American Born Chinese

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Creative Writing: Graphic Novel”

In this activity, students will retell a scene from a story in graphic novel format.

Yang uses the format of a graphic novel to allow the audience to both read and see the story. For this activity, retell a scene from a story in graphic novel format (3-5 pages). This could be a favorite childhood story, an interesting myth or fairytale, or even a story of your own creation. Use the questions below to guide your drafting process:

• Who is your protagonist? Who/what is your antagonist?
• Where and when is your scene set?
• What is the plot of your story, and what plot points occur in your scene?
• What is the climax of the scene?
• How does the story resolve? What circumstances in your scene contribute to the resolution?
• What important themes will your scene convey? Reflect on the ways the author shows the themes of Otherness and the Effects of Racism and Discrimination, Identity and the Limitations of Transformation, and Growing up in America as the Child of Immigrants In the novel; how can you reveal theme ideas in parallel ways?

After using the above questions to draft your dialogue, draw and create the graphics for your scene. Finally, share your work with the class in a presentation.

Teaching Suggestion: This activity encourages students to take a creative approach in developing storylines and incorporating themes. Students should use Yang’s novel as a guide for the format. Students who may feel uncomfortable drawing might utilize other mediums, such as collages and/or photographs, to prepare the visual content of the novel. A creative walk-through rather than a standard presentation may be more fitting for your group’s sharing experience.

Differentiation Suggestion: Visual learners and those with interest in visual art might instead continue writing the story of Jin and Wei-Chen in Section 10 as an epilogue. In this vein, students should keep the same theme of character development, while creating a new ending for Yang’s novel.

Students with attention or executive function differences may benefit from selecting their story from a pre-approved list of traditional tales.