SPECIAL EDITION!
DISCOVER THE LASTEST WORKSHOP
OF EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE
EXCLUSIVE!
COMICS FOR LITERACY PROFESSIONALS WORKING WITH ADULTS LEARN HOW TO USE COMICS AS A TEACHING METHODOLOGY
PLUS! MOVIE ANIMATION - 16
DISCOVER THE VIDEO CREATED AT THE BRADFORD MEDIA MUSEUM
PHOTO COMICS - 8
TONY HUSBAND TEACHING HOW TO CREATE A HAND DRAWN BOOK
FREE
THE MAKING OF SPLASH - 12
Leeds - Nov 2013
THE FIRST IMAGES OF THEIR PHOTO COMIC PAGES
2013-1-GB2-GRU13-11247 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This magazine reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
WELCOME! GRUNDTVIG WORKSHOP This special magazine has been created in order to celebrate ‘‘Comic Sans’’, a Grundtvig Workshop that gave teachers and other professionals supporting adults around Europe the opportunity to learn how to use comics as a tool for teaching literacy. This workshop took place between the 2nd and the 9th November in Leeds (UK). During one week, participants developed skills and knowledge in photo comics, hand drawn comics, animation and other methods.
Tony Husband running a workshop.
A BIG THANK YOU TO ECORYS UK AND THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION Everything Is Possible would like to thank ECORYS UK and the Lifelong Learning programme of the European Union for their support. The funding helped us to run this incredible project and many other exciting workshops and training experiences in the past 7 years.
Our project in Sweden.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN A SIMILAR PROJECT
2
?
This Grundtvig workshop is funded via the Lifelong Learning programme, which will be replaced by the new European programme Erasmus+ in 2014. For more info visit http://www.erasmusplus. org.uk/ or visit our website for future opportunities www.everythingispossible.eu .
3
PARTI CIPANTS
“I´ve been working with people with special needs for more than 15 years on adult school, with theatre and now with graphic design and more on a museum. My main purpose in my work is to show that people with special needs can do anything with the right tools and help.”
“This year I have been working in an Artistic and crafts workshop, in a Nursing house; And also in an Arttherapy workshop with people suffering from schizophrenia. Both experiences have been very positive, and I would like to work in the world of education through art, among other social groups, with adults.” “I have worked with handicapped adults for almost 5 years on various social day centres. In a workshop, specialized in carpentry, we use an appreciative approach to teach and help adults.”
“I have no experience, but I wish to work with adults because I believe that in the world of tomorrow, lifelong learning and education will be of great significance for the development of the whole society and comics are great to make learning more fun.”
“Since 2006 I work as a civil contract teacher training courses - “Text” and “Computer Literacy” to PGI “Rober Shuman” Razgrad by the “I can do more” BG051PO001-2.1.14. So I have 67 trained adults from all over the community.”
4
“I am very interested in this seminar because since I work with students of low self-esteem but with a potential to learn, I would like to motivate them by offering fun ways towards literacy, reading and communication. These students are also very gifted in drawing so through this project I will be able to relight some interest towards their imagination.” “I had an experience with disabled person: I worked with them doing manual works and other activities such as music therapy and psychomotor. I shared with them many moments of their everyday life: I get lunch with them and we have to take them to the bathroom, when they need. We were educators and friends for them and i was happy to stay with them and to entertain them.”
“My teaching experience is low. I have been an instructor of children and have worked with the elderly and physicists disabilities. My companions and I started a project in June on the comics and Europe with which we intend to convey to children and adults new knowledge. I hope to apply lessons learned in this project to improve my project.”
“I have had experience within adult education but I have never so far dealt with comic education. Therefore my objective to participate in this workshop Comic Sans is to equip me with different methodologies to use in the future with my various students. It will indeed be a novelty to teach/work with comics in the classroom and empower students with different learning strategies.”
“I have been working for the last 2 years as a coordinator within an organisation offering mobility/non formal learning opportunities to unemployed adults and adults with less opportunity Before that I worked in recruiting agency, market research and public relations. I see Comics as an interesting tool for adults as part of learning process with an aim of becoming more open and improving (re)inclusion in society for individuals as well as motivating them to become active and increase their employability.”
