Superhero Creation, Part 1

Author: Hadley James, Wake Forest University Freedom School

Today, we taught a very exciting lesson at Wake Forest Freedom School. Yesterday, students worked collaboratively in groups to discuss what a superhero needs to succeed in their brain, body, and heart. Today, we gave them a chance to create their own superheroes individually. 

I created a simple "character sheet" a la Dungeons and Dragons for them to fill out. At the top, I left spaces for their hero's name, gender, and home. Below that, I left a huge box for the kids to design their hero's outward appearance. I also gave them a few lines to describe their hero's unique powers and skills.

The most important part of the lesson was the hero's physical and personality traits. I gave the students a list of five traits that their hero could have - Strength (STR), Intelligence (INT), Speed (SPD), Empathy (EMP), Discipline (DSC), and Charm (CHA). Beside the traits, I gave them ten bubbles. The traits would be rated on a scale of one to ten, with one being the lowest and ten being the highest. I gave the scholars twenty five points, which they could allocate as they chose between the traits. For example, a student might spend 10 points on Strength. Ten strength points meant that their character was very, very strong. However, that would leave them with only fifteen points to divide between the remaining six traits. We chose 25 points because it allowed the students' heroes to be good at a few things, but not everything. Students would have to think deeply about what traits mattered most to them in their hero.

At first, the students struggled with the idea that their hero could not be a perfect ten in everything. Some students tried to cheat the system and give themselves extra points. Others became frustrated and did not want to work on their heroes. We tried to explain that cool and interesting heroes did not need to be perfect in everything. For example, Iron Man is very smart and very charming, but maybe not the most empathic or physically strong. He's a man with average physical abilities in a super suit that he made using his brain. Or the Incredible Hulk is very strong, but not very disciplined. He lacks the ability to control his super-powered angry side, which sometimes results in people getting hurt. Spiderman is very fast when he swings on his web, but he's not as strong as other superheroes. 

After explaining why the limitations were put in place, the students performed well and got very creative. Most of them put their points into strength, intelligence, and speed - which left very few points for empathy, discipline, and charm. Perhaps in future lessons, we can explain the importance of soft skills like empathy, discipline, and charm a little better. Still, some of the kids created interesting narratives to explain their hero's lack of empathy/discipline/charm. One little boy created a hero with fire powers. The hero chose to live at the North Pole because he did not have enough discipline to control his fire abilities. One little girl decided to make her character into a villain, since she lacked empathy/discipline/charm.

Overall, the lesson went very well. We not only taught them something about how to make dynamic, flawed characters - but also reinforced their addition and subtraction skills. I'm really looking forward to the next phase of this lesson.