Comic Relief: Teaching with Graphic Novels

Every year the media latches on to some "new" statistic that either highlights American students' academic successes or reiterates their failure against European and Asian counterparts on standardized test scores. It’s a fairly predictable event, and the pendulum swings both ways – up one minute, and down the next. One troubling trend, however, seems to have some teeth. Reading scores for U.S. students have shown little improvement in recent years, despite national efforts to boost children’s basic reading skills.

According to recent reports, over 6 million high school students read below grade level, and 44 million adults in the U.S. can't read well enough to read a simple story to a child. At first blush, these statistics seem horrifying, and worthy of hand-wringing. What’s going on?

Plenty is going on, it turns out. It’s easy to take statistics out of context, and it’s something that is widely done to sell publications or advance political and social agendas. The media doesn’t necessarily point out that such statistics include foreign-born families and people who have limited English proficiency – a fact that certainly skews the numbers. Additionally, the focus of "literacy" has also shifted from illiteracy (the inability to read fluently and comprehend the text) to functional literacy, which focuses on whether an individual has sufficient education to function in modern society. These are two very different types of literacy, and it’s a distinction that is often overlooked in the mainstream press. Still, there are reasons to be concerned. Research has found that the average American teen spends about 3+ hours a day watching TV or online video, but only about 7 minutes on leisure reading. Reading scores for high school seniors show a consistent decline, with low-level readers showing the greatest drop. How can teachers relate the importance and joy of reading to their students when the latter face the constant lure of TV, Facebook, texting, and all other myriad distractions?

Many teachers are fighting back by incorporating the use of graphic novels into the curriculum. While some critics may view the use of graphic novels as pandering to the lowest common denominator, many educators are sold on their effectiveness in the classroom. Graphic novels, for instance, are increasingly used with ELL and special education students as an effective method to boost vocabulary and reading comprehension. Librarians regularly cite the benefits of graphic novels such as Bone in capturing and keeping the interest of reluctant readers, prompting them to explore new books, in both graphic and non-graphic formats. Graphic novels such as Persepolis and Maus can also help students absorb complex or difficult content through an engaging, readable text.

This week I’ve highlighted three resources for various grade levels that use graphic novels. While these resources are aimed at mainstream classrooms, they can also be used in special education and foreign language classes, as well as for character education development. Be sure to check out Peggy's companion column (linked below), as she discusses lots of ideas on using graphic novels and comic strip formats in the curriculum. As always, we’ll be posting a lot more lessons and other resources on graphic novels throughout the week on our Twitter and Facebook pages, so be sure to take a look.

Booknotes: Babymouse
Subjects: Literature, Reading
Grade: 2-5
This guide provides helpful tips on teaching books from the Babymouse series, a set of graphic novels aimed at young elementary students. I like that this guide includes questions for group discussion, topics for making connections among social studies, art, science, and language arts classes, and discussion points for character education lessons. The guide is a product of Random House, publisher of the Babymouse graphic novels. Random House offers ideas for teachers and parents on book talks, discussion topics for classrooms, and curricular materials for all ages.

An Owly Lesson Plan
Subjects: English Language Arts, Visual Arts
Grade: K-8
This guide contains 12 lesson plans using the Owly graphic novel series by Andy Runton. I like how these lessons explore literary elements, such as how narratives are constructed, symbolism, how to convey emotion without text, devising plotlines, etc. Through these lessons, students learn about the intricacies and challenges of creating narratives. Additionally, students also create their own wordless stories. This guide was produced by a teacher using Issuu, a digital publishing platform that offers online access to magazines, catalogs, and newspapers.

Persepolis Lesson Plan
Subjects: English Language Arts, World History, Geography
Grade: 9-10
This two-part lesson plan has students investigate the recent history, geography, culture, and political climate of Iran using a graphic novel, which has obvious cross-curricular appeal. This lesson was produced by Get Graphic, a community-wide project in western New York state designed to introduce teens, librarians, teachers, and parents to the literary format and merit of graphic novels.