“I have been teaching French and Spanish to adults for over 20 years. I make use of comics from time to time because they help students break through their reading barriers. The stories unfold in a visual way and this is especially important for students with learning disabilities.”
“5 years of work in the home of the elderly, where I work as a techno nursing co-worker, we have created the dramatic adventures of a group of sisters Helge, where residents with sketches liven up the days and trying to achieve that laugh from the heart.”
“I am a teacher I plan to teach adults as I currently teach very disadvantaged Roma children and unfortunately most of their parents cannot write and read. Most of them are unemployed. I plan to teach them as well. I have been teaching very disadvantaged Roma children for almost 10 years in Miskolc, North-Hungary. They are all very nice and are capable to improve their knowledge in every field of their life.” “I have been teaching very disadvantaged Roma children for almost 10 years. Unfortunately most of their parents are low educated and/or cannot write or read, they are unemployed. My goal is teaching them to find job and be able to help their kids as well. I want them to experience reading is a great adventure! Comics - the most interesting tool for it.”
“During my career I have been working as a teacher in several EU programmes. I have worked with special needs groups: migrants, deaf people and some other groups. I found especially useful comics in learning for they have a very concise language and a strong visual impact to transmit any message.”
“I have been teaching English for 6 years to teenagers. Also I taught adult people for a short period. Nearly 2 years ago me and some of my friends as teachers decided to start a non-formal and nongovernmental organization for young people or young adults with fewer opportunities. I love comics since my childhood and I think most of the people do. So, I believe using comics would be an enjoyable way of interaction and transmitting information.” “I’ve worked only with children with problems and never with adults so I’d like to try this new experience to learn new things and I would like to raise my cultural background too.”
“Although I have no prior experience working with adult learners, my interest in attending the Comic Sans workshop is to find ways of unlocking access to both literature and language. In 2012, I completed my Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art at the Royal Academy Schools, London. My work is interested in exploring the intimacy of exchange within systems, structures or networks of understanding. Whilst Artistin-Residence with Glenfiddich in Dufftown, Scotland, my project looked to invest in the relationship between Dufftown and its twin town Mortlach in Canada.”
“I have been volunteering for the past few years, but I have been mostly working with children while teaching them English, History or leading filmmaking workshops. In 2013 I spent three months in Tanzania as a volunteer in an orphanage where I had an opportunity to work with both children and local adults. Being and educator by profession, and an amateur filmmaker who occasionally loves to read a good comic book, I would gladly like to find out more about practical approaches to teaching adults and incorporation of creative methods in the teachinglearning process, especially in an intercultural context such as this one.”
“I work with young adults in conflict with law in different non-formal educative activities and as volunteer also as teacher of English, what is big challenge because our guys have many problems with reading and writing in their native language.”
“I have been working at the Bradford Foyer for the past three and half years as a tutor/facilitator. The majority of our students are from a marginalised background and most have few, if any qualifications. We have to constantly look at alternative ways to provide education to learners who have personal issues and usually do not fit into the normal classroom environment. I am extremely motivated to learn new ways and methods of teaching literacy so this workshop may help provide another tool to motivate learners.”
5
STORYBOARD FOR
LITERACY
In order to learn the comic book creation process, our participants worked in teams to make their own speech bubbles and to add text captions to support the picture. Everyone’s thoughts and words were brought to life during this exercise which is an interesting methodology that can easily be re-used to teach literacy to adults and stimulate their imagination. A brainstorming session was then organised to enable participants to create their own panel frame and comic book stories, everyone’s ideas were shared to build up exciting storylines. An occasion for our participants to show their drawing talents!
6
7
PHOTO COMICS
Everything Is Possible has strong experience in using comics as a way to help young adults to share their volunteering experience and express their feelings. In order to create their own comic page, they produce pictures of their project activities to which they add speech bubbles.
We taught participants this methodology in order to empower them to organise a Photo Comic workshops around literacy for adults. In groups, they created their own story, using pictures they took around Leeds, their new storyboard technics and a special software.
8
READ
PHOTO COMIC BOOKS THEIR
9
NEWS IN BRIEF
Bonfire Night in Leeds, Tuesday 5th November 2013.
