BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
Building an Online Community to Engage Adolescent Readers with Graphic Texts
Marc L. Ginsberg
University of Georgia
Author Note
Marc L. Ginsberg, Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of
Georgia.
This project submitted for completion of EdS. in Reading Education was supervised by
Dr. Jennifer Graff and Dr. James Marshall, Department of Language and Literacy Education,
University of Georgia.
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Abstract
Reading instruction in America has changed throughout history to match cultural change
and growth, and current shifts will determine how graphic texts and technology are used in
classrooms of the future. In today’s digital age of fast-paced images and a more visually
stimulating media culture, graphic texts have grown more popular with readers of all ages. In this
paper, I trace the history of reading instruction and graphic texts in America; these combined
histories demonstrate how graphic texts have been included in reading instruction but also
culturally marginalized. I then interpret the existing literature on graphic texts to determine their
current presence in classrooms and how they should be used to engage adolescent readers in
assigned, supplemental, and independent reading. Collecting my practical thoughts on my blog,
Graphic Texts in the Classroom, I reflect upon how the blog medium was used to engage an
audience interested in teaching with graphic texts, and I further reflect upon the implications of
my practice as a reader, teacher, and internet blogger.
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Table of Contents
I. Google’s Doodles ……………………………………………………………… 4
II. A more formal introduction ………………………………………………….
5
III. A brief, convenient history of reading instruction in America ……………
8
IV. A brief history of graphic texts and their cultural significance …………... 15
V. Why the term “graphic texts”? ……………………………………………… 30
VI. Graphic texts and their significance in education …………………………. 36
VII.
Overview of literature focusing on graphic texts ………………………. 47
VIII. Becoming an internet blogger ……………………………………………. 54
IX. Reflecting upon my practice as a teacher and a blogger …………………... 75
X. References ……………………………………………………………………... 82
XI. Appendix A …………………………………………………………………..... 89
XII.
Appendix B ………………………………………………………………. ..91
XIII. Appendix C ………………………………………………………………. 103
XIV. Appendix D ………………………………………………………………. 104
XV.
Appendix E ………………………………………………………………. 105
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Google’s Doodles
Since 1998, Google.com has displayed “Doodles” on its search page to make the internetmining experience more engaging. Pop culture icons like Sesame Street and Popeye, historic
leaders such as President John F. Kennedy and Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and more
eclectic institutions such as Burning Man and Tetris have all been featured in these computer
images that manipulate image and text to create meaningful experiences for Google users. As
stated by Google’s own description, “While the doodle is primarily a fun way for the company to
recognize events and notable people, it also illustrates the creative and innovative personality of
the company itself” (Google, 2011). Given the variety, timing, spontaneity, and artistic merit of
these images, users enjoy using Google’s powers even more; the Doodles offer additional layers
of interest to the now-routine internet search.
On March 6, 2011, Google and comics scholar Scott McCloud teamed up to celebrate the
94th birthday of the deceased Will Eisner, considered to be the first American graphic novelist.
The recent doodle features both Eisner’s original character The Spirit and surrounding sketches
of tenement buildings that characterized A Contract With God (1978), widely considered the
original American graphic novel. While Eisner may not be a household name, he pioneered an
artistic medium that offers the same pleasurable interactions with reading that Google’s Doodles
sporadically offer internet users. As a new Doodle grabs the web-surfer’s fleeting attention with
the power of imagery and imagination, Eisner’s work and the subsequent growth of graphic
novels as literary texts over the last three decades offer readers an engaging medium relying less
upon traditional notions of reading and literacy (i.e. word recognition, speed, textual
comprehension, vocabulary, etc.) and more upon a broader notion of literacy: the reader’s
connection to the text, imagination of featured and implied scenes, visual representation and
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imagination of characters, mood, and tone, dialogue, and everything else a skilled reader
translates from print-text into full-fledged film for the mind. If dominant global corporations
such as Google can recognize and implement the power of graphic (as in visual) texts to engage
internet users, literacy teachers working in the same era of rapid cultural change must look
toward similar strategies to best engage young readers and writers toward participating in a
marketplace dominated by such ideas.
A More Formal Introduction
With American readers spending $680 million on graphic novels, comics, and manga
titles in 2009 – a $25 million decrease from the previous year (MacDonald, 2010), publishers
and e-reading innovators either scrambled to account for or capitalize upon the decline in sales.
These figures have climbed steadily in the last decade, with graphic novels growing from $110
million in sales during 2002 (Williams and Peterson, 2009) to a peak of $395 million in 2009
(MacDonald, 2010). As a growing popular trend, these graphic texts also exert influence upon
school libraries, student reading habits, teacher decision making, and literacy research. As sales
have grown in the last decade – obviously indicating a growth in readership, more libraries are
stocking graphic texts, and simultaneously, educators and researchers have grown more curious
about graphic texts as another tool to engage students toward independent, supplemental, and
assigned reading in literacy classrooms as well as other subject areas (see Carter, 2009; Williams
& Peterson, 2009).
