I love the idea of using graphic novels in the classroom. It seems to me that students, due to increasing technologies and the widespread availability of multimedia, have become incredibly visual learners. Even looking at myself and my parents it’s easy to see that even I am a much more visual learner than they were. I agree with Lesesne when she explains that graphic novels provide readers with “complex characters and multilayered plots” (Beers, 63), in addition to important literary elements such as mood and tone. What’s really important about graphic novels is that they are able to use sometimes complicated elements such as mood in a way that a younger reader can easily understand (i.e. when the shades in the frame are darker perhaps the mood of the scene has changed). Complex and complicated concepts can be unpacked through graphic novels and visual media in ways that allow students to easily grasp these notions of style. On top of that, for generations of students raised on video games and television, a graphic novel is simply more engaging. I think back to reading Maus in 7th grade Hebrew school and being captivated by Art Spiegelman’s portrayal of the Holocaust.
To this day I have read few other novels focusing on the Holocaust that are more memorable or more poignant than Maus. I don’t suggest that teachers should completely adopt graphic novels or other visual media as their main source of literature for students, but instead that graphic novels provide a spectacular tool for teaching complex literary concepts as well as engaging students who would be bored and uninvolved if reading a traditional text.
Joe
I agree with this–the idea that graphic novels, while they should not replace “traditional” text–make a good supplement to it. I was never assigned a graphic text for a class, but I did read “Persepolis” my freshman year, as well as another book, “Blankets,” both recommended by friends. Like me, they didn’t tend to read graphic novels, but both books, with the combination of art and text, were some of the most moving stories I’ve encountered. While these books would probably only be suitable for late high school at best, I’m sure there are also great books more aimed at younger students.
The other thought I have on graphic novels in the classroom is the possibility for writing assignments. For a more visual student, creating a graphic story could be a great exercise in dialogue. It also might help get a student who prefers to draw, read comics, or watch cartoons into writing. I remember when I taught in Ireland, I worked with some middle school boys who had a lot of trouble reading. Most of them gravitated towards books with more illustrations or photographs, as well as the small selections of graphic novels available in the library. They were only allowed to read these books for independent reading, however, and when they worked word-by-word with me, they had to use text only stories (usually with generic dull plots). I wonder whether working on a process where they had written and revised dialogue and illustrated it themselves would have helped more with word recognition and comprehension than those hard-to-relate-to stories.