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Graphic Novels in the Modern English Language Arts Classroom by Park

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About a month ago, I shared an Edudemic mail on my Facebook page about teaching with graphic novels, and I was startled by how many teachers responded to it. They talked nearly their own successful practices with graphic novels, shared how the books had transformed reluctant readers into obsessive readers, and they recommended dozens of titles—I'd never heard of most of them, merely every bit soon as I took a look within each one, I wanted to get my easily on them immediately. I quickly realized that whatsoever teacher who wants students to become avid readers should stock its library full of these gems.

I invited four of those teachers here for my first-ever Teacher Roundtable, where classroom teachers will share their thoughts and best practices on a specific topic. Today's topic? Yep. Graphic novels.

Question ane: Why are graphic novels and comics valuable learning tools?

walthewAlison Walthew, English language teacher, Yew Chung International Schoolhouse, Century Park Campus, Shanghai
The graphic novel (a practiced ane) has depth of plot, character development, theme, etc. In short, it has the classic areas of study constitute in a prose text. It also has the elements of motion-picture show nosotros study with students, allowing them to develop literacy in the interpretation of prototype for significant. When students combine both aspects to investigate a text's consequence on readers, they develop varied insights into how meaning is communicated and interpreted. It makes for a very rich literature report.

falterDr. Michelle Falter, Banana Professor of English Pedagogy, Due north Carolina State University; former middle and high school English teacher and instructional motorcoach
First of all, the fact that they are multimodal (meaning multiple modes of expression are used) facilitates and supports students' ability to visualize and understand complicated ideas, which is also a 21st century literacy skill. Secondly, because of the multimodality of the texts, they are manageable for students to read. It reduces the overall text load, therefore decreasing anxieties students might accept regarding print-based reading. Third, they are relevant, engaging, and positive. It is easier for students to relate to a text when they tin can see it. It captures student interest in this increasingly visual world, which and so as well increases student motivation and desire to keep reading considering they can be successful at information technology, therefore promoting a positive association to reading. Finally, graphic novels are cross-curricular; there are many connections that tin can be made across the curriculum in a variety of different discipline matters.

gillisBeth Gillis, 6th grade humanities teacher, Sea Crest School, Half Moon Bay, CA
I offset noticed the power of graphic novels with my struggling 5th and 6th grade readers. As a visual learner myself, I wasn't surprised that they were drawn to graphics. The diction felt more approachable, the images supported their comprehension, and they felt the success of finishing books in a timely manner in a way they weren't typically experiencing. When I took a motorcycle safety course years ago, the teacher shared that driving a motorcycle would plow u.s. into safer, smarter, more than aware drivers when nosotros were in our cars. In this same style, explicitly teaching the elements of graphic novels has helped many of my students to get stronger readers with more traditional texts. They pay more attention to what authors state explicitly and where they need to infer or read between the lines to come up upward with details or bigger ideas. They call back nearly the choices authors take made. They have a stronger sense of characters by asking themselves to paint a picture show of all the visuals that aren't nowadays in traditional books. Michelle mentioned 21st century literacies above; I have incorporated a smashing deal of media literacy and critical literacy into my humanities classes as we retrieve about ability/voice/bias/perspective/etc. Graphic novels have added some other layer to these lessons, and I've found the visual elements can support struggling students to engage in this piece of work with more ease.

greenhowBecky Greenhow, Elementary school teacher (grades 4-seven), British Columbia
Yes, yes and yes to all the above. I would like to add to Michelle and Beth'due south comments about struggling readers. My daughter decided in Class iii that she was non going to read chapter books because she could not read chapter books. This past summer, prior to inbound Grade viii, she said she loved reading. Graphic novels accept given this reluctant reader a sense of achievement and pride. She's been able to tackle a slice of literature with confidence, considering of the above-mentioned elements unique to graphics that she IS good at: visual thinking, inferencing, modern artistic appreciation, creative thinking, and the art of storytelling (she's a talker!). Likewise, at that place are many graphics who have potent female characters at their centre, thus attracting girl readers and giving them social "permission" to read comics, which hasn't always been the case. In my day, girls who read comics were a little left of eye. At present it's totally adequate for a girl to be seen reading a graphic novel or comic. This helps my girl want to continue reading, since she'southward non viewed as weird past her peers.

