Comic Book and Graphic Novels Boost Childrens Literacy
The History of the Book
The history of the book is not only about books per se broadly speaking, it concerns the creation, dissemination, and reception of script and print, including newspapers, periodicals, and ephemera. Book historians study the social, cultural, and economic history of authorship the history of the book trade, copyright, censorship, and underground publishing the publishing histories of particular literary works, authors, editors, imprints, and literary agents the spread of literacy and book distribution canon formation and the politics of literary criticism libraries, reading habits, and reader response.
At an early age, children should learn to read for knowledge and enjoyment. In this paper I will discuss how graphic novels or comics are the 21st Century reading resource that will support critical thinking skills in childrens literature.
The History of the Comic Book
The origins of sequential art date back to prehistoric man over 20,000 years ago. From Paleolithic Cave Paintings, to Egyptian Hieroglyphs, to Superman the X-Men.
(www.comic-art.com, 1992-2006)
Comics, while always meant to entertain, started out with a deeper meaning.
In 1754, Benjamin Franklin created the first editorial cartoon published in an American newspaper. Franklins cartoon was an illustration of a snake with a severed head and had the printed words Join, or Die. The cartoon was intended to goad the different colonies into joining what was to become the United States.
In the early 19th century, they began to develop into the stories we know today.
In 1827, Switzerlands HYPERLINK httplambiek.netartiststtopffer.htm t _blankRudolph Toffler created a comic strip and continued on to publish seven graphic novels. In 1837, The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck was published by Rudolphe Tpffer and it is considered the earliest known comic book. In 1842, The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck became the first comic book published in the United States. Obadiah Oldbuck was a forty page book. Each page had several picture panels with accompanying text underneath. The 1895 Yellow Kid created by HYPERLINK httpwww.comic-art.combios-1outcalt1.htm t _blankRichard Outcault has often been cited as being the first comic strip. The reason being is that Richard Outcault was the first artist to use the balloon an outlined space on the page where what the characters spoke was written. However, comic strips and comic books were published before Yellow Kid debuted in the New York City newspaper The World. (Mary Bellis, 2009)
But even from those small first books, comics had a long way to go to reach the fantastic stories of space and heroes that we now love and cherish.
The next major development would coincide with a new interest of Americans in the twentieth century. After the industrial age, came the scientific age. In 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote a science fiction novel that appeared in the All Story magazine entitled Under the Moons of Mars. Later published as the Princess of Mars the story gave birth to scores of other stories of the fantastic and by 1927 a magazine arose to revolutionize American literature, called Amazing Stories. Burroughs also created another character in 1912 that is another one of our mythical twentieth century figures - Tarzan.
Amazing Stories Magazine from its inception proved to be a popular success. In the February 1928 issue appeared a story called Armageddon 2419 A.D. by Phillip Nowlan. One reader, John Flint Dille, a comic strip syndicator liked the story so much he bought the rights and hired an artist named Richard Calkins to illustrate a comic strip. And so the next major development of the comic strip had taken place. Today, the comic book is also called the graphic novel. (www.comic-art.com, 1992-2006)
The Graphic Novel is the new book. They tell as much of a complex story as a traditional print book, but in a more colorful way. This color is only one of the qualities that draws todays youth to pick up a graphic novel.
Comic Books Inspire Children to Read
Comic book characters have personal qualities that inspire children to read. The graphic novel or comic book now offers English teachers the opportunity to engage all students in a medium that expands beyond the traditional borders of literacy. The graphic novel, a longer and more artful version of the comic book bound as a real book, is increasingly popular, available and meaningful. Library media specialists have been in the forefront advocating graphic novels. Educators have also urged the use of comics as an alternative, appealing way for students to analyze literacy conventions, character development, dialogue, satire, and language structures as well as develop writing and research skills.
Graphic Novels or Comics in the Classroom
For the past few years, a growing chorus of educators has been singing the praises of manga, (the Japanese word for comics) graphic novels, and comics. Integrating graphic content into curricula is not a new education trend, nor is it a passing fad. Educators throughout the country are using graphic content to challenge and engage students. They are convinced that comic books will boost childrens literature, and are helpful for engaging students in authentic writing. (Edu1)
First, the graphic novel is helpful in promoting the goals of traditional literacy. Increasingly, scholars and teachers realize that in a media-dominated society, the reading and writing of print is no longer sufficient. Todays young people also have to read films, TV shows, magazines, and Web sites. For example, to read and interpret graphic novels, students have to pay attention to the usual literary elements of character, plot, and dialogue. They also have to consider visual elements such as color, shading, panel layout, perspective, and even the lettering style.
