Module 3

This unit focused on incorporating comics and graphic novels into the classroom. I have always been skeptical about comics because I never was able to get into them. However, we discussed many ways to utilize them in teaching literature.

Based on the readings, it can be a challenge to incorporate some non-traditional texts into the classroom. Personally, I never picked up a comic book until college, but I wish they would’ve been part of my high school curriculum. I’ve read Maus and American Born Chinese, and I’m planning to read Persepolis for another class, and I’ve found more of a challenge in these texts than in any traditional reading. I was able to write pages and pages about only a few frames! Art adds a whole new dimension to a text, and you have to focus on the details in order to really extract as much meaning as possible. The reluctant reader can feel comforted by fewer words, and the avid reader is challenged by the visual elements. So, why aren’t these texts usually seen as valid in a classroom? The huge stigma behind them being “just childish comics” and the limited information regarding the effects on standardized test scores deters teachers and school boards from accessing these texts. However, I feel more well-equipped to defend these novels now.

While we could’ve created analyses based on comics, we flipped this around and created our own comic that represented a scene from a novel. At first, I didn’t really see all the potential that this activity could have. When I was creating my own project, though, I began to realize all the symbolism and details that could be translated over to a different sign system. I enjoy being crafty, so I chose to paint my project, and I was able to incorporate whatever I wanted into the comic. I feel that the online comic generators are a bit more limited, but I can see that they can be useful to students who are hand-wavers when it comes to art. I think that the real value in this was rationalizing our artistic decisions. This way, students do have a more traditional writing assignment, and they really have to analyze and defend their choices.

When I first thought of comics, I always thought of superheroes or manga. Now, I realize there are so many other options. I’ve never been exposed to different forms of books in the canon, but I certainly intend to dive deeper into these. If we could just replace one book from the canon with a different approach, I think our students would really benefit. A graphic novel Shakespeare play? Count me in!