EXCLUSIVE! PARTICIPANTS DISCOVERED BONFIRE NIGHT Every year on 5th November British people remember Guy Fawkes’ thwarted plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament by celebrating the ‘Bonfire Night’. All over Britain there are firework displays and bonfires with models of Guy Fawkes, which are burnt on the fire. This British celebration came at a perfect time giving us the chance to share this tradition. After the firework we all went to eat a curry, culinary speciality Leeds and Bradford are famous for.
PARTICIPANTS REVEALED THEIR PROFESSIONAL SECRETS Comic Sans also gave time to participants to share methodology in teaching literacy to adults. Some presented their work using comics like Jesper (on the left) working with people with special needs at the Gaia Museum and Ella (on the right) teacher in the Prison of Ghent in Belgium.
10
DISCOVERIES OUR PARTICIPANTS HAVE LOTS OF TALENT Before the workshop Everything Is Possible asked participants to create a comic page about their life that they presented on the first day. This was a fantastic opportunity for them to know a bit more about each other, their experience, their skills in comics and talents. After that, participants went more easily speaking to others asking them advice on the techniques they used.
READ THEIR COMIC
INTERCULTURAL EVENING On Wednesday, participants enjoyed an intercultural evening. Everyone brought some food and drinks for the event. Malta, Denmark, UK, Croatia, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Belgium... the event was the opportunity to learn more about these countries via presentations made in group. The event went long into the night with participants dancing together to traditional music.
11
HAND
DRAWN
On Wednesday, Tony Husband, a brilliant cartoonist who produces cartoon for famous newspapers and magazines such as Private Eye, The Times, The Sun, came to run a comic drawing workshop.
During one day, he inspired participants showcasing his own techniques, helping them to express their ideas via a drawing and teaching them how to create a story.
12
They created an ‘‘International Comic’’ magazine called ‘‘SPLASH!’’ which includes all hand drawn comic pages they created in groups. Participants really enjoyed this day with Tony.
READ THEIR
HAND
DRAWN BOOK
13
14
15
ANIMATED
STORY
On Thursday, Everything Is Possible organised with the support of the Bradford Media Museum an animated comic workshop. They first learnt how to create characters in plasticine and then how to animate them using a software and basic material they could easily reuse back in their organisation. At the end they added sounds to their film. The objective of this workshop was to give participants skills to run another kind of comic
16
workshop around literacy, using images and sounds. Plasticine characters can easily be replaced by alphabet letters and it is also interesting to work on the audio dialogues of a movie.
WATCH THEIR
VIDEO
17
AND
AFTER?
Workshop ran in Denmark by our 2 participants.
PRACTICE PARTICIPANTS TEST THEIR NEW METHODOLOGIES On the last day of Comic Sans, participants had the opportunity to put what they had learnt into practice at the Bradford Foyer. They met social workers and young adults of this foyer which supports individuals who need additional support. They organised some workshops for the residents, teaching them how to create the storyboard for a comic.
BACK HOME
PARTICIPANTS’ ORGANISED COMIC WORKSHOPS Denmark
Malta Back home, our participants are already using the skills they’ve learnt in their work. Jacob and Jesper from Denmark sent us some tweets with pictures of their stop motion workshops for the Christmas fair at Gaia Museum. Sylvia from Malta sent us pictures of her hand drawing workshop with her students.
18
THE ORGANISATION WWW.EVERYTHINGISPOSSIBLE.EU Everything is Possible is a not-for-profit organisation supporting young people in offering them international opportunities (volunteering, trainings, workshops). During the past 15 years (it’s our birthday in 2014!) we helped many young people with fewer opportunities to gain new skills, knowledge and self-confidence.
Our project in Peru.
PREVIOUS GRUNDTIVG WORKSHOPS
HERITAGE, MEDIA, SPORT&DISABILITY, CIRCUS
Young people sharing roots from other countries than the ones they are living in, learnt about heritage.
25 young people from all around Europe learnt about media (radio, video, TV, sound, photography).
25 mix ability participants challenged both body and mind a few month before the Olympic Games.
Beginners and experts learnt and shared Circus Skills, before a performance in a real Circus.
For any enquiries regarding this magazine, please contact raphael@everythingispossible.eu. Magazine created by Raphael Harfaux (Everything Is Possible)
19