Updated: March 5th, 2026
Author: Abigail Hylins

This educational resource is intended to support a social-emotional learning (SEL) lesson for intermediate to middle school students. The comic shines a light on anxiety and explores how anxiety can be important in certain ways for navigating life. The story follows a young girl coming home from school feeling anxious and connecting with her Opa in the garden. Her Opa offers comfort and a new perspective on Layla’s situation. Additionally, the comic offers ways to help regulate negative emotions and learn from lived experiences.

This project is a great opportunity to create something I strongly believe will be important in my teaching practice. As I have noticed, and according to the Canadian Paediatric Society, anxiety levels in youth are doubling in prevalence. I chose to complete this assignment independently so I could take it in a direction that felt meaningful to me and spend plenty of time drafting and refining the work.

Comics have always caught my eye, both as a child and into adulthood. The process of creating a comic, and understanding how well it works in an educational setting due to its modality, is something I find really compelling. Additionally, Yang highlights how comics can help bridge gaps for learners, particularly English language learners, through the use of visual cues (Yang, 2018).

Lesson Connection

Lesson Overview

The intended lesson uses the comic Mind Garden as an entry to social-emotional learning, specifically emotional awareness and self-regulation. Student should engage with the story reflectively by considering the metaphor to understand emotions in an accessible way.

Simplified Lesson Structure

Introduction:

• Question:
  • Can you think of a time when feeling anxious or stressed made something feel harder for you?
  • Can you think of a time when feeling a little anxious or stressed helped you focus, prepare, or care more about something?
• Allow students time to share with learning partners
• Allow time to share instances as a class
• Read the comic as a class

Discussion:

• Guided questions about anxiety, balance, and support

Activity:

• Students work together in small groups to create their own metaphor to emotional awareness/wellness
• Students work together in small groups to create a mind map of ways to “prune” negative feelings

Reflection:

• Students have a variety of options to show their understanding
  • Written response
  • Sketch or draw
  • Seek out online resources that connects to the lesson
  • Create their own comic
  • Engage in a community circle
  • Seek out text that connects to the lesson

Learning Challenge

The learning challenge for this project is to help students understand that perceived negatively stigmatized emotions, like stress and anxiety are a natural and necessary part of being alive. Additionally, it is important to recognize these emotions and learn regulation strategies. Students are encouraged to appreciate the purpose these emotions play in different experiences rather than viewing them as something to discard entirely.

Context & Audience

This resource is designed for intermediate to middle school students engaging in social-emotional learning (SEL). This lesson and digital comic is designed for learners who experience complex emotions like anxiety and stress. Learners may lack the ability, language or strategies to understand and manage these complex emotions in a way that resonates deeply.

Examining demographics, this audience includes students in grades 4 – 8 with varied lived experiences and abilities. These students may differ widely in how they process and express emotions. This can vary from internalizing emotions to having emotions visible and causing disengagement or disruptive behaviours. This visual and story based approach helps accessibility across literacy levels and supports English language learners.

As for a psychographic perspective, learners at this age want to feel understood and have autonomy in their learning environment. Motivation can come from connections to the content through their lived experiences. However, anxiety can create barriers for students to focus, share, take risks, or ask for help. 

Behaviourally, students may respond to overwhelming emotions by shutting down, resorting to avoidance, or acting out. This resource aims to meet students where they are at by acknowledging emotional experiences and ways to encounter the emotion proactively while still respecting the emotion for what it offers. The use of metaphor in the digital comic provides an approachable access point for the learners. 

Point of View Statement

Intermediate to middle school students need a way to understand difficult emotions like anxiety because these feelings can interfere with learning and overall wellbeing. On the flip side, these emotions also serve an important purpose to help students prepare, care and grow. Many students lack the language and strategies to make sense of these emotions which can lead to an even bigger emotional snowball effect. This approach allows students to explore emotional balance in a safe and supportive setting. 

Plan (Ideate, Sketch, Elaborate)

During the ideation phase, my brainstorming was strongly influenced by my understanding and research indicating that anxiety levels in children and youth are at an all time high, as highlighted by the Canadian Paediatric Society. This research solidified my understanding of the urgency of needing an educational resource that does not frame anxiety as something to be avoided altogether, instead as something to be understood, managed or “pruned” as per the comic.

My experience as a student teacher in multiple middle school and intermediate classrooms also supported my thinking and inspiration in this assignment. I could see how anxiety often showed up as an invisible barrier to learning, with students struggling to express what they were feeling. In many instances, students either shut down academically or would act out behaviourally, not because a lack of ability or understanding, but because they were overwhelmed by emotions they might not fully understand.

Using a digital comic paired well with my chosen topic because of the accessibility and ability to communicate emotions and ideas visually. The garden metaphor started with my personal interest in gardening and then it became abundantly clear that it connects to balance, frequent care, growth, and ongoing effort. Then, I quickly realized this aligns well with SEL principles.

Applied Theories

Cognitive Load Theory

This project applies cognitive load theory by using a digital comic format where images and text work together to communicate the same ideas. The visuals support the meaning of the text, which helps reduce the amount of mental effort students need to spend on decoding information. By avoiding long blocks of text, the comic prevents cognitive overload and allows students to focus their attention on understanding the message rather than trying to understand text heavy information.

