QUESTION: Just starting with Graphic Novels?

[Christine Obst]

I received advice on English Companion ning to check out this group as I will be teaching Graphic Novels to my 11th grade Creative Writing students in the Fall. I would appreciate any resources or advice anyone may have to get this thing started. Thanks! --christine

[joyce lee]

I have used a variety of manga depending on what you are intending to teach in the lesson. Sometimes I just take extracts from different manga and get the students to think about narrative perspective/ point-of-view and how the use of cinematic camera angles / shot type 'tells' the story. A good reference will be Scott McCloud's Making Comics and Understanding Comics which include some examples from maga storytelling style vs american comics/ graphic novel.

I enjoy using manga by Naoki Urasawa eg Pluto , Monster and 20th Century Boys, the kids in my class seem to enjoy Naruto and D.Gray-man.

There are some good ideas and reference here - Teaching With Graphic Novels

I have also used Shaun Tan's wordless graphic novels because I enjoy the surrealistic images and because they aren't words, his works are ideal for teaching inference / interpretation skills. Do take a look at The Arrival and Tales From Suburbia.

[Maureen Bakis]

Hi Christine,

This site is ever so helpful with all of its resources! You can also join my site as well for additional resources and links for teaching graphic novels to older level high school students. Or if you just want to have a discussion about specific texts etc...

www.graphicnovelsandhighschoolenglish.com


Maureen

[Christine Obst]

Maureen, this is awesome, thank you!

[Maureen Bakis]

Please feel free to create a group for novice GN teachers on the site and post questions there! You can definitely get feedback and support throughout the year. I plan to blog and update the site with discussion topics throughout each unit I teach beginning in September. We can help each other!