Words are Only Half the Story

              Before doing research about graphic novels, I was not very familiar with them or their purpose within the classroom and I can very confidently say after reading so much about them I am amazed I have not considered them within curriculum sooner. I used to love reading the comics section of the newspaper when I was a kid, it was my favorite thing to do on Sunday mornings, mom and dad would drink their coffee, I wouldn’t obviously because I hated the taste, so my mom would make me tea with way too much milk, and I would read the paper with my folks and feel like an adult. Its those small memories that never go away entirely but you forget about until you are introduced into something that sparks it back up in your brain. I hadn’t thought about that aspect of my childhood in years, probably because when I got older we stopped getting the paper, but I will never forget what it felt like to sit on the couch and read the “funnies” as my mom used to call them and giggle to myself when a joke made sense or Garfield did something silly again. Reading was a huge part of my childhood, something that I always loved, and it truly did start with reading the Sunday paper and laughing at the comics.

Words really are only half the story, words are so powerful, but they are not always able to convey what the author is saying. It is with the combination of words and pictures that students are able to read what is being said and watch what is being conveyed through the graphic novel. Reading as I have always said is a transitive experience, it is meant to take you to a different time and place, immerse you within the text you are reading but the unfortunate reality of that is, it doesn’t work for everyone. Expecting young readers in their entirety to dive into a text when it is literally only words on paper is a difficult and is a semi-unrealistic expectation. Students need pictures, more often than not they are going to be visual learners, 65% percent of the population consists of visual learners, so in our classroom over half our students statistically are going to need a visual representation of what they are reading or attempting to read. Graphic novels are currently being used in the classroom as either a part of the curriculum or for fun reading that the students can do in their free time, either way students are reading and that is what is important. Earlier in the quarter we read Readicide, about how to prevent students from hating reading by the time they graduate high school, while also still having them read in school. There is a large population of students that are not being reached within the reading community, there are a lot of reluctant readers, and there are even a lot of advanced readers that need motivation as well. Graphic novels are a fun, creative way for students that normally would not pick up a book at all, dive into an imaginative story, and actually enjoy it. There are a lot of boys in classrooms that hate reading, they don’t think it’s fun, and I don’t blame them because there is not a lot being done to help them change their opinions surrounding reading. Graphic novels have had a huge success in reaching the male population in classrooms, because sometimes it can be really hard for them to connect to a text. I think that the use of graphic novels early on in students developmental reading process will help bridge that gap between students only reading for school, students hating reading entirely, and students stopping their reading after graduation. Reading is so important within our society, we have to do it every day and sometimes that feels overwhelming, I think that using a fun and creative text will allow student to understand that reading can be fun, it can be imaginative, and it can become the transitive experience it is meant to be.

              I watched a video that was paired with the Scholastic article that I read, this video featured the District Resource Librarian for the San Diego Unified School District, Deborah Ford and three very successful graphic novel authors. Within this video that was an interview between Ford and the novelists, she asked them some very interesting questions that sparked a lot of my responses within my post this week. I found out that all of the novelists also started their writing and reading careers young, by reading the comics when they were little, this combination of reading and also seeing the characters in front of you made them feel more connected to the text. Ford brought up a point that I had not thought of until I watched this video, our students are communicating graphically every day, every time they send an emoji they are using text, and picture to elicit an emotion, an exact feeling they want to reader to understand, otherwise they wouldn’t include it. I loved that she brought this up, it made so much sense, our students love texting, they love graphic novels and it’s because they love the visual representation that they are seeing on the pages of their books, and on the screens of their phones.

              I would love to integrate graphic novels into my classroom, creating a unit centered around one would be so much fun and the curriculum is already out there waiting to be explored and used. Students can create their own graphic novel (like in the comic strip below) or they can try to create a message with only emojis and see if it is as communicative as text would be. Pictures are everywhere in our students lives, they are going to need visual representations, because words really are only half the story.