My son taught himself to read when he was four--and keep in mind this was when it was still expected that kindergarten would be the time students would begin to play with letters and sound. It was a time when we didn't pressure kids to read before they ever stepped into the classroom. Keaton had a way of paying attention to the world around him even when he seemed to be focusing on other things. So, I shouldn't have been surprised that while I was teaching his sister how to read, he was off in the corner figuring it out for himself.
As he grew as a reader, he became enamored by graphic novels. As a first grader, he was reading the Out from Boneville series by Jeff Smith that my previous 7th graders had sped through. He was learning about characterization and dialect while experiencing the stories of Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone. And he could discuss both of these quite articulately. In second grade, he was reading Brian Selznick's The Adventures of Hugo Cabret. He would sit next to me and read me the story, taking time to read the pictures that told as much of the story as the printed words did. It was in these instances of watching him as a reader--a reader who also consumed traditional novels--that reinforced within me the importance of teaching and sharing alternate forms of texts with our students. I could see parts of his brain developing that would not have developed quite so deeply had we focused solely on traditional books.
Fortunately, graphic novels have become more widespread on our classroom shelves. They are often seen as a solution for our reluctant or striving readers, but I'm not sure how often they are seen as relevant for our gifted readers. And I'm not sure how often we see them explored as whole class or literature circle options. I know there are teachers who do, but in my personal experiences working in schools, I rarely see them as anything but options for students to read during independent reading time. I wonder if part of the reason is we're just not sure how to work with them.
I want to share one way my students have explored graphic novels--in part because some of their work left me quite speechless. Graphic novels rely heavily on visuals to communicate their messages. I believe that if we want our students to truly understand a concept or process, rather than just consume texts, they also must create them. If this is the case, if we truly want our students to understand how images create meaning, we need to move our students away from just viewing the visual texts to creating visual texts themselves. Realizing that not all of our students can draw or paint, I turned to technology to help even the playing field. While my initial impulse was to use an online comic maker to mimic the medium they were studying, I worried that the stock images would limit their creation and that they may have been tempted to replicate rather than create. I decided to have students create infographics instead, emphasizing the importance of visuals and small snippets of information work together to create a larger understanding. Within their infographics, they were required to share their understanding of characters, plot and theme, as well to make connections to at least three aspects of the world. I wanted them to see how the images contributed to their understanding of the novel and to understand how to convey their own ideas visually.
Making Connections
Graphic novels provide students with multiple opportunities to make connections to themselves, other texts, and the larger world--connections we seek to teach when we engage students in traditional novel studies. When reading books such as Real Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham or New Kid by Jerry Craft, students can make connections to their own middle school experiences. Using graphic novels can expand students' understanding of text, prompting them to make connection to text non-traditional texts such as the music Amanda selected to help her readers better understand the themes in Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson.
Graphic novels can also encourage students to seek out real-world connections, connections that can serve as inspiration for the novels or that mirror events within the novel's frames. Mayra's infographic over The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang demonstrates how students can directly link their research to their work. Recognizing the connection in the book between fashion and gender fluidity, Mayra was curious whether there were others who had connected the two outside of the novel. Her research led her to an article that explored the connection, as well. She linked the article directly to her infographic and later referenced it during our class discussion about the novel. Amanda also conducted research around roller derby, an important sport in Roller Girl. Rather than linking her discoveries, though, she created a timeline directly on her infographic:
Learning Literary Elements
Just as we teach literary elements through the study of traditional novels, we can also teach these elements using graphic novels. In fact, the highly visual nature of graphic novels can often make these elements more visible and easier to grasp. Hailey's infographic, also over The Prince and the Dressmaker, demonstrates how students can pull images from the book to demonstrate important elements of the plot. Students can also create profiles of the characters in the novel, providing pictures of the characters, as well as brief descriptions.
Using Textual Evidence
Students can also learn to support their ideas through textual evidence by pulling images and quotes from the book. For Hailey, pairing an image that shows the dressmaker alongside the prince wearing a wig and a dress with quotes from the characters in the book allowed her to demonstrate the themes of acceptance and dismantling gender roles.
Amanda was able to demonstrate her understanding of the multiple perspectives in Roller Girl by sharing two characters and quotes that highlighted their differing perspectives.
Pretty cool, huh? And this is just a small sampling of what my students have done with this genre. It's been ten years since my son took up graphic novels, but I think he knew something that many of us don't. Graphic novels offer our students--whether they are avid readers, striving, or reluctant readers--ways to make meaning with words and pictures. And this meaning making can be as sophisticated, or even more sophisticated, than the thinking they do with the traditional novels often privileged in classrooms.
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