Best for
Creative writing, visual storytelling, literacy support, retelling pūrākau, and planning before a larger writing task.
English / Creative Writing • Years 7-9 • Ready to use tomorrow
Comic Strip Story Planner
Use this handout to help ākonga plan a visual story with clear structure, purposeful dialogue, and strong image choices. It works especially well when students are drawing on pūrākau, whakataukī, or local stories and retelling them in a modern visual form.
Free planning scaffold, premium adaptation path
This handout is ready for immediate classroom use. If you want a story planner tied to a local history, whakataukī, class text, or digital project, Te Wānanga can adapt the scaffold while keeping the storytelling structure clear.
- Generate a junior or senior version of the planner.
- Swap the prompt to fit a specific pūrākau, event, or class inquiry.
- Save the adapted version and continue in Creation Studio or My Kete.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 20-30 minutes for planning only, or longer if students begin drawing and drafting immediately.
- Grouping: Individual planning works well after a shared class model; pairs are useful for peer feedback.
- Prep: Choose a story source, mentor comic, or pūrākau retelling model.
- Teaching move: Push students to show change across panels, not just create four disconnected pictures.
Resources already provided
- Story-planning scaffold
- Panel sequence guide
- Visual storytelling prompts
- Dialogue and caption cues
- Extension challenge prompt
- Curriculum companion for planning/reporting
If the lesson refers to story boxes, structure prompts, or a planning scaffold, those resources are already here so kaiako can run the task immediately.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning how to structure a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
- We are learning how images and words work together to create meaning.
- We are learning how Māori storytelling forms and values can shape modern creative work.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can show the key stages of a story across a sequence of panels.
- I can use dialogue, captions, and visuals with purpose.
- I can explain how my story draws on a theme, value, or source text.
Curriculum integration / Te Marautanga alignment
Use the linked curriculum companion to make the writing, oral language, and visual literacy expectations explicit. This handout is strongest when the storytelling task is connected to a shared text, pūrākau, or local narrative context.
Storytelling with whakapapa and purpose
Pūrākau and oral storytelling traditions carry knowledge, values, humour, warning, and memory. A comic strip is a modern form, but it still asks the storyteller to think carefully about what matters most, what happens next, and what the audience needs to see and understand.
Story plan
Story title: _________________________________________________
Main character(s): ____________________________________________
Setting: __________________________________________________
Problem or challenge: ________________________________________
Resolution: _______________________________________________
Panel sequence
- Opening: Who is here? Where are we? What should the audience know first?
- Problem: What changes or goes wrong?
- Action: What do the characters do to respond?
- Resolution: How does it end, and what should the audience understand by the end?
Visual storytelling prompts
- What will the reader notice first in each panel?
- How will facial expressions or body language show emotion?
- What can be shown visually instead of explained in long sentences?
- Where will dialogue help, and where is a caption stronger?
Extension challenge
Retell a pūrākau, local event, or whakataukī-inspired story as a comic strip. Keep the core message intact while deciding how to show it visually for a modern audience.
Teach this tomorrow
Print / share
- One copy per learner
- Optional mentor comic or sample storyboard
Decide before class
- Whether students work from a common prompt or choose their own story source
- Whether the output stays as a planner or becomes a finished comic/digital story
Good progress looks like
- Students can explain how each panel moves the story forward
- Words and images support each other rather than repeating the same thing
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
English — Te Reo Pākehā
Level 3–4: Read and interpret a range of texts for meaning and purpose; identify author intent, text structure, and language choices; write clearly for specific audiences and purposes using appropriate conventions.
Social Sciences — Tikanga ā-Iwi
Level 3–4: Understand how texts construct knowledge and perspective; evaluate the credibility and purpose of different sources; communicate ideas and findings effectively in written and oral forms.
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
In te ao Māori, language — reo — is a taonga: a treasure that carries culture, identity, and whakapapa across generations. The ability to speak clearly, to argue persuasively, to read critically, and to write with purpose are not simply academic skills — they are forms of mana in action. Māori oratory (whaikōrero) has always valued precision, evidence, and the ability to locate one's argument within a broader cultural and ancestral context. Students who develop strong literacy skills are developing the same capacities that made great orators powerful: the ability to be heard, understood, and taken seriously in any room they enter.
Tuhia ōu whakaaro · Write Your Thoughts
Reflect on your learning. What was the most important idea? What question do you still have?
Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Support Materials
This handout is designed to be used alongside the broader unit resources available at Te Kete Ako handouts library. Related resources from the same unit are linked in the unit planner. All resources are provided — no additional preparation is required to use this handout in your classroom.
Curriculum alignment
- Reading — Making Meaning: Students will select and use sources of information, processes, and strategies to identify, form, and express ideas across a range of texts.
- Writing — Creating Meaning: Students will select and use sources of information, processes, and strategies to write in a range of text types for a variety of purposes and audiences.