After reading "Using Graphic Novels, Anime, and the Internet in an Urban High School," I learned a great deal about the diversity of graphic novels. During high school, almost all of my friends were hardcore anime fans and they would try to get me to read different books. Most of the graphic novels I was exposed featured female characters wearing next to nothing and references to Japanese culture I didn't understand. As I was reading books that my friends Thomas and Dani suggested, I had to keep asking what did this word mean or how do you pronounce this name. I believe one of the key componants to the success that these teachers had with graphic novels is based upon finding materials students could relate to. Since the students live in a Title I inner city school, it makes sense that text about city life would relate to them.
From the "Conventions of Comics" article, a feature of graphic novels that helps readers is the use of
onomatopoeia such as BANG! ZIP! POW! By using sounds with texts, it makes student better understand the meaning and language of a text. In a regular text, the author might write something like "The purple lamp suddenly crashed to the floor." However, in the graphic novel there would be a picture of a purple lamp tilting back on a desk in one slide and the next slide would have BIG, bold letters: CRASH! Even a non-reader (i.e. ESL student) would understand what the author is trying to communicate by using the visual clues.
In YGBB Chapter 5, Wilhelm talks about how he used art into his classroom to make shy or reluctant readers feel more comfrontable sharing. He noticed that one of his students that would frustrated with reading enjoyed comics because there were pictures included with the story. I loved how he included Kae's culture by letting her to do a Hmong story for a dramatic piece. I thought that this was an excellent choice on Wilhelm's part because it allowed shy Kae to explain something that she was familiar with. By listening to his students, he was better able to understand what they needed from him as a teacher. I agree that telling students to do something doesn't help if they don't know how to do it.
One of the biggest ways I can see utilizing graphic novels in a classroom would be working with struggling readers or non-readers. By using pictures with words, students are more likely to comprehend meaning because they can use visual cues to better understand the text. I also LOVE the idea of Wilhelm's SRI cutouts. Not only does it involve character development but it can also be used as a tool to teach symbolism. I think they would interested to use with not just graphic novels but with "traditional" reading material as well.
"BANG! ZIP! POW!"
ReplyDeleteThese are adjectives that aren't usually put in the typical English novel assignment in school, and that is why I like the idea of using graphic novels in the classroom. Like you said, it helps engage the reader into the action of the story and helps them better understand it. Also, I like your idea of using the cutouts in YGBB in the traditional reading material. As discussed in class last week, it's hard to connect the material given to modern day life sometimes and this might be a way of doing this by allowing the kids to bring it up to date.
I agree that graphic novels can be powerful tools for ESL or "struggling" students, but can they work at a higher level as well?
ReplyDeleteI was also interested in your reading experience of the Japanese Manga. It's interesting (similar to many of our students struggling with word-based literacies) that the visual imagery was in many ways confounding to you as a "traditional" reader.
I like how you mentioned the use of onomatopoeia in comics. This technique is really imperative to the understanding of a scene. Even though most students will be able to figure out the emotion of action on their own, these onomatopoeia help them do this better.
ReplyDeleteIt is a terrifically simple concept that Wilhelm employs with Kae, by letting her present on a Hmong story, yet it is one that teachers don't seem to grasp often enough - even in its simplicity. By allowing a shy student to make some choices, you are allowing them to assert themselves. By allowing them to assert themselves, you are negating some of the more restrictive aspects of that shyness. By allowing Kae to present on something that no one in the class could have known better than her, he was giving her a confidence that fuels all good things that children, adolescents and adults do. On a grander scale, by allowing students to choose - to some extent - what they want to focus on in a literature course, you empower them initially with choice, and if they choose something that they know well, and this allows them to comprehend or present or express well, then you have also empowered them with confidence, and this is invaluable. It is everything.
ReplyDeleteI wrote about this in my first blog piece here: a teacher at the boarding school I attended, on the very first day played Billie Holiday songs. This signaled to me that some of my interests, in music and in conversations about race and class politics, were valid and that encouraged me and increased my confidence, and in turn, my interest in and performance in class. This is a central role of the teacher.