This spring, our Adolescent Program students participated in a Spanish comic contest through WoolyCon. The comic created by 7th year student William VanUitert won in the category of best original storyline (Spanish I level). Inspired by the 48 Hour Film Project, WoolyCon was a week-long celebration of comics and graphic novels. It was put together by students and teachers in the Spanish Club at Neillsville High School in Wisconsin. students had one week to create a Wooly-inspired comic that included a required character, a required line of dialogue, and a required object. In the end, over 138 schools from 38 states and 5 different countries participated!
At this point, you’re probably wondering what Wooly is. Señor Wooly is a comprehension-based language acquisition website that teaches Spanish through “demented and hilarious” music videos and compelling graphic novels. “We use it to supplement our Spanish curriculum,” says Adolescent Program Teacher Meesa Jeans, “students are often heard singing songs and spouting off applicable lyrics in new situations.”
English Language Arts teachers have long known that graphic novels promote literacy. Foreign Language teachers are starting to come around to the same conclusion. “Graphic novels are incredibly valuable for language acquisition,” Meesa says, “because they provide novice readers with a lot of contextual information about what is happening in a story, which allows them to stay engaged and keep reading.”
Click on the cover to read William’s comic
WoolyCon started with a “Hype Week” that featured daily videos to help students plan their comics. Then they had a week to write and draw their comics. “I based my Wooly-Con story off of an original story made for a Writing Seminar called ‘The Epic Tale of Covid-19’” says William. “I started my comic by coming up with the theme, which was “The Epic Tale of Covid-19” but told in the Wooly-Verse. I made one of the main characters Gorro, who needed a map to the vaccine, but he didn’t have one (pero no las tengo). I worked in [online graphics program] Canva to get good imagery for my comic.”
William worked hard throughout the process to incorporate his creative ideas into Spanish that could be understood by the class, and his artwork was delightful. When he finished, he “submitted the comic to the best original story line for spanish one.” And he won! The prize, “panqueques“ and syrup are an allusion to a Señor Wooly video. All the winning comics, along with others submitted by teachers, will be put together in a PDF called “The WoolyCon Collection,” which teachers can then use to help teach Spanish to new classes.