The Chunk Book Series – ProZach Productions

It started because my students would always ask, “Teacher, what draw?” when they would finish their quizzes. I loved the little drawings they’d do, so I started taking photos of them. Then I had all these photos of sketches just sitting there, so I decided to do something with them.

I made this first poster as a test and printed it on A1 poster paper and hung it in the classroom. The kids loved it so much that I decided to turn it into a 12 part series, one for each month (or vocabulary chunk book) that I’d be in Korea teaching English.

I started with some loose themes based on what the students were learning about at the time. I wanted to increase their knowledge of English through drawing while also fostering their creativity.

It wasn’t long before I had a notebook dedicated to my ideas for posters, composition sketches, and checklists for classes so that I didn’t repeat the same prompts. They always knew if I did and would call me out on it.

This one was my most chaotic poster to date and the composition took me the longest to arrange. It was easy to sink 75+ hours into a single poster and this one was no exception. The reaction from the kids always made the time spent worth it though. I’d like to take a moment to emphasize that every single drawing is from my students as it was imported. I tried my best to maintain the integrity of their drawings at all times.

My kids (and I) loved the game Clash Royale, so castles, knights and dragons didn’t seem too far-fetched of an idea. Also with the last poster being a lot more fairy tale-themed, the boys in the classes weren’t as excited for the drawings. That completely changed with this poster where there seemed to be a little something for everyone.

By this point, I was halfway through my contract and sickness and exhaustion were taking hold but the prospect of a space-themed poster kept me going, one of the most interesting things had been trying to have students of all levels be able to contribute to the poster. While it’s easy to explain the concept of a satellite to 6th graders it’s a bit harder to explain to 1st graders that just learned the word bug. But, hey, sometimes that’s why you end up with a bug planet.

Super hero culture is alive and well in Korea. So many kids have superhero clothes or backpacks so I thought it would be fun with this one to break it down into good guys, bad guys, sidekicks and comic books to see what they could come up with.

Most of my students have never seen an actual Western which was why it was so appealing to me to get them to try and draw things from them. That’s how you end up with gems like a “cow boy” and mummies in the desert next to a bandit shootout.

After applying all new concepts with the Western, I went the easy route this time and had them draw things that had been drilled into their heads since their first level of classes. At this point, I got all new students so while I miss the ZT girl that would pop up all the time, it was cool to get some fresh talent on the posters.

This was one of my first ideas, but I had to wait until the time was right, so it wasn’t until October, leading up to Halloween, that the kids got to draw all sorts of scary monsters, ghouls and creatures. Halloween is my favorite holiday and these kinds of things are what kids draw best, so it’s one of my absolute favorite posters.

I like to call this one the “Internet of Emotions” I opted for more abstract nouns rather than the concrete ones I’d been favoring. I wanted the kids to explore all the emotions, the younger ones taking on happy, sad, scared, and angry while the older students tackled things like embarrassed and confused.

I knew from the beginning that I wanted my last poster to be a credits poster. I made sure to have students draw themselves before my rosters changed. So here, spread around an homage to my April Hagwon, are 180+ little artists/English learners that each had a part in making these posters as beautiful, silly, wonderful, outrageous, poop-filled, cross-dressed, and truly remarkable as they are. I can look at any drawing of a student and remember exactly what they looked like and who they were.

Using art as an extra way to connect gave me a lot more passion for my job. Not only in seeing and affecting the blossoming creativity of my students, but also in challenging myself to create something that I can look back on for a lifetime. It also made my classroom a place filled with fun, creativity and most importantly love.

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