Comics in the classroom

So, i brought in a copy of Hamlet and a Copy of the Dark Knight(Batman) by Frank Miller...and Walah! the students made a connection between the two...has anybody here thought of using comic books to improve literacy in the classroom...?

Tags: english

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Permalink Reply by Rachel Brockman on July 30, 2008 at 9:53am

Graphic novels have become all the rage in our school's media center. If our students are that interested in them, that should tell us that they could be a very engaging tool to use in the classroom!

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Permalink Reply by Katelin on July 30, 2008 at 10:09am

Hello,

I teach a one quarter "graphic novel" (comic) course for seniors. We use Maus I and II by Art Spiegelman, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, and parts of Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. I am most interested in how hybrid texts (images + traditional text) can offer critical thinking engagement for students at any level because they are both inherently complicated (the text stands alone, the image stands alone, but the close study of the relationship between the two is a strange hermeneutic circle) and scaffolded (the image and the text should support the reading process of both parts individually and as a whole). I have some teaching materials that I compiled. If you want a hard copy, email me at katelingrande@yahoo.com and I will send them to you.

McCloud's books are a great place to start.

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Permalink Reply by Matthew Teutsch on July 30, 2008 at 7:24pm

What books would you suggest for a 12th grade English class? I want to do the Watchmen, but I'm not completely sure how to incorporate it. I would use it in the spring. Also, I've seen the Shakespeare graphic novels. How are they? Are there any good correlations to Macbeth?

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Permalink Reply by Katelin on July 30, 2008 at 8:27pm

I use Maus, Persepolis and Understanding Comics for 12th grade. We study genocide past and present (as well as advocacy) with Maus, Iranian culture and Iran-U.S. relations with Persepolis, and Understanding Comics acts like a textbook for the class. It becomes fairly complicated to read as McCloud dissects what we take for granted when we read comics. There is a lot of opportunity for discussion about process and metacognition.

I would love to use the Watchmen, but I don't know if I am ready to bring that to the board yet! I will think about Macbeth connections...

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Permalink Reply by Matthew Teutsch on July 30, 2008 at 9:15pm

Our curriculum focuses on British Lit, so I would love to use Persepolis. However, I'm not sure at this point how it would correlate.

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Permalink Reply by Ezra on July 30, 2008 at 9:18pm

Kingdom Come By Mark Waid

The Watchmen by way of Shakespeare's Richard 3.

The Civil War event that Marvel put out a year ago is great discussion on modern political issues and is essentially Camus' The Plague