Amongst this excitement, if textbooks are an accurate glimpse into the types of texts
presented to students, graphic texts are more of an inviting break in the everyday school
monotony rather than a powerful hook or speedy catalyst. For example, Glencoe’s Literature:
Georgia Treasures, Course 5 (2011) textbook for 10th grade includes Calvin & Hobbes strips, a
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very abbreviated excerpt from Will Eisner’s Sundiata: A Legend of Africa (2002), and three
articles exploring the literary legitimacy of graphic novels and comics over the course of 1,200plus pages. The attention is welcome, but why not feature more? Advocates do not even fully
agree upon what constitutes a comic or a graphic novel, and given the demands of teaching,
many teachers play it safe with the already familiar. As a high school English teacher, I
understand this comfort zone well, but I also grow bored of it. Upon growing more interested in
graphic novels as adolescent literature in my studies of reading, I decided to incorporate graphic
texts into my classroom. The goal of this applied project was to open the minds of comfortable
teachers by investigating possibilities of bringing graphic texts into the classroom and presenting
such readings to students with the same reverence usually given to print-text reading. To work
toward this end with both students and teachers, I founded an internet blog.
Since Fall 2009, I have focused on bringing graphic texts into my classroom to catalyze
independent and supplemental reading, diversify in-class reading, and stir up lessons. Since
October 2010, I have shared these efforts through Graphic Texts in the Classroom, a free
Wordpress blog and its accompanying Facebook page. As stated:
This blog is intended to promote the use of graphic texts in literacy classrooms with
young adults. Teachers, students, media specialists, parents, writers, artists, and other
interested parties should feel free to participate in commentary and discussion. Texts are
reviewed for content, quality, and possible curricular implications. Lesson planning ideas
and activities are linked and archived. This site will become a one-stop, all-encompassing
resource to not only introduce but also implement and evaluate the use of graphic texts to
promote literacy in the 21st century and beyond. (Ginsberg, 2011)
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While the site is still evolving, it has amassed over 2,200 site hits, demonstrating the potential to
be a useful tool in recruiting a virtual community to engage in discussion and promotion of
graphic texts in classrooms. With 60 Facebook “fans” and nine e-mail subscribers who can share
my posts with a few simple clicks thanks to simple convergence with Facebook, I expect this
audience to grow steadily. I also expect reader participation and submissions from other writers
to become more viable and regular.
Even amidst such cultural and pedagogical shifts in acceptance of graphic texts, teachers
employing graphic texts to deliver mandated curriculum packages constitute a professional
minority if not a dubious maverick label. According to Yang (2003), “The educational potential
of comics has yet to be fully realized. While other media such as film, theater, and music have
found their place within the American educational establishment, comics has not” (para. 2).
Given this still evolving enlightenment, I want to provide both reluctant and willing
professionals with broader arguments and practical suggestions to persuade doubters to
incorporate graphic texts in classrooms. This paper will explore my efforts to utilize and promote
graphic texts as a classroom teacher, an internet blogger, and a graduate student. With
consideration toward my thoughts on literacy classrooms in the 21st century and history and
culture surrounding both reading instruction and graphic texts (as I apply it toward young adult
readers and classrooms), I will outline spaces where graphic texts can provide powerful tools for
teachers and students. From there, I provide an overview of published material on graphic texts
and suggest where current conversations about graphic texts in schools need to go in order to
promote utility of graphic texts more effectively. Several recent print-text and electronic
publications are changing these conversations (see Monnin, 2010; Carter, 2010; Wilson, 2011),
and I believe my website can develop its own niche in both scholarly and practical realms.
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Finally, I reflect upon my own website and my own classroom practice and suggest potential
future endeavors for both of these creative, practical avenues.
A Brief, Convenient History of Reading Instruction in America
Reading and Redefining ‘Texts’ in the Digital Age
In the last century, students, parents, teachers, policymakers, researchers, and politicians
have all wrangled with reading instruction as both a science and an art (see Shannon, 2007;
Smith, 2002). The last decade has presented more rapid cultural change in technology and
information than ever before, highlighting the need for continuing dialogue. This ongoing
conversation lying at the heart of healthy debates about education and democracy is steeped in
historical changes throughout America’s past. As this conversation continues, what we consider
‘texts’ in classrooms must also expand to keep up with cultural trends, individual needs, and
necessary outcomes to benefit society at large.