Todays young people need the knowledge and skills to interpret all these types of media, and comics and graphic novels can help them gain that skill base. However, there are obstacles to jump, specifically associated with public school regulations and parent feedback. Teachers have to use wise and convincing approaches to convince their school boards that graphic novels or comic books are essential to stimulating childrens reading. Not all graphic novels are appropriate and even some of the best have profanity or sexual content. Censorship remains a problem around the country and many educators too, are loath to encounter any controversy in the classroom.
Although graphic novels are not included in the state national test, in the non academic world, they are increasing in number, quality, variety, and availability. They offer a new kind of text for the classroom and they demand new reading abilities. They tend to appeal to diverse students, including reluctant readers, and they offer both great stories and informational topics. For students who no longer deal with pure word texts in their daily lives, multiple types of literacy are a necessity. Schools must prepare young people to think critically with and about all kinds of texts. One commenter on Rebecca Bloods website stated the opinion that
Thankfully some people still believe that great works of art will inspire children and young people and thus make them better adults. The impoverishment of Americas social and political landscape is clearly due to the absence of students undiluted exposure to great works created by great minds. There is a straight line between mediocrity of content in education and the erosion of democratic principles and ethical values in our nation. (Blood, 2006)
Reading Matters
These days, Im thrilled at the vast assortment of tools available for people who want to connect onlinefrom blogs to Facebook and Twitter, to the many social book cataloging sites, and beyond. Readers have resources nobody could have imagined nine years ago, and its a joy to see books being talked about in every corner of the Internet. As an educator and college student, I acknowledge reading as a cognitive, social and cultural activity. In the classroom, I work with students to develop presentation and writing skills that are applicable to the real world of reading research. Primary in-class activities include seminar-style discussions of common texts, presentations of jigsaw readings and focus projects, and examination of reading-related artifacts.
Programs span the country to show the importance of reading for children.
In other nations the The Maya Angelou Milestone Library Project (MLA) was built in this authors honor and to establish a living legacy that combines the enemies of the 200th anniversary of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and 2008, the year of reading to help children lift themselves out of poverty. In 2008 the MLA planned and established three sustainable built environment, solar-powered milestone community childrens libraries with a nature reserve in South Africa, Ghana, Trinidad, and Tobago in the name of literacy icon, Dr. Maya Angelo. The children will learn about ecology, climate change and how to look after their own environment. (The Maya Angelou Libraries)
Organize to Prevent Readicide
How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It.
HYPERLINK httpwww.stenhouse.com0780.aspRead-i-cide n The systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools.
Reading is dying in our schools. Educators are familiar with many of the factors that have contributed to the decline -- poverty, second-language issues, and the ever-expanding choices of electronic entertainment. In this provocative new book, Kelly Gallagher suggests, however, that it is time to recognize a new and significant contributor to the death of reading our schools. Readicide provides teachers, literacy coaches, and administrators with specific steps to reverse the downward spiral in reading -- steps that will help prevent the loss of another generation of readers. (Stenhouse Publishers, 2009)
Gallagher speaks in later chapters about over-teaching, something I was definitely guilty of. When I first started teaching, I would assign students packets of reading comprehension questions with each chapter. Instead of getting my students excited about reading, this over-teaching of the novels had the opposite effect.So I did something about it. I implemented IRP, Independent Reading Projects, into the curriculum 3 years ago. Students are given have 2 of them per year one that is almost totally open-ended and one that is genre specific. They have to submit their reading selection for review, and Ive banned some YA series (No Gossip Girl or Cirque du Freak). More significantly, I let them read in class. Each year Im blown away by the delight in the students eyes when I tell them that every Friday we are going to simply read a book of their choosing in class. With the extensive after-school schedules of most of my students, setting aside 45 minutes to sit quietly and read a good book rarely, if ever, happens.
Im lucky because, as a teacher in an independent school, we dont teach to the test. I get to pick the novels that I want to teach, teach them in whatever order I choose, and drop books when I feel like it. This year Im going to add a unit on graphic novels to try and trick some of my more reluctant male students into becoming readers. Well see if it works.
In conclusion, comics have been read by adults and children for thousands of years. In my opinion, comic books have serious educational value. My local library has been stocking graphic novels for some time and has used them as a tool for getting youth interested in reading. They tend to be a great introductory window to the written word. Reading is reading no matter what form it takes. As an educator, based on my experience in the classroom, graphic novels are appropriate only as an addition to stimulate students interest in reading. Reading early can help children become life-long readers. It is possible that a lot of the kids and teens think of books they read in class as boring. That feeling could turn them off from reading as adults. Giving them choices to read healthy traditional or graphic novels, may help them enjoy books more.
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