QUESTION: Suggestions for a Lecture to Pre-service teachers on Teaching English Through Comics/GN

[joyce lee]

I am in the process of putting together a 2hr lecture for pre-service English teachers ( in Singapore). This is the first time I am doing this ( although I have taught reading / writing skills using comics and GNs to my students, 13-16 year olds).  Would appreciate any ideas or advice or resources on how I should approach this. The aim of the lecture is for the pre-service teachers to learn practical ideas / strategies for using GNs/ Comic Books to teach reading / writing and aspects of visual literacy. 

[Lori Falchi]

Hi,

I investigated the use of comics with young children in third grade and found that it was useful in the space of a unit. I spent time reading comics with children and then had them finish a comic with their own final panel. We then went through a series of lessons on using speech bubbles narration and, most importantly, the use of visual information to convey the meaning. I used Scott McLeod's work. He has a couple of really useful books and a website.

The preservice teachers I have taught in the past have been really open to this. I might ask them to read a part of wordless graphic novel and then discuss its grammar, or what was used to tell the story in that form. When introducing comics they understand that students buy in, it reaches English language learners and capitalizes on their abilities to use visual, and that it is fun. What they sometimes wonder about is how it "translates" to the academic language. I have thought about this a bit too. There are many ways that comics do challenge the traditional and the students could also critically read comics in terms of gender or any other aspect of representation. They could revise existing endings or characters to rewrite them as they would like to represent the world. In other words, it can use higher order thinking skills even if they aren't inventing their own original comics to begin with. I also give character development prewriting graphic organizers and plot organizers to help structure. However, students have surprised me in what they already are able to do with comics intuitively.
Hope this helps,
Lori

[Tony O'seland]

I usually start with basic pictographics.  Box, circle, triangle, put the box and triangle together to make a house.  Make and octogon and ask what it is (stop sign here in the USA).  A triangle (a road caution sign here). Then I ask the students to tell my why.  Of course they look at me like I may have lost what little mind I have, but I push at them to think about the conventions of interconnectedness.  Why do we call a circle a circle, why is a box with a triangle on top of it a house?  According to who?  What are they called in other languages?  Does it make them any less than what we perceive them to be?  A little semiotics at this point to really confuse them, and then an assignment to look at their world, pick out the archetypal symbols they see, tell what they are, and why they are called such.  And I use this torture on Freshman Composition students.

[Terisa King]

I love this idea!  My Freshman Comp class will totally freak. . . or get mad because I am giving them "baby" work.  I really can see the advantage to your method as they begin to think in patterns then words replace shapes, so a subject and predicate go together similar to how a triangle and square make a archtypal symbol of a house. 

[Susan Stephenson, the Book Chook]

I believe that graphic novels and comics are a way in to reading for kids who've resisted reading, and I know your soon-to-be teachers will appreciate that. I also love the possibilities for self expression and creative thinking in comic creation software like Comic Life, and online comic/cartoon creators like Toon Doo and Make Beliefs Comix. Kids who think they don't like to write will sometimes take to writing in a shorter format, and be thoroughly engaged in reaching their audience by getting it right. 

I think I would ask them to explore one of the comic makers listed below, and suggest ways their students could use it in the classroom to demonstrate some of the reading/writing/visual literacy outcomes in your curriculum. 

Comic Life • Kerpoof • Comicssketch • Comics Lab/ Extreme • PikiStrips• Toondoo • Bubblr • Comiqs • My Comic Book Creator • BitStrips • ReadWriteThink's Comic Creator •Make Beliefs Comix • Myths & Legends Story Creator • Cartoonist • Pixton• Chogger•

 

[Kelly Farrow]

I attended a similar lecture while in grad school before I became a library teacher. At the time GNs were totally new to me, so what I found wonderfully helpful was a basic rundown of titles kids really like and some basic info about each one. I don't know how available GNs are in Singapore and if they have access to the same titles we do at a fair price, or what they have in terms of budget... This is hopefully something you can get some info on before addressing them so you don't "get their hopes up" too high, so to speak w/ all these amazing titles if they don't have much access to them. So since you have so much time to speak to them, perhaps 15-30 min. of that time could be spent discussing popular, current titles. If you need suggestions, I'm happy to help w/ that!  :)

[joyce lee]

thanks for all the GREAT ideas and suggestions.  Will update when I have come up with the outline. Merry X'Mas everyone

[Maureen Bakis]

I presented a similar lecture to my colleagues to help them understand my graphic novel course (12th grade ELA). I used excerpts from Understanding Comics focusing on the concepts of closure and icons and how readers' prior knowledge and experience helps them interpret images. I also instructed on relationship of form to content and the value of students understanding how to read and compose using media beyond strictly print/writing. I used Chris Ware's "Unmasked", a short graphic narrative found in the New Yorker to apply their newly acquired concepts and understand "how to read" a comic beyond just analysis of theme/literary concerns. if you want the lesson notes, email me at [e-mail]. I'd be happy to share more with you. You could also use ch 1 of Shaun Tan's The Arrival to teach basic understanding of transactional theory (Rosenblatt) via personal response to experiencing images, to show your colleagues the social discussion that results from looking at pictures, and how  interpretation and metacognition can foster more authentic, personal responses in writing. 

 

Maureen

 

Maureen