Manga relay Subject areas: Art and design English composition ICT Resources:  Scanner and e-mail Summary This is a collaborative project in which students from partner schools work together to produce a comic strip story or 'manga'. Manga comics are read by Japanese people of all ages and they are becoming more popular in Britain. The project offers opportunities for cooperation between teachers in English and art departments. The project, as described below, requires quite high levels of English ability especially in the stages involving plot writing and negotiations over which story to use. However, you can adapt the project to suit your students' needs.   For example, students in the British school could be given the responsibility of writing the plot while the Japanese students work on drawing the pictures.  In this way, the Japanese  students get reading practice and British students can improve their creative writing skills. Step 1:The plot Students at each school write a plot or script. This can be anything from a broad outline to a detailed plan, including descriptions of the main characters. Step 2: The negotiation The schools exchange stories by e-mail or post.  Students then decide on which stories would make the best manga. Step 3: The pictures The schools draw pictures to fit the story or script Step 4: The return The schools exchange pictures by e-mail or post. Step 5: The words The schools add text in their own languages to one or both the manga. Step 6: The end The schools send the finished manga to their partner schools. The completed manga can form part of a wall display, feature in the school magazine, or appear in your local newspaper. Manga resources http://curriculum.becta.org.uk/docserver.php?docid=1940 Producing cartoons as an activity for the modern foreign languages classroom http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/9925/essay10.html How to plan a story (E) http://www.inet.ca/~stephenw/manga.html (E)  Trenchcoat Steve's how to draw manga page http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/7946/  Manga drawing tutorials Click here to return to the projects contents page