This need for revising pedagogy is evidenced in a recent study of 584 middle grades
students at a diverse urban middle school in the northeast where “comic books and the Internet
were also favorites for leisure reading, with 44% of the students indicating that they liked to read
comic books and 37% choosing the Internet. Books accounted for only 30% of the students’
leisure reading materials” (Hughes-Hassell & Rodge, 2007, p. 25). Print-text on paper may no
longer dominate the textual marketplace, and either way, student preferences are changing. In a
media climate thriving on fast frame changes, self-controlled playlists, and consumers whom
Jenkins refers to as “Zappers … who constantly flit across the dial – watching snippets of shows
rather than sitting down for a prolonged engagement” (2006, p. 74), all readers likely require
wider literary experiences to better comprehend and construct all texts both linguistically and
aesthetically. The eminence of visuals throughout mass media continues to grow exponentially,
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and according to Eisner (not the graphic novelist Eisner), “We cannot know through language
what we cannot imagine. The image – visual, tactile, auditory – plays a crucial role in the
construction of meaning through text. Those who cannot imagine cannot read” (1992, p. 125).
Graphic novels offer some assistance in the imagination department by using visuals that appeal
to adolescents as an alternative to traditional text (Schwarz, 2002, p. 262). The point is not to
replace traditional print-text with graphic novels; rather, the point is to supplement and improve
comprehension, understanding, and engagement with print text by broadening the overall
conception of ‘texts’ to include overlooked mediums. According to Schwarz and RubensteinAvila, “… we as educators and literacy researchers need to broaden our definitions of texts and
recognize that our bias toward written text is a result of our own socialization in a printdominated world” (2006, p. 43). Concepts of ‘texts’ and how they are taught have expanded
throughout American history to match cultural needs, and ongoing debate is necessary to propel
21st century students toward the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in the ever-shaping
global economy. Teachers must understand where graphic texts come from to develop sound
rationales for bringing them into the classroom. Given the sometimes comical confusion
surrounding comics throughout history, literacy teachers may encounter challenges. With a
strong understanding of this history, however, literacy teachers can better defend their decisions.
Reading Instruction in Colonial America: Religion, Nationalism, and Uniformity
Reading instruction served religious and moral purposes during the early Colonial era
with a goal of connecting bible verses and day-to-day living (Smith, 2002; Shannon, 2007). Over
the next century, literacy grew to serve more secular, patriotic, nationalistic ends as leaders such
as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson espoused the need for a literate, capable citizenry to
ensure the health of the developing democracy (Shannon, 2007). Of course, access and equity
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were not universal, and educational opportunities at this time “were essentially hierarchical, class
bound, and markedly uneven in terms of opportunity” (Urban & Wagoner, 2009, p. 63). Colonial
education as an institution was less powerful than the family and the church in socializing
citizens.
As the 19th century gave way to national growth and expansion, moralistic texts like the
New England Primer gave way to broader efforts to indoctrinate students and readers both
morally, religiously and politically in texts such as McGuffey Readers, which sold over 120
million copies by 1920 (Shannon, 2007, p. 8). Noah Webster’s spellers attempted to establish
“common pronunciation and proper diction” (Urban & Wagoner, 2009, p. 91). Webster had a
“nationalistic aim [to purify] the American language” and he sold 75 million copies before 1875
(Smith, 2002, p. 44; Urban & Wagoner, 2009). Keeping historical context and the developing
nation’s needs in mind, reading instruction during this time was teacher-centered and rather
uniform. Shannon states, “Teachers emphasized word identification over meaning and required
oral reading rather than discussion during most classes. Textbooks continued to direct reading
instruction … Standardization of textbooks made teachers’ practice of grouping easier” (2007, p.
6). In a young nation with more homogeneous needs, reading materials and instruction lacked
variety. In terms of using visuals to support student imagination and understanding, McGuffey’s
publications with the Eclectic First Reader and the Eclectic Second Reader (1836) both contain
pictures combined with text to engage early readers, but the Eclectic Third Reader (1837)
contains all print-text, hinting at an early progression of reading that privileged print-text as more
rigorous.
Transitioning Toward the Art of Teaching Reading
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With the growth of the McGuffey and Webster texts throughout the early and mid-1800s,
further establishment of national ideals, and what was considered to be America’s own English
language, instructors and researchers slowly grew more holistic. Literacy teachers moved from
letters, sounds, syllables, spellings, pronunciations, and words toward more complex
understandings of words, meanings, sentences, and stories with increasing emphasis throughout
the century. Samuel Worcester’s publications between 1828 and 1848 subtly suggested a new
development, and the word method sparked debate between 1840-1850 (Smith, 2002),
suggesting that words and language are learned through various co-existing avenues including
sight, sound, and imagery; from there, breaking them down into their components (letters and
sounds) would be more powerful and efficient if not unnecessary because deep knowledge and
understanding would already exist. These initial differences in reading pedagogy from the 1800s
are still seen in polarized debates between whole language advocates and phonics proponents
today: a debate that privileges a conception of ‘text’ as print-text given the focal points of this
conflict: words, language, and how they are best learned.
