Job: choose a playful purpose and produce one meaningful first frame. Ready: familiar page/tool or willing adult scribe; an own fictional object/shape, not a personal photo. Say: “What shall the picture show? What will it leave out?”
- 0–3: Offer a tiny mystery, picture joke, invented clue, art for oneself or an own interest. Choose an intended reader if useful, including self/imagined reader. Confirm drawing/director/description route and stop choice; a frame need not be rectangular.
- 3–8: Make or direct one actual image component before labels. The learner chooses an edge/crop that hides part of their imagined scene, or chooses an open complete view instead. A rough shape with a chosen meaning is useful. An adult may make every mark, retaining learner decisions and adult action. With no marks, describe a plan honestly.
- 8–12: Name frame/off-screen plainly using that available work. Ask “What can this frame tell us? What is still outside?” Separate shown fact, possible reading and the learner's purpose. A hidden part is not known merely because the adult knows the plan.
- 12–20: Try one different crop/scale/detail or add an own clue; compare with the first available version. Keep the choice if it serves the learner's purpose, including deliberate ambiguity. A useful mystery need not become easier. Save the actual versions only if useful; no neatness/word quota.
- 20–25: Choose keep/change/stop and one useful next idea. Record a meaningful actual choice/reason/help, not a fictional reader effect. Next: encounter a supplied original strip and choose whether to borrow its framing idea.