Comic Strip Starters | MakeBeliefxComix.com

This lesson plan on using the techniques of deep listening was written by Caryn T. Davis, adult ESOL instructor at the City University of New York, who was honored by The New York Times for ESOL Teacher of the year and is recipient of the New York City Literacy Assistance Center’s Literacy Recognition award.

Information for Teachers—What is Deep Listening?
(Teachers can read this for their own background, and/or read parts to their students.)

What is Deep Listening? It’s a way to focus on a person when they are telling a story and just listen to them without interrupting them, asking questions, or sharing similar stories with them. It means that when the person is telling us their story, we look at them as best we can and show them our full interest and full attention. It means we put our devices away and just really, really listen. We try to open our hearts and minds to those who are speaking to us.

Now, consider pairing such listening with creating our own comic strip stories about our life experiences or those we have learned about racism and sexism in an effort to understand and eliminate racism from our own minds and our communities. Comics can help us be comfortable to experiment with our own creativity as we learn new ideas and master the practice of deep listening.

With deep listening, when we tell our story, we decide that it’s OK to feel the feelings we may have about our story, if we have them, and show them sometimes while we tell the story if we want to. Sometimes people laugh when they tell their story, sometimes cry, sometimes yawn and sometimes even sweat! When we are listening deeply to someone, we want to welcome their feelings if they express them to us. It’s usually a good sign they feel supported by us!

Showing our feelings can remind us that we are human. Many of us have been taught that showing feelings isn’t a good idea most of the time, and many people have trained us to stop showing these feelings by saying, “You’re a big girl and big girls don’t cry” or “Stop yawning, you’re making me tired.” But, all of these expressions of emotions are just part of what it means to be a human being, and believe it or not, letting these feelings out when we need to may feel uncomfortable or strange at first, but it gets rid of the feelings that can bother us.

For example, when we cry, crying doesn’t make us have more grief, it gets rid of previous feelings of grief. Are you surprised? Basically, it’s helpful to remember we don’t need to be afraid of our feelings or other people’s feelings. And, getting more comfortable showing or listening to feelings can help us think better about everything.

Practicing deep listening can also help us eliminate all kinds of oppression, such as racism and sexism because we can often think better after we share our stories. Racism and sexism keep us separated and isolated from each other a lot of the time so when we can remember that someone else is human, and they are good inside, we can have better relationships with people similar and different than us because we are listening deeply and with respect to them. We might even be able to solve problems more quickly related to racism and sexism. Finally, when we do Deep Listening, we don’t ever talk about what we heard another person say again. Confidentiality builds trust and stronger Deep Listening.

To help students add structured or Deep Listening to their lives to develop empathy and understanding of people like them and different than them. With practice and patience, over time, listening with respect, Deep Listening can become integrated into friendships and between teachers and students, and teachers and teachers, too. It can also be a useful tool to tackle complex issues, such as racism and sexism, to better understand what it’s like to “walk in someone else’s shoes.” Actively supporting people who are targeted with racism and sexism is a win-win.

The activities below are based on MakeBeliefsComix.com. When students use this site, they can explore new and complex ideas in engaging ways, even ideas that may be uncomfortable at first because creating a comic strip can be less intimidating and more fun for many students.

Before using the web site with students, explore the Teachers resources section. Take a look at the YouTube videos on that page and The Comix Creation page. Using the blank talk and thought balloons, students may write as little as one word to a more extensive dialogue. They may choose one character or multiple characters to represent themselves or their friends. Students can work on their own or in pairs. The comix are easily printed out for classroom sharing and for display.

ACTIVITY 1

Present the opportunity for students to become comic strip writers themselves! Explain that they will begin by exploring MakeBeliefsComix.com on their own.

Introduce the web site and briefly describe each of the tools: the comic creation/writing window, the characters, the emotions, the panel choices, talk and thought balloons, colors, and prompts. Let students "play" for about l5 minutes.

Once students have become familiar with the features, show them the comix strip at the top of this page about What is Deep Listening?

Review the How to Do Deep Listening comic strip in small groups and then discuss with the whole class by asking students to state the main points that came out of the discussion in their groups with a focus on the positive aspects of Deep Listening and why it could be a good idea to do.

Next, ask students to try doing Deep Listening they learned about in the comic strip next before they create their first topic. Pick a simple topic such as their favorite food, holiday, video game, etc. Time 2 minutes for each student. If there’s an uneven number, keep track of that group and 1 minute each.

After they’ve tried Deep Listening, ask students to create a 3-4 panel comic strip with one of these prompts or any other that are relevant and ask them to work with the partner they did Deep Listening with:

Demonstrates poor or “shallow” listening and how that’s different than Deep Listening
Show how they felt about trying deep listening
Show how other people might have felt doing deep listening
Another idea?

Print out and share the first set of comic strips between partners. Ask students to tell each other 1 aspect of their comic they liked.

