Middle School Students Bring Stories to Life by Creating Graphic Novels

The Friday afternoon Graphic Novels elective challenges middle school students to create stories, draw characters and backgrounds, and pull everything together to create their own graphic novels. “We have a variety of genres happening,” says librarian and elective teacher Beckie Beeson. “Dystopia, comedy, and fantasy, to name a few.” After drawing their characters and backgrounds by hand, students are now turning their illustrations into graphic novel panels using Photoshop and the Wacom tablets—digital canvases that allow students to draw directly onto the computer—in the digital design lab.