Visual/ Graphic Presentation

Samantha Asmussen

SUMMARY

This text is about ways in which visual literacy and graphic novels are used to help students and teachers learn better in the classroom. It also is looking to further grow the popularity of graphic novels by presenting suggestions of graphic novels with more traditional texts to analyze the connections. A few of these connections between graphic and traditional texts include: 

The chapter titled “Showing and Telling History through Family Stories in Persepolis and Young Adult Novels” talks about real life examples of family and life issues that people go through. There is bullying both to individuals and a group of individuals (bullying from the government). Not only do the young adult novels we read in class teach us something, but books like Persepolis teach us “families in these novels chose not to surrender their sense of identity or integrity… remind us all how fragile the freedoms are that we so easily take for granted.” (46) 

There are also examples of old english novels getting a new graphic look. While this book uses Beowulf (which I believe makes the book so much more fun with pictures) but let’s also think of others real quick. The Handmaid’s Tale, To Kill a Mockingbird, Anne Frank’s Diary, and so many more were turned graphic for a new and fresh look. In teaching books such as “Beowulf and its comic book adaptation, we accomplish the dual task of teaching literature and that of promoting and fostering critical thinking and learning through visual literacy.There is a graphic novel for virtually every learner in the classroom. Learners can attain higher levels of achievement through their engagement with the arts. Learning in and through the arts can help level the playing field for kids from disadvantaged circumstances. In fact, studies show that high arts participation makes a more significant difference to students from low income backgrounds than for high income students. Artistic experiences are important in developing literacy and critical thinking skills. 

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS TEXT

Honestly, at first I chose this text because I was googling helpful graphic novels, and I asked Sean if this was a good one and he told me yes. But after I read about it and it in general, I found it very helpful for teaching. What is better than a graphic novel about teaching graphic novels? It provides many teaching tools as to how to teach students graphic novels as a whole and how easily it is to take contemporary novels that secondary ed students have read and compare them to the graphic novels that are just as important. This text influenced my thinking about my teaching because it taught me that visual learning is so important and there are more fun and helpful ways to teach students than to just throw a book at them and call it a day.

TEACHING IDEAS

There are numerous ways in which I can employ this text in a secondary english language arts classroom. For example, even within this book, there are a bunch of examples of fun group projects, learning techniques, and lesson plans. Let’s use an example. Going back to Beowulf (as used in this), I could ask the class some questions such as to consider what a character looked like in the beginning and the end. Or what the colors in the pictures indicate about characters and instances. Another big specific idea for teaching that is in this is to take specifics from a specific graphic suchthe backpack in Inferno (111) and ask the students things such as to imagine and write down what they would put in their backpack (and why) if they took a trip to Inferno. Lastly, one thing we find in a lot of novels, and graphic novels are no different, is slang, code words, jargon, etc. I could ask the class to get into groups and create a dictionary of what each group thinks the words mean in general and in the instance of the scene. 

CHALLENGES

After reading this novel and looking online for possible challenges of reading graphic novels (since that’s what it’s all about), I found three main issues. Students may say “it’s just a glorified children’s book”. To that, I would tell them that learners must be able to have an understanding of and a facility with a wide range of reading materials. These include visual narratives. If they were to say “these types of books don’t teach anything”, I would answer graphic novels teach just as much as our classics. In fact, The Diary of Anne Frank, Ulysses, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, etc. have been turned into graphic novels. Lastly, if they were to say “I don’t understand graphic novels”, I would simply say that many students don’t understand them, heck, I even question if I get them completely. We will learn together as a class. Everything is a learning experience, not only for the students, but also for teachers. I know I will not know the answer to every question that a student has and there will be challenges, but we will solve them together. 

IMPORTANT IDEAS

Where this is a book that teaches teachers how to teach graphic novels, it is also beneficial for all audiences. Anyone that is curious about graphic novels, how to read them, why they are important, and how to teach the novels.