{"id":2239,"date":"2014-07-07T13:19:35","date_gmt":"2014-07-07T20:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/?p=2239"},"modified":"2014-07-07T13:19:35","modified_gmt":"2014-07-07T20:19:35","slug":"response-to-using-graphic-novels-anime-and-the-internet-in-an-urban-high-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/2014\/07\/07\/response-to-using-graphic-novels-anime-and-the-internet-in-an-urban-high-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Response to “Using Graphic Novels, Anime, and the Internet in an Urban High School”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I find the topic of incorporating graphic novels into the English classroom fascinating. Growing up, I had wide access to this type of literature \u2013 from the Sailor Moon <\/em>manga to Archie<\/em> comics. However, I was always informed that it was not considered \u201creal\u201d reading, because you were only looking at pictures with minimal text.<\/p>\n

As I became more exposed to graphic novels, I soon realized that this genre was largely underappreciated, even though it was so widely read. During my practicum, I noticed how even struggling readers would enjoy reading comics, but they would never admit that to their English teachers.<\/p>\n

To combat the stigma associated with graphic literature, I designed a lesson all about comics for my ELL class. I provided an example of a comic strip I had written, a blank template, and a procedure for designing their comic strip. I was thrilled with the results. The students were engaged during the lesson, and they were noticeably intrigued by the concept of writing a story with images and limited text. Many of the students enjoyed using a different type of creativity in their assignments, which was evident in the detailed drawings they had. Even students who were initially hesitant to draw ended up enjoying the use of a different genre. There were also drawbacks to the assignment. The topic of the comic strips was \u201csuperheroes\u201d, and students had the chance to develop their own superheroes. However, because of time constraints, the students\u2019 stories were very brief and lacked depth and character development. Therefore, if I was to do the same assignment again, I would ensure that there was enough time for students to write a well-developed story.<\/p>\n

With that experience, I strongly agreed with Frey and Fisher\u2019s intentions. As teachers, we are constantly seeking new ways to engage learners, and using students\u2019 interests in the classroom is a great idea. As we are increasingly using technology and social media in an educational setting, it seems reasonable to use alternative forms of literature and entertainment as well. Choosing a topic that is interesting to students minimizes the challenge of getting learners to be engaged, allowing teachers to focus on the designing the lesson. It is also important to have students recognize the importance of multimodality, and encourage them to think critically of the media around them. The truth is that our world is changing constantly with the development of new modalities, literacies, and technologies; as teachers, we should have students explore these new opportunities rather than just stick with traditional content.<\/p>\n

If someone had told me when I was a kid that reading comics was a valid form of reading, I would have read even more than I did. I believe that hesitant and struggling readers would benefit greatly from a more positive relationship with graphic novels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I find the topic of incorporating graphic novels into the English classroom fascinating. Growing up, I had wide access to this type of literature \u2013 from the Sailor Moon manga to Archie comics. However, I was always informed that it was not considered \u201creal\u201d reading, because you were only looking at pictures with minimal text. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7055,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6643],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-graphic-novels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7055"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2240,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239\/revisions\/2240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}