Why not try giving them a shot in the classroom?

While I now appreciate the complexities of comics and graphic novels it wasn’t until recently that I truly became aware of the advanced art. As a child I came across Calvin and Hobbes every so often in the Sunday paper, but never knew anything beyond the mutiple genres that I’m aware of today. Looking back I cannot help but think about the learning experiences that I missed by being unaware of these types of works.

Just like many of my new media interests, my appreciation stems from conversations with students over the last few years. More and more, I’ve seen kids engaged in graphic novels and comics between classes and sometimes, yes, even in class. When asked if reading for school or pleasure the response is typically, “for pleasure”. Of course, this answer would excite any educator (maybe not if the reading took place during class). More so, it provides the opportunity to consider the value of integrating such sources in the classroom.

As educators, whether in a school, library or other information setting, it is our responsibility to try to find ways to meet students’ interests. With increased popularity of comics and graphic novels we have the chance to tap into students’ interests and engage them in new ways of understanding and interpreting the world. That’s right; comics and graphic novels can foster critical thinking!

As some may question the legitimacy of graphic novels and comics in this era dominated by standardized testing, which tests traditional texts, we must consider the benefits of such nontraditional sources to prove these skeptics wrong. As Carol Tilley presents in Reading Comics, these works, just like standard text, share certain structural elements. These elements make comics and graphic novels unique, complex literatures, which entail special skills to read and navigate. These components demand students to have “conversations” with the text and engage in a more active way that requires students to make predictions, connections and inferences. For many students, when confronted with traditional text, these tasks seem daunting but because of increased interest in comics/graphic novels, as well as the openness they seem to create, the tasks become less threatening. As students develop these skills with comics and graphic novels they will transfer such abilities to understanding other types of literature and mediums of information. Although this should not be used as a sole motivator or reason for using graphic novels and comics in the classroom it does provide an important consideration and justification for skeptics.

Although using graphic novels and comics in the classroom may not help ALL students, they especially provide opportunities for struggling readers and English language learners, a growing group in American schools. Curiosity about this led me to the article Using Graphic Novels, Anime, and the Internet in an Urban High School by Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher. The case presented here explored a group of struggling readers and ELL students in an impoverished San Diego high school. With the goal to design an illustrated story, the teachers involved used graphic novels as a tool to engage students in the writing process. The instructors believed that “the limited amount of text would allow students to read and respond to complex messages with text that better matched their reading levels.” Their predictions certainly ended up being correct. As student engaged with the graphic novels the instructors were able to build discussion centering on skills such as determining tone and mood, as well as vocabulary/word choice, sentence structure, and, overall, ways of expressing an idea. Using these discussions and mini-lessons for scaffolding, the instructors were able to get students to produce works that went beyond their reading/writing level—quite a difficult feat. I'd recommend that article to understand the actual process and for ideas about integrating graphic novels in your classroom.

Examples like the one stated above are not unique. As I mentioned, I have been trying to incorporate comics and graphic novels increasingly in the classroom. So far, I’ve used them to help in student understanding of the Neolithic Revolution, political revolutions, and the Holocaust. As we promote student learning we must consider all resources available. A graphic novel or a comic can quite possibly serve as impetus for student inquiry, understanding and success. Why not try giving them a shot in the classroom?