QUESTION: Using Graphic Novels and Films TOGETHER

[steven houseman]

I am one year away from earning my certification in Secondary Ed English. In my classes, my eyes have been opened to the effectiveness of graphic novels. I come from a semi-film background (8yr career) and I think there can be a way that I effectively use each together. However, I cannot quite put my finger on the pulse of this idea.

In my youth, I had a very difficult time visualizing texts. I wish I had the luxury of using graphic novels. I think there is something with film and graphic novels that can help our struggling readers. Any and all thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you all for your time,

 

Steven

 

"I'm reaching up and reaching out,
I'm reaching for the random or what ever will bewilder me."

[Gareth Hinds]

Well, GNs and film are both visual storytelling mediums, which differentiates them from standard texts, but they are different in that film is time-based, whereas time is only implied in a GN. You could use film and GN adaptations of a written work to examine these differences with your students, and get them thinking about why  and how something (a scene, character, even a plot) might (or might not) have to change when it is translated into a different medium.

[steven houseman]

Thanks for writing me back Gareth! I like those ideas. In regards to "how", what types of activities would help strengthen their reading abilities with "non-visual" texts? For example in one of my teaching classes, we did a partner-pairing with The Great Gatsby and American Born Chinese and this activity blew my mind because there were so many instances in which the books helped illustrate each other (point of view, imagery, symbolism).

Thanks again for your response. It is very helpful.

[Gareth Hinds]

I should clarify that I'm not a teacher, I'm a graphic novelist, so I can't give you a definitive answer on this; but I would think that this exercise would very much clarify (and help them remember) the content of the text you're discussing, and then perhaps the *next* non-visual text you read, you could discuss what would and wouldn't work if it was adapted to another medium, and perhaps have them storyboard a scene. This would hopefully get them reading that text more critically for the main themes and visual cues.

 

By the way, one aspect of adaptation that is important and relatively straightforward to discuss, but easy to overlook, is voice. Frequently the narrative voice has to change when shifting medium.

[Kelly Farrow]

I've been reading 2 books this summer that I bet could really help you crystallize some of your ideas: Manga High and When Commas Meet Kryptonite, both by Michael Bitz. Bitz addresses the very close relationship between GNs and films, even to the point of saying that if you took the art out of a GN, it would read just like a movie script. I was able to get both of these books through interlibrary loan easily. They might be worth a look for you!

[KellyAnn Bonnell]

You've gotten some great responses. I'll come at it from a different angle for you. Graphic Novels and film afford you the opportunity for arts integration. We tend to really get hooked on GNs for the slow reader but we are a visual society and teaching critical thinking with visual artifacts is an important skill. When you approach an artifact for arts integration into a standard curriculum, in your case English, you want to identify the ways in which that artifact can support the standards and outcomes for that particular class.

To do this you look at the artifact just like you look at a short story or book. What are the themes in addresses. Let's look at V for Vendetta for a moment. It's a tale of a distopian society. That automatically tells me it will integrate well into a unit with Orwell and Huxley. What are the themes of V for Vendetta? What is the historical context of the tale? What is the contemporary context for the tale? After you've answered these questions you can begin to look at the ways the artifacts can be used in the classroom

 

You might engage in the use of a graphic organizer like a venn diagram to facilitate a discussion of how the film and GN are related. It's a great step to introducing compare and contrast exercises that you can then apply toward the classic 1984/Brave New World exercise. Perhaps V for Vendetta becomes a third artifact for evaluation.

What would a splash page for a graphic novel of 1984 look like?

Let's look at Maus for a moment. It did, after all, win a Pulitzer. Here are a couple links to some great lesson plans that might get your thoughts going.

 

http://academic.kellogg.edu/mandel/wadley.htm

 

http://www.kursman.com/maus-unit.html

 

Add arts integration to your vocabulary, and then approach a GN or Film as you would any artifact for integration in your classroom.

 

I've got a few guides for films already done at www.popgoestheclassroom.com

 

 

[Yen Yen Woo]

Coming from being a filmmaker, comics writer/ creator, and teacher, i think it would be cool to ask kids to write their own stories/essays/math concepts or read a piece of text, and ask the question, "What form would best communicate this story?" - I think this gets us all thinking about: the suitability of the medium for the message, the audience that we are trying to reach, the language and grammar of the form - this is an important aspect of media literacy. Any number of forms could be considered - film, graphic novel, podcast, short story, etc. but not all forms are suitable for any piece of writing.