graphic novels:
- Engages reluctant readers & ESL patrons.
- Increases reading comprehension and vocabulary.
- Can provide a bridge between low and high levels of reading.
- Presents an approach to reading that embraces the multimedia nature of today’s culture, as 2/3 of a story is conveyed visually.
- Provides scaffolding for struggling readers.
- Presents complex material in readable text.
- Helps patrons understand global affairs.
- Offers another avenue through which individuals can experience art.
Why teach using graphic novels. Click here for Gene Yang's graphic novel explanation of why to use graphic novels in the classroom. Courtney Angermeier has assembled a youtube video called "Building Literacy Connections with Graphic Novels". It can be found by clicking here. Dianne Laycock has given permission to use her lesson outline on codes and conventions used in graphic novels. Click here to see it. She also provides links to online comic creating tools but I think bitstrips.com is a great comic creator. Mr. Davis has used bitstrips with his classes this year.
Another parallel activity would be to have students read a newspaper article of your choosing or you could lay down some specifications and have the students pick their own article. They then can use the following template from the New York Times Learning Network to create a comic strip version. If you are an art teacher or a brave literacy teacher maybe you may want them to create their own novel. For some great ideas from Barbara Slate click here.
We have many great award winning graphic novels that could be used in your classroom.
Plot: Following the Iranian protests of the 2009 election of President Ahmadinejad, many young protesters are missing. One of them is Mehdi. Unable to find Mehdi and fearing the worst, his mother and brother devote themselves to figuring out how someone can seemingly just vanish without a trace.
If you would like to see lesson plans for this novel click here.
Plot: Anya just doesn't quite feel right. And she's at that age too; you know, puberty. So when Anya accidentally falls down a well and encounters a ghost who seems to have all the answers she starts to feel a little more self-secure. But will it last? And what's so special or weird (Anya's not sure which) about this ghost?
If you would like to see lesson plans for this novel click here.
The following article discusses Graphic Novels in the AP classroom and discusses the next three G.N.'s we have. To read click here.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus tells the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler’s Europe, and his son, a cartoonist coming to terms with his father’s story. Maus approaches the unspeakable through the diminutive. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), shocks us out of any lingering sense of familiarity and succeeds in “drawing us closer to the bleak heart of the Holocaust” (The New York Times).
If you would like to see lesson ideas for this novel click here.
Back to Iran. Our next graphic novel is Persepolis. This book was just recently banned by the Chicago Public Schools. Later it was said that it was banned in elementary schools and restricted in high schools if teachers had appropriate training. Click here to read an article in the Atlantic or here for an article in The Guardian.
Originally published to wide critical acclaim in France, where it elicited comparisons to Art Spiegelman's Maus, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran's last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. (Powell's Books)
Susan Spangler, from ReadWriteThink has a great unit plan that you can use for this graphic novel. The outline can be found by clicking here. To see all the details click here.
It’s hard to imagine a graphic work that is better suited for grades 6–12 instruction than this. Its themes of
assimilation, conformity, identity, and the price that is sometimes paid for popularity at school can’t help but
resonate with students. But that’s just the beginning. Brimming with humor, some of which is merciless in
its depiction of Chinese stereotypes, this graphic novel also comprises an artful and exciting retelling of the
Monkey King legend. Indeed, by alternating among three separate story lines that clearly parallel each other before he allows them to converge in a surprising, satisfying ending, Yang (himself a California teacher)
provides an almost diagrammatic way for students to deepen their understanding of how theme and symbol
work in literature. (Peter Gutierrez)
This novel could be used in an English class but any Social Studies class that discusses stereotypes would also be great. You also could have your students write an autobiographical outline or have a discussion with a relative and make a biographical essay. After that they could make a small graphic novel or comic strip or just the storyboard themselves. Here are a couple lesson plans for you to look at by clicking here or here or here.
We also have a Canadian History graphic novel, Louis Riel. The novel starts at the Red River Rebellion and finishes with his hanging for treason. The novel won many awards in Canada.
For a journalism course, Kirstin Butler says, "Melding a graphic novel, photo essay, and travelogue,The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders tells the story of photographer Didier Lefèvre's 1986 journey through Afghanistan with the international non-profit organization Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
Lefèvre documented the group's harrowing covert tour from Pakistan into a nation gripped by violence in the aftermath of the 1979 Soviet invasion. While a few of his 4,000-plus images were published upon his return to France, years passed before Lefèvre was approached by his friend, graphic novelist Emmanuel Guibert, about collaborating on a book that would finally tell his remarkable story. The resulting effort, assembled by graphic designer Frédéric Lemercier, is a seamless tour de force of reportage."
Graphic Novels in General
This link from
is on the topic of "Examining Race, Class, Ethnicity, Gender in the Media" by way of comic books or equally graphic novels. Barbara Slate has a fine document on creating your own Graphic Novels which can be found by clicking here.
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