, The thief shot Ben anf stole his car. When Peter found his uncle dying Ben had one last message to convey to young spiderman, "With great power comes great responsibilty." Enraged spidey went after the thief and after a personal struggle with himself left the criminal for the authorities to pick up. Thus Spiderman was born.
Collect butcher paper to make a mini comic book or drama in class.
Share your story board and comic book writing with the class
Module 3: Comic Strips under development.
References
Saratha Sithamparam, (2011: 52). Dialogue to Learn through assessment in the English classroom ELTC-TED conference proceedings. Website: http://www.the-heroes-guide.com/colossus.html David Rapp (2012). Comic books’ latest plot twist: Enhancing literacy instruction. Published by Kappan.
Website: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/fantastic-characters-analyzing-creating-30637.html?tab=4#tabs
Carter, James Bucky, ed. Building Literacy Connections with Graphic Novels: Page by Page, Panel by Panel. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2007. Print.
Several internet sites were also useful in the production of the module.
1Given time the class can conduct an internet search to find Heroes & Villains information