Understanding How to Read a Graphic Novel
Today I am going to discuss how to teach students how to read a graphic novel. It is well known that some students become uncomfortable when they are asked to work with a new medium. Many students have not been asked to read graphic novels in the past, so as a teacher it is important to make sure students have the tools to do so!
IMPORTANCE???
Why should we bother teaching graphic novels, you ask? Well, there are several reasons it is important to introduce students to this medium while still in high school. First of all, since I have been in college I have been asked to read graphic novels multiple times. This was not something I ever had to do in high school which put me at a disadvantage. As a teacher, it is our job to prepare students for what they will run into in college and this has real potential to pop up in their future careers. More importantly, however, graphic novels peak the interest of students who may not like to read. The more students we can get to have a passion for reading, the better, right? Thus, graphic novels allow students to realize there is more than the "normal" fiction and non-fiction text.
HOW DO WE TEACH STUDENTS TO
UNDERSTAND SUCH NOVELS???
Scott Mcloud wrote a graphic novel called "Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art". This book does a great job showing students how to read a graphic novel the correct way. I would suggest focusing on Chapter 3 of the book. This chapter is called "Blood in the Gutter." It shows students how to make sense of image jumps. The difference between graphic novels and a real novel is clearly the way pictures and words interact to create the story. With that being said, those pictures allow the author to leave things unsaid. This is the hardest thing to understand when reading a graphic novel. Using this Chapter, I will show how "Blood in the Gutter" can be used to teach the idea of closure and further students understanding of reading graphic novels!
THE LESSON I SUGGEST
Closure- The way our brains make connections to complete a thought despite us not having 100% of the information presented to us.
The following link may be helpful to students on the rhetoric on graphic novels.
To make students understand graphic novels, we must first make sure they understand closure, as this is a key component. Mcloud does a great job describing what closure is in his piece. Below is an excerpt of the first few pages of the chapter.
The first thing I would have students do when they walk in the class is individually look through and make comments on the comics. There should be guiding questions on these comments. For instance, the bell ringer might say:
Read through the following comics. Comment on the way the pictures work with the words to create the definition of closure. Then, come up with your own definition of what closure might mean.
Follow this bell ringer by pulling the class together to come up with different definitions presented by the students. Once a final definition has been created as a class, split the class into groups of 3-4. Ask the students to come up with examples of closure in their everyday lives. Each group should come up with 5-7 examples of times we use closure. Once again, have the groups share out 2 of their ideas to make sure everyone is on the right track.
The final step of this process is creating a comic strip using their own ideas on closure in the real world. Using the ideas they just came up with as a group, students should make a comic with a minimum of 4 frames to successfully convey their example of closure.
As an exit slip, have the students go back to working as individuals. Have them answer the following questions to make sure they have grasped the concept:
1. What is the definition of closure?
2. How does closure work in our day to day lives?
3. In what ways does closure in life differ from the closure we use when reading a comic strip?
Use this to see how well the students are grasping the concept and to see if they are ready to start reading their first full graphic novel!
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