Coherence Principle

The coherence principle is used by intentionally keeping the comic focused. Only visuals and text that directly support the learning goal are included, and unnecessary details and extra dialogue were avoided. The setting, characters, and metaphors all serve a purpose in supporting the SEL message. This helps students stay engaged without becoming overwhelmed by irrelevant information.

Merrill’s Principles of Instruction

Merrill’s principles of instruction are applied by connecting the lesson in a real world problem that students can easily relate to. Anxiety and stress are experiences that all humans encounter at some point, and many students can also connect by experiencing others having these emotions in their presence. The lesson and comic activates prior knowledge, introduces new ways of thinking about emotions, and encourages reflection and discussion. This allows students to apply the ideas to their own experiences.

Accessible Multimedia Design

Accessibility was always in mind for the design of this comic. Text is clear and easy to read, using bold lettering and contrast with black text placed on white speech bubbles. Visual clutter and jargon were avoided to ensure the content is approachable. The design choices help support students with diverse learning needs and make the comic accessible and easy to follow.

Prototype – First Draft

For my initial draft, I did not spend time drawing or sketching my ideas out because they kept shifting. Instead, I found a Canva comic template and typed in my ideas for the comic. You will notice that this is a very rough draft, but it proved to be very helpful during my ideation phase.

Prototype – Second Draft

Peer Feedback

It was really encouraging to hear that the tone of my comic came across as “compassionate and non-stigmatizing.” Since I chose the theme of anxiety and depression, I wanted to take an approach that isn’t always prioritized, my goal was to show they’re just parts of a natural system that need a bit of maintenance. My peer really liked the garden metaphor by comparing emotions to weeds that aren’t “bad” but just need balance. They also mentioned that the relationship between Layla and her Opa felt warm and safe, which I’m glad about because I wanted that bond to feel grounding.

One big piece of feedback was about the pacing. I crammed five speech bubbles into a single panel, which my peer pointed out that it could create cognitive overload. To fix this, I’m going to break that dialogue up by getting rid of unnecessary words and combine a few text bubbles. This will give the reader’s eyes a break and allow Opa’s words to sink in deeper.

There was a note about the age range being a bit broad, like how a Grade 4 student might struggle with the metaphor compared to a Grade 8 student. I’ve decided to keep the metaphor as is because I want students to have the space to interpret it for themselves. If a younger student needs a bit more help connecting the dots, I think that’s something that can be handled through the teacher’s lesson plan or a class discussion, rather than altering or watering down the comic itself (no pun intended). 

The most helpful suggestion was about the limits of self-regulation. My peer suggested showing that sometimes, a “weed” or an “anxious thought” can be too much on your own. I’m going to add a final panel that serves as a reminder that self-regulation is a tool but not a substitute for support. This serves as a low-pressure way to tell the reader that it’s okay and smart to go find a trusted adult when emotions feel a bit heavy to carry on their own. 

Reflect & Refine

The first thing that worked well was my immediate connection to the material. I already understood the value of bringing comics into education based on my own experience. This made for quick inspiration and motivation for the task. I wanted to address a topic I believe is very important, especially since feelings of anxiety and being overwhelmed are common today. I’ve noticed this particularly among middle school students. Using a comic for this topic aligns with Dual Coding Theory, which suggests that combining verbal and visual information helps students process and retain complex concepts more effectively than text alone.

I wouldn’t change much about the assignment itself, but waiting for peer feedback was a bit challenging. While I appreciate the value of an outside perspective, it created a minor obstacle in my workflow when timelines didn’t align. Despite the wait, the feedback I got was vital for refining my prototype. Useful feedback helped me identify my blind spots.

In my revised prototype, I made two significant changes based on my feedback. First, I added a statement at the end of the comic that emphasizes the importance of seeking help if emotions become overwhelming. I realize now how crucial it is to handle mental health topics carefully, ensuring students feel safe and have access to resources. Next, I addressed the cognitive load issue. One of my panels was overly wordy, so I cut unnecessary dialogue and combined text bubbles. This aligns with Mayer’s Coherence Principle, which states that people learn better when unnecessary words and images are removed to keep them focused on the content.

Finally, a peer pointed out that the metaphor might be too complex for younger students, like those in Grade 4. I had actually thought about this during the design phase. While I agree it’s a valid point, I chose not to change the comic itself. I want the story to remain open to interpretation so students can relate their own experiences to the metaphor. Instead, I would adjust the lesson design. Proper scaffolding and teacher delivery can help the comic keep an element of open-endedness while the lesson meets the learners where they are with the necessary scaffolding. This approach ensures the comic stays a flexible resource without losing its creative depth and versatility.

Final Artifact

References

Canadian Paediatric Society. (2022, October 20). Anxiety in children and youth: Part 1 – Diagnosis. https://cps.ca/en/documents/position/anxiety-in-children-and-youth-diagnosis 

Granchelli, A. (2025, November 2). Accessible Multimedia. University of Victoria: Educational Technology. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci337/2025/11/02/accessible-multimedia/

Granchelli, A. (2025, October 19). Models of Active Learning. University of Victoria: Educational Technology. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci337/2025/10/19/models-of-active-learning/

Granchelli, A. (2025, September 14). Storytelling. University of Victoria: Educational Technology. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci337/2025/09/14/storytelling/

Yang, G. L. (2018). Comics belong in the classroom [TED Talk]. TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/gene_luen_yang_comics_belong_in_the_classroom