Graphics are also fabulous for tackling sensitive, difficult, or meaty topics (relationships, Shakespeare, etc.) that are often hard for teens to want to discuss with adults. The visual nature and format of graphics makes such topics more than relatable and makes students more continued to the slice.

The quality of characters is one benchmark I look for when purchasing a new novel (like Alison listed in a higher place). Females in graphics (comics peculiarly) are often portrayed with unrealistic bodies, shallow personalities, and in the shadow of their male counterparts. Skilful graphics don't practice that. They build upwards female characters, showing them as strong, dynamic, interesting, realistic. Important perspectives for both girls and boys to learn in schoolhouse.

Graphic Novels: Nimona, by Noelle Stevenson

Question 2: What misconceptions do people have almost graphic novels and comics?

Alison Walthew: Many teachers believe comics and graphic novels are the same. Essentially, they are, but a good graphic novel is not an Archie and whatever-her-name-was comic. It has layers of meaning like a good prose text. Yous wouldn't choose to teach a Mills and Boon novel in an academic plan. In similar vein, you wouldn't teach a giddy comic as a novel.

Michelle Stammer: I retrieve a lot of people come across graphic novels as a cop out to reading traditional print-based texts. In other words, information technology's kind of cheating to give kids pictures and words. There is a stereotype that graphic literature is a bottom class of writing. This is absolutely untrue. The tasks and thinking skills required to read a multimodal text are actually higher level than if reading a print-based text alone. Y'all have to see images and words work together, and when and why authors chose to put them together in a frame. I also call back people call back graphic novels are for ELL or simple and middle grades students only. Although they are definitely very helpful for these students, this misconception comes from the fact that people run across this genre every bit "piece of cake"—and it is not.

Beth Gillis: I would agree with Michelle. I've had a few experiences where parents were highly concerned that their kids (often struggling readers) were choosing graphic novels, and that somehow this would slow down their learning or that it wasn't "real" reading. Although I do think it'southward of import to insist on varying what kids are choosing throughout the year, if the alternative is to never finish a volume, I'll put graphic novels in their hands every time. I've been lucky to work in settings where parents have trusted my expertise as a literacy teacher, so I feel like I've always been able to confidently talk them down from these misguided beliefs. I've also had stiff students who love to read, just who have never read a graphic novel (nor idea of it as a viable reading option). Many of them are pleasantly surprised to observe that they love the experience and end upward choosing them more regularly as independent reading in one case the unit of measurement is over.

Becky Greenhow: I've had like experiences as Beth, with parental concerns nigh easy reading vs real reading. When I know a student well, I can make recommendations towards more novels, or more non-fiction, or more current events. But if a child is a reluctant reader and gets joy from reading a graphic, LET THEM READ THE GRAPHIC. The main purpose in having kids learn to read in early simple schoolhouse is have them acquire to take a positive relationship with text. If the relationship is not positive, and so the struggle will be real for them in our text-based world.

persepolis

Question 3: Share i of your favorite graphic novels or comics to teach, and talk nigh the lesson/unit you used it in.

[Editor's Note: Teachers should preview these books before giving them to students. Some include content that may exist considered inappropriate for younger students. When in doubt, see if Amazon has suggested an age range for the book or enter the championship into the search bar on Common Sense Media to see their recommended minimum age.]

Alison Walthew: I accept only taught Five for Vendetta. By the way, the movie is terrible. It must non be shown to students if you lot are studying the novel. I started the novel off by telling the students to write out in prose exactly what information they got on the outset page. They had to include everything every bit if it were the kickoff page of a prose novel. The characters needed to exist described, their facial expressions, the surroundings, etc. It was discovered that the page was jam-packed with data, even though there were very few words. This was to make them aware of the rich medium that is a graphic novel. They found they needed film technique words, besides, to try to draw how the visual conveyed meaning. The juxtaposition of graphic novel page and written text just was powerful.

