Course Schedule and Catalog

Department: College Courses

Meeting: 6:00PM - 6:50PM R (11-JAN-2027 - 23-APR-2027) 

Part of Term: Full Term - No WL Purge

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Seminar

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Method of Instruction: Face to Face

Credit Hours: 1

 

Section Max Enrollment: 15

Section Enrolled: 0

Waitlisted: 0 (Max 99) 

Current members of the waitlist have priority for available seats.

Enrollment data as of: 2-NOV-2026 7:19AM

 

 

Final Exam: No Final Exam

 

Description: Books can do more than tell stories. They can help someone imagine a life, a place, or a future they may not see around them yet. In this course, students will create an illustrated, wordless book for a real community and a real audience. Our goal is to create books for spaces where access to books and visual stories may be limited, and to think seriously about how stories can help young people dream bigger, imagine themselves in new spaces, and see possibilities beyond what is immediately around them. Throughout the semester, we will ask a bigger question: How do you communicate with an audience whose language, culture, age, or lived experience may be different from your own? Students will explore how images, sequencing, color, expression, symbolism, and perspective can communicate without relying on written language. We will look at examples of visual storytelling, complete short creative exercises, build storyboards and prototypes, test our stories with others, and revise them based on what our audiences actually understand. You do not need to know how to draw or have an art background. The goal is not to create the most technically impressive book. The goal is to learn how to listen to an audience, communicate with intention, and create something that matters to someone beyond yourself. By the end of the semester, each student will develop a complete wordless book and learn how a visual narrative moves from an idea to a piece that could be physically produced and shared. We will also explore what publication and distribution could look like beyond the classroom, including how a finished text might be prepared for printing or brought to a community audience. The hope is that the stories we create can eventually enter spaces beyond Rice and give another student the chance to see, imagine, and dream something new.