Conversation over the word method became embedded in the Industrial Revolution’s
influence on American education and cultural changes in a rapidly diversifying population.
According to Smith (2002), reading instruction began to transform in the early 1880s from more
managerial, structured tactics toward more artistic and all-encompassing ideas about literacy and
language. Now that the health of American democracy was secure, teachers and policymakers
could breathe and consider the arts. As a result, “This concern for cultural development resulted
in an emphasis on the use of reading as a medium for awakening a permanent interest in literary
material that would be a cultural asset to the individual in adult life” (Smith, 2002, p. 108). This
change saw ironic resistance from within the teaching field as teachers loosened the reigns to
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accommodate more student-initiated thought. While today’s teachers toil to maintain autonomy
against the flow of mandated curriculum standards, teachers in the late 1800s were trained and
inducted into the profession via centralized methods that instituted an overall lack of autonomy.
As a result, they struggled to change under the word method’s focus on word meanings over
components. Shannon (2007) notes how this shift, “required teachers to redefine their goals of
education from the reproduction of the facts within textbooks to the examination of objects
within their daily experience, and then to the interpretation of textbook facts in light of their
observations” (p. 9-10). This new approach to instruction more closely matches today’s
conception of the English/Language Arts classroom and reading instruction: a “balanced
literacy” blend of whole-language, artistic approaches combined with explicit, more scientific
instruction in language components. Opening the classroom up to subjective interpretations of
language meant letting go of conservative ideals of morality and nationalism, and simultaneously,
more classroom freedom meant unpredictable shifts in thinking. American comics develop in
this same period where the roots of the modern education system in America take hold, and even
today, pedagogical perspectives on comics conflict around similar century-old tensions.
Growth and Change in Population, Technology, and Mann’s Common Schools
As these pedagogical shifts occurred throughout the latter half of the 1800s into the 20th
century during both Reconstruction and the Industrial Revolution, the American immigrant
population grew rapidly in number and diversity, the American workforce grew in number and
variety, and newspaper publishing made information and text more accessible. As Walker (2004)
discusses, in the late 1800s, the United States population doubled, urban populaces tripled, and
daily newspapers quadrupled in number. Circulation grew to 15 million as faster presses and
news telegraphs led to multiple daily printings and lower prices in a competitive market. During
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this rapid growth, artists and newspapers cemented comics as a communicative medium, and
Horace Mann streamlined the varied opportunities available for citizens in public schools by
instituting the Common School and advocating for child-centered pedagogy catering toward
innate curiosity and children’s interests. Shannon notes how progressive educators who listened
to Mann, “[Integrated] children’s interests, needs, and inclinations with their curricula, making
reading and writing natural consequences of children’s study of their physical and social
environments” (2007, p. 11). Student interest helped drive curriculum and instruction.
At the root of this emerging pedagogical and philosophical movement, Mann’s advocacy
of the common school in the 1830s and 1840s links to his advocacy of the word method in the
1840s and 1850s (Shannon, 2007). Upon observing Pestalozzean, object teaching principles at
work in a visit to Prussia, Mann wrote extensively about how his visit informed his pedagogy.
Cited in Smith (2002), Mann notes how each of the five senses should be active throughout a
lesson plan. He then recalls observing a Prussian teacher present an image of a house before
showing students the word ‘house’ in print. Pointing at the letters, the teacher traced each letter’s
form as students traced the same forms in the air. Next Mann chastises American instruction:
Compare the above method with that of calling up a class of abecedarians, -- or, what is
more common, a single child, -- and while the teacher holds a book or card before him,
with a pointer in his hand, says, a, and he echoes a; then b, and he echoes b; and so on
until the vertical row of lifeless and ill-favored characters is completed, and then of
remanding him to his seat, to sit still and look at vacancy. If the child is bright, the time
which passes during the lesson is the only part of the day in which he does not think. Not
a single faculty of the mind is exercised excepting that of imitating sounds; and even the
number of these imitations is limited to twenty-six. A parrot or an idiot could do the same
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things. … As a general rule, six months are spent before the twenty-six letters are
mastered, though the same child would learn the names of twenty-six playmates or
twenty-six playthings in one or two days. (as cited in Smith 2002, p. 72-3)
Mann’s advocacy of spurring the child’s imagination to engage the student in efficient, deeper
understanding speaks to progