Art can be used in education to assist in engagement, comprehension, and literacy. For years, comics and graphic novels have been written off as simple sources of entertainment. However, comics and graphic novels have tremendous value when utilized in the classroom as unique texts that can be approached philosophically and cognitively. Exploring Comics and Graphic Novels in the Classroom highlights voices from a number of disciplines in education, showcasing research and practice using both popular and lesser-known examples of comics across time in terms of publishing history and across geographic contexts. It explores comics from multiple viewpoints to share the efficacy of these texts in descriptive, narrative, and empirical ways. Covering topics such as intersectional identity representation, sequential visual art, and critical analysis, this premier reference source is a dynamic resource for educational administrators, teacher educators, preservice teachers, faculty of both K-12 and higher education, librarians, teaching artists, researchers, and academicians.
35th Annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Nominee! This text will allow you to harness students’ love of comics and graphic novels while increasing critical thinking and engagement in the classroom. Author Tim Smyth offers a wide variety of lessons and ideas for using comics to teach close reading, working with textual evidence, literature adaptations, symbolism and culture, sequencing, essay writing, and more. He also models how to use comics to tackle tough topics and enhance social-emotional learning. Throughout the book, you’ll find a multitude of practical resources, including a variety of lesson plans—some quick and easy activities as well as more detailed ready-to-use unit plans. These thoughtful lessons meet the Common Core State Standards and are easy to adapt for any subject area or grade level to fit into your curriculum. Add this book to your professional library and you’ll have a new and exciting way of reaching and teaching your students!
Sequential art combines the visual and the narrative in a way that readers have to interpret the images with the writing. Comics make a good fit with education because students are using a format that provides active engagement. This collection of essays is a wide-ranging look at current practices using comics and graphic novels in educational settings, from elementary schools through college. The contributors cover history, gender, the use of specific graphic novels, practical application and educational theory. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.
A New York Times Notable Book Filled with beautiful color art, dynamic storytelling, and insightful analysis, Hillary Chute reveals what makes one of the most critically acclaimed and popular art forms so unique and appealing, and how it got that way. “In her wonderful book, Hillary Chute suggests that we’re in a blooming, expanding era of the art… Chute’s often lovely, sensitive discussions of individual expression in independent comics seem so right and true.” — New York Times Book Review Over the past century, fans have elevated comics from the back pages of newspapers into one of our most celebrated forms of culture, from Fun Home, the Tony Award–winning musical based on Alison Bechdel’s groundbreaking graphic memoir, to the dozens of superhero films that are annual blockbusters worldwide. What is the essence of comics’ appeal? What does this art form do that others can’t? Whether you’ve read every comic you can get your hands on or you’re just starting your journey, Why Comics? has something for you. Author Hillary Chute chronicles comics culture, explaining underground comics (also known as “comix”) and graphic novels, analyzing their evolution, and offering fascinating portraits of the creative men and women behind them. Chute reveals why these works—a blend of concise words and striking visuals—are an extraordinarily powerful form of expression that stimulates us intellectually and emotionally. Focusing on ten major themes—disaster, superheroes, sex, the suburbs, cities, punk, illness and disability, girls, war, and queerness—Chute explains how comics get their messages across more effectively than any other form. “Why Disaster?” explores how comics are uniquely suited to convey the scale and disorientation of calamity, from Art Spiegelman’s representation of the Holocaust and 9/11 to Keiji Nakazawa’s focus on Hiroshima. “Why the Suburbs?” examines how the work of Chris Ware and Charles Burns illustrates the quiet joys and struggles of suburban existence; and “Why Punk?” delves into how comics inspire and reflect the punk movement’s DIY aesthetics—giving birth to a democratic medium increasingly embraced by some of today’s most significant artists. Featuring full-color reproductions of more than one hundred essential pages and panels, including some famous but never-before-reprinted images from comics legends, Why Comics? is an indispensable guide that offers a deep understanding of this influential art form and its masters.
Graphic novels are an excellent medium to motivate today’s youth to become independent learners and thinkers. This practical guide shows secondary school teachers how to incorporate graphic novels into content area instruction as a tool for meeting the needs of diverse learners and achieving the goals of the Common Core State Standards. The authors provide instructional guidelines with classroom examples that demonstrate how graphic novels can be used to expand content knowledge and literacy in science, social studies, math, and English/language arts. Teachers will appreciate the book’s specific suggestions for selecting graphic novels and for employing responsive practices that will build students’ reading, writing, speaking, listening, and media competencies. “The range and complexity of graphic novels being published right now is simply amazing to me. . . . They are part of what should be a balanced array of texts that all can read, enjoy, and learn from. In this volume, the authors point to this proliferation, as well as the educative potential of graphic novels. After reading its pages, I feel others will agree with me that they have done an excellent job pointing out how graphic novel creators such as Jim Ottaviani and Larry Gonick communicate much about history, science, and mathematics while also making connections to comprehension and thinking skills that accompany both literacy and content-specific learning.” —From the Foreword by Stergios Botzakis, assistant professor of adolescent literacy in the Theory and Practice in Teacher Education Department at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville “The authors have set forth on a task I feel long is overdu—connecting the literacy potential of graphic novels to the content areas. This book is a wonderful contribution to the field of content area literacy studies.” —Michael D. Boatright, assistant professor, Department of English, Western Carolina University Book Features: Advice for selecting and evaluating graphic novels. Teaching strategies for each of the four major content domains. Guidance for aligning instruction with the Common Core State Standards. A list of educational graphic novels organized by content area. Study group questions.And more! William G. Brozo is a professor of literacy in the Graduate School of Education at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and author of RTI and the Adolescent Reader. Gary Moorman is professor emeritus at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. Carla K. Meyer is an assistant professor in the Reading Education and Special Education Department at Appalachian State University.
Engage even the youngest readers with Dr. Monnin's standards-based lessons and strategic approach to teaching comics and graphic novels to early readers! Examples from a wide variety of comics and graphic novels--including multicultural models--and recommended reading lists help teachers of grades K-6 seamlessly teach print-text and image literacies together. Teaching Early Reader Comics and Graphic Novels shows you how to address the unique needs of striving readers, connect reading and writing, teach the necessary terminology, and apply the standards to any graphic novel or comic for emerging through advanced readers. A companion blog, www.teachinggraphicnovels.blogspot.com, offers free downloads, teaching tips, and updates on new comics and graphic novels you can use in your classroom. Tap into the power of comics and graphic novels to engage all learners!
Stargazing is a heartwarming middle-grade graphic novel in the spirit of Real Friends and El Deafo, from New York Times bestselling author-illustrator Jen Wang. Moon is everything Christine isn't. She’s confident, impulsive, artistic . . . and though they both grew up in the same Chinese-American suburb, Moon is somehow unlike anyone Christine has ever known. But after Moon moves in next door, these unlikely friends are soon best friends, sharing their favorite music videos and painting their toenails when Christine's strict parents aren't around. Moon even tells Christine her deepest secret: that she has visions, sometimes, of celestial beings who speak to her from the stars. Who reassure her that earth isn't where she really belongs. Moon's visions have an all-too-earthly root, however, and soon Christine's best friend is in the hospital, fighting for her life. Can Christine be the friend Moon needs, now, when the sky is falling? Jen Wang draws on her childhood to paint a deeply personal yet wholly relatable friendship story that’s at turns joyful, heart-wrenching, and full of hope.
Challenging Genres: Comic Books and Graphic Novels offers educators, students, parents, and comic book readers and collectors a comprehensive exploration of comics/graphic novels as a challenging genre/medium.
A secret weapon for engaging adolescents Could you use a superhero to teach reading, writing, critical thinking, and problem-solving? While seeking the answer, secondary language arts teacher Maureen Bakis discovered a powerful pedagogy that teaches those skills and more. The amazingly successful results prompted her to write this practical guide that shows how to use graphic novels to: Teach 21st-century skills, including interpretation of content and form Promote authentic literacy learning Grow learners’ competency in writing and visual comprehension Motivate students to create in multiple formats, including images Engage struggling as well as proficient students in reading