Michelle Falter: How do I choose one? I love so many. I call back I volition focus on ane that maybe people are less familiar with: Pride of Baghdad. The story is about a pride of lions that escaped the Baghdad Zoo during an American bombing raid. It could work in both middle and loftier school English or social studies class. I take used this book as an ELA instructor to talk near symbolism, personification, imagery. The themes of liberty and alienation are large in this book. Likewise the anthropomorphism of the animals is particularly interesting. Because it deals with concepts of right and wrong and the consequences of state of war, rich word and debate occur.

Beth Gillis: My favorite book to utilize as a mentor text with my graphic novel unit is March, Book 1. Since I'chiliad teaching in a humanities model, it's e'er a win to notice books that complement our social studies units. My reading-based lessons begin with the elements of graphic novels: layout and how to read the panels in the right order, author's option around font/size/placement of words/how big or small or plentiful (or varied) the panels are on the pages, powerful "moves" that authors make to shift the tone or emphasis (having one sole picture on a page spread, using black and negative space, the absenteeism of pictures and what that might represent). I virtually always use the content for more than traditional reading lessons around comprehension, particularly to support struggling readers, just also oft connect the content back to our community or to depict parallels with social studies or current events.

march1

In the first year that we used March, the Black Lives Affair motility was actually starting to surface in the mainstream media. I was working in a school in San Francisco where many students were enlightened of the inequities effectually them, but even so felt quite disconnected with their personal experiences in a mostly privileged community. I of my students went to Wedlock Square for the Christmas tree lighting and saw a group of BLM folks protesting on the square. He came back to schoolhouse the next day and asked if we could talk about what was happening. We had been raising awareness effectually Ferguson, Michael Brown and the regular shootings of black American males past the police force throughout the fall, but his experience that nighttime helped our conversations feel more real. It likewise ignited an activist spirit inside him that has become a big part of his identity.

All throughout these events, we were reading March, cartoon parallels to the Ceremonious Rights Motion of the 60's and what we were seeing in present-day current events. At one bespeak, that student made an observation that many people look back to the Civil Rights era and imagine how they might exist different if they were living at the time. "So now you take the chance to be that person today. Who will you be?" he challenged his classmates. I remember having that warm and fuzzy feeling that we teachers become when the stars align and the class is pure magic. The visuals in the book fabricated the history come to life in a manner that couldn't accept otherwise happened for many of my students.

Becky Greenhow: I got interested in graphic novels due to my daughter's reading disability and her abhorrence of literature (GASP! I know!). Despite having a very large YA fiction collection of my own, I was inexperienced with the graphic genre, and wanted something that would engage students (my daughter especially) with high interest/ age appropriate content, low vocab, visual cues for comprehension, and stiff (mostly daughter) heroes. Thus was born our graphic collection! PS: Most of our collection has accumulated in the last 3 years, when I have non been employed in a school. Therefore my pedagogy of graphic novels in a classroom setting is limited.

Question 4: What other books accept you and your students loved?

Alison Walthew: Colleagues accept taught Persepolis (story of a immature daughter growing up in Iran before and afterwards the Islamic Revolution) and Maus (story of the Nazis and the Jews during WWII, only using cats and mice to depict them). The books have been used in the Language A: Language and Literature International Baccalaureate course. This is an external essay exam in which a question is addressed, using ii texts, and investigating style and context too as the usual literature elements. The graphic novel lends itself to this equally the divergence between prose and graphic fashion can add to the discussion.

Michelle Falter: Like Alison, both Persepolis and Maus were highly impactful reads for my students. Myself and a colleague accept put together a list of Graphic Novel Recommendations for middle or high school teachers that bargain with social justice topics. This list is by no ways exhaustive or inclusive of every bully book out there, merely we are happy to share it.

abc_cover_rbg

Beth Gillis: Thank you lot for that list, Michelle! Nosotros wing through titles in volume order-style during our unit, so I don't explicitly teach these books, but I've heavily vetted them for their content, quality and various representation (which is even more than difficult with graphic novels than traditional as main characters in the middle grades/middle school levels tend to be white females.) I'grand also always on the watch for approachable, high-involvement nonfiction graphic novels. My students accept loved/are loving:

  • All things Reina Telgemeier (Smile, Sisters, Drama, Ghosts)
  • Princeless: Salve Yourself
  • Human Body Theater
  • Primates
  • Lumberjanes
  • El Deafo
  • Sunny Side Upwards
  • Awkward
  • Rapunzel's Revenge andCalamity Jack
  • Anything Doug TenNapel (Cardboard, Ghostopolis, Bad Island)
  • Anya'southward Ghost
  • Roller Girl
  • The Odyssey

Michelle Falter: To add onto Beth's comments, I admittedly dear Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol, and all of Reina Telgemeier's novels are brilliant. Three more graphic novels that are pretty new that I have personally loved and would love to see someone teach are Trashed by Derf Backderf about the untold story of garbage collectors and what happens to all the trash we throw away, The Encyclopedia of Early on Globe: A Novel by Isabel Greenberg, a sort of mythological tale, and The Gigantic Bristles That Was Evil by Stephen Collins, a really interesting allegory near conformity, fearfulness, and hate.

Becky Greenhow: Cheers Michelle! For the list and additions. Yes! Everything in Beth's listing. Hither are some more from our house:

  • O'Connor's Olympians books: Good for Grade 7 "Ancient Civilizations"; myths and legends
  • Stevenson's award-winning Nimona: stiff female person hero
  • Gulledge'south Page past Paige: "empowering exploration of art, identity, and finding i'due south phonation"
  • Whatsoever of the archetype book adaptations: The Hobbit, The Phone call of the Wild, A Wrinkle in Fourth dimension
  • Any of the modern book adaptations: Artemis Fowl, The Urban center of Ember, Coraline, The Lightning Thief
  • And if yous are wanting to investigate a genre hybrid, bank check out Cherry: A Haida Manga by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas

UPDATE: I have found versions of several of these books in Spanish as well!

  • Maus I and II
  • Coraline
  • Grinning and Ghosts

Question 5: What does a instructor need to exercise to exist successful with graphic novels? Are there any Practice's and Don'ts?

Alison Walthew: I do retrieve a review of flick technique will assist in making the teacher aware of the use of colour, angles, framing, foregrounding and backgrounding, etc. These aspects need to be addressed in whatever analysis of the graphic novel.

Michelle Falter: I highly recommend purchasing Scott McCloud's volume, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. He really is the guru of getting to know this genre. I have constitute the book extraordinarily helpful. Personally, I remember the worst matter you could practice with education a graphic novel is teach it like a print-based text. If you but focus on the story, and not on how the story is constructed through frames, colors, angles, word bubbles, etc., you are missing the point. Education Strategies for Graphic Novels, which I found by accident at some point, is a dandy gratuitous resource for thinking about activities to do with graphic novels; it comes from getgraphic.org, which also has a ton of wonderful resources for teachers and librarians. If teaching an entire graphic novel seems scary, at that place are also many wonderful classic novels that have been retold in graphic novel format that would be a keen manner to start, as a companion piece to the original telling. A good case of a classic retold in graphic novel format is A Wrinkle in Time.

Beth Gillis: Agreed re: Understanding Comics. The best thing a teacher can do is to educate themselves on the elements and components of comics/graphic novels and so that they can use that knowledge for the end goal: teaching students to recognize those elements and brand sense of them in a literary context. I took a graduate grade on teaching with graphic novels with a fabulously quirky and passionate comic lover, Stephen Cary, in the final semester before he retired. He wrote Going Graphic: Comics at Work in the Multilingual Classroom, which I found to be super informative, fifty-fifty though I don't work with ELL students.

Becky Greenhow: Thanks for the suggestions regarding learning about graphics equally a purposeful genre, and not just a different format in which to insert traditional text and story. Hereafter references, for sure! ♦

Do you teach with graphic novels? Share your thoughts and all-time practices in the comments below. And if y'all're nonetheless getting started, ask questions so the community can help you lot out!

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Source: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/teaching-graphic-novels/

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