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The first CCP session was held November 29, 2006, at the New Haven Public Library. The last session there was May 30, 2007. I had to put the CCP on hiatus when I moved to Pittsburgh in June 2007. Regular CCP sessions started again in July 2008 through the Pittsburgh YMCA.
In New Haven, I held sessions once a week on Wednesdays from 5 - 6 PM. Sometimes I'd go past 6 PM if there were still enough kids in the room who want to make comics. In Pittsburgh, they've varied between Wednesday and Friday, usually starting at 4:30 PM.
In New Haven the average was around 10-12. Record attendance was 18 kids in one session. In Pittsburgh, I usually have 3-5. To put these numbers in perspective, in Taiwan I usually taught classes of 15 - 20 students.
I tried to design it for around third grade and up. I had the occassional Kindergartener try his hand at it and I have several first and second graders who did very well. The oldest participating child so far was 12 years old. (Though there was a 25 year old who hung around for the heck of it once.)
I did, but only if they asked me to help. Some students asked for help spelling words and making sentences. Other students just like forging ahead on their own.
As one of the library staff told me, students look to these kinds of activities to relax and have fun, so they can "escape" the rigors of schoolwork. They don't want to be stuck in yet another classroom environment. So I used a very hands-off approach and let the students decide when they need help (this method is based off the principle of "student centered learning"). They enjoyed being given such broad latitude.
In April of 2007, Makana Ellis, then Director of the Dixwell-Yale Community Learning Center (DYCLC), invited me to bring the CCP there. I took the material from the sessions held at the New Haven Public Library and compressed it into a series of four lessons. These abbreviated lessons became known as the CCP Workshop. For general reference, I refer to any shortened CCP version as a "workshop."
The first workshop in Pittsburgh was held December 2007 at the Museum of Cartoon Art when I was personally invited by its director. It celebrated the anniversary of the CCP and heralded its arrival in Pittsburgh. Later workshops were held at locations such as the Braddock Carnegie Library, Human Service Center (HSC), and Shadyside Boys & Girls Club.
The DYCLC serves the Dixwell area of New Haven, so most of the participants were from that neighborhood. Additionally, students from the High Meadow School, an institute for troubled youths, trekked to the DYCLC from neighboring Hamden.
The Museum of Cartoon Art serves Pittsburgh's general population. It shared facilities and attendance with the Children's Museum. Braddock, the HSC, and Shadyside B&G specialized in afterschool programs for disadvantaged youths.
The first CCP workshop was held May 3, 2007 at the DYCLC. The others were on May 10, 24, and 31. Each workshop was held twice a day at 4 - 5 (later 4:30 - 5:30 PM) and 6 - 7 PM.
The first Pittsburgh workshop was held December 29, 2007 at the Museum of Cartoon Art. It was one hour long, 2 - 3 PM. The other workshops were also roughly 1 hour.
The CCP Module is a generalization of the comic project. While the sessions and workshops are focused on teaching kids how to write comics, the modules are designed to bring comics into other environments, such as health education. Modules use many of the same templates as the sessions and workshops, but the emphasis is less on the comics themselves and more on encouraging students to write about various topics and concepts.
The first basic test run of the module was used at the University of Pittsburgh with a class of 80-some graduate students. The test run was an experiment to see if, by comparing before and after comics, whether a change in a student's knowledge of a topic could be determined. The results were positive: it was possible to tell that knowledge had been gained.
The intended audience for the CCP Module is elementary and middle school students. The CCP Module was used with 200 students from Northview Elementary as part of National Public Health Week 2008. It was done in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh, Association of Schools of Public Health, and the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. The theme for NPHW '08 was climate change, so students created comics about that and several other topics, such as exercise and recycling.
The module was used a third time for Healthy Holidays, a public health promotional event done in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh. Participants were patrons of the Squirrel Hill branch of the Carnegie Library.
The module was first tested November 7, 2007. It's also been used during National Public Health Week in April 2008 and in December 2008 for Health Holidays.
Comicvoice is based on Photovoice, where researchers give cameras to people within a given population and ask them to take pictures that represent their views on a certain aspect of life. Photovoice has been found successful for use with marginalized populations in particular. Comicvoice achieves the same results as Photovoice using comics in place of cameras.
This design gives Comicvoice several advantages over Photovoice: it greatly reduces costs (disposable cameras vs. pencils and paper) and the time a person has to invest into the study without sacrificing any of the data's validity. With Photovoice, people have to go to a familiar location, frame the image, and then take photos, which can take a lot of time and discourage some from taking part. With Comicvoice, the results are immediate: a person gets a pencil and paper and creates art on the spot. Theoretically, Comicvoice studies should have higher recruitment and retention rates thanks to this. Qualitatively, a camera can only show what's there, while artwork can reveal what's inside a person's mind, which for some studies is much more illuminating.
Comicvoice is being developed as part of the Create a Comic Project. Research into its design and implementation is currently underway.
No. I am a volunteer, meaning the only reward I get for doing the CCP is the fun that comes from turning a group of kids into young comic writers. This also means that Fair Use applies to the material I use since it's all for educational purposes only.
There are plans to begin a formal study of whether the CCP can enhance health education programs. I'm also going to try developing a CCP Module activity to coincide with the National Public Health Week 2009.
For a more detailed look into the inner workings of the CCP, read the Create a Comic Project Blog.