ACTIVITY 2

Teachers, before students start their comics, review key points you think are relevant from Activity 1 to remind students about how to do Deep Listening so they can practice this way of listening again. You can choose a prompt, or ask the students to choose their own prompts. Time 2-3 minutes each in partners and 3 ways. The partners will speak to the same prompt. Their answers will later be used to create a comic strip.

Talk about one reason you like to help your friends or family
Talk about a time you had a problem and someone helped you
Talk about a time you had many feelings and someone listened to you
Talk about a time you had many feelings and no one listened to you
Another idea?

After they’ve used Deep Listening, ask students to create a 3-4 panel comic strip with one of these prompts and ask them to work with the partner they did Deep Listening with.

Print out and share the first set of comic strips between partners. Ask students to tell each other 1 aspect of their comic they liked.

ACTIVITY 3

Teachers, before students start their comics, review key points you think are relevant from Activity 2 to remind students about how to do Deep Listening so they can practice this way of listening again. You can choose a prompt, or ask the students to choose their own prompts. Time 2-3 minutes each in partners and 3 ways. The partners will speak to the same prompt. Their answers will later be used to create a comic strip.

Here's working definitions to use for this activity.

What is racism? A way we learn to think and act that communicates people who are not white are not as good or smart as people who are white. We learn this information in obvious and subtle ways from other people who learned this wrong information. It is always possible to learn how racism affects us and we can always learn to change our thinking and actions.

What is sexism? A way we learn to think and act that communicates that people who identify as female are not as good or smart as people who identify as male. We learn this information in obvious and subtle ways from other people who learned this wrong information. It is always possible to learn how racism affects us and we can always learn to change our thinking and actions.

Talk about a time you or someone you know experienced racism or sexism
Talk about a time you tried to help someone who was experiencing racism or sexism
Talk about a time you didn’t try to help someone experiencing racism or sexism
Talk about a time you saw a movie, TV show, social media, video game or read something about racism and sexism. What happened?

After they’ve used Deep Listening, ask students to create a 3-4 panel comic strip with one of these prompts and ask them to work with the partner they did Deep Listening with.

Print out and share the first set of comic strips between partners. Ask students to tell each other one aspect of their comic they liked.

CONCLUDING ACTIVITY

Teachers, before students start their comics, review key points you think are relevant from Activity 3 to remind students about how to do Deep Listening so they can practice this way of listening again. You can choose a prompt, or ask the students to choose their own prompts. Time 2-3 minutes each in partners and 3 ways. The partners will speak to the same prompt. Their answers will later be used to create a comic strip.

Talk about what your family would be like if there was a world without racism
Talk about what your family would be like if there was a world without sexism
Talk about what you would be like if there was a world without racism
Talk about what you would be like if there was a world without sexism

After they’ve used Deep Listening, ask students to create a 3-4 panel comic strip with one of these prompts and ask them to work with the partner they did Deep Listening with.

Print out and share the first set of comic strips between partners. Ask students to tell each other 1 aspect of their comic they liked. Everyone shares their comics with the class.

• Create a comic strip based on a memory where you were having trouble fully expressing what was in your heart, but where the other person -- a friend, a teacher, a loved one -- took time to draw you fully out in an attempt to really hear what you were saying. Did this deep listening affect you in any way?

• Create a comic in which you had trouble expressing clearly and fully what was in your heart because the other person was really not listening or hearing what you wanted to say. Did this prevent you from saying what you wanted and leave you feeling frustrated or misunderstood?

• Create a comic in which deep listening by the other person resulted in reduced discrimination or sexist attitudes, whether on your part or that of the other person, or both of you?

• Create a comic strip in which when relating to an elder person you did not really hear what this person was trying to say to you because you had pre-existing attitudes toward the elderly. Perhaps you assumed that older people talked only about their aches and pains and were not interested in what you had to say? Or, was the problem that you were not interested in listening deeply to understand what was really in their hearts? How do we create a bridge to one another?

• Create a comic explaining whether you think deep listening really works or doesn’t help? Why do you say that? Do you have a better idea to attack racism or discrimination or sexism? Explain in your comic.

• Create a comic strip about the time you were misunderstood because the other person wasn't really hearing (doing deep listening) to what was being said. Or, ask a student to create a comic strip on how they applied deep listening in their own life with a friend or family member. (Perhaps it was elections time when you asked a person how they could support a particular candidate you disliked.), Perhaps neither of you tried to understand the other’s point of view, and both of you ended the conversation in anger or frustration, without any real understanding of the other.

• Create a comic strip that demonstrates poor or ''shallow'' listening and how that affects one person's understanding of what the other is saying.

• Create a comic strip with two characters in which each person is at complete odds in their point of view on a subject and show how the techniques of deep listening can either help reconcile differences or enable participants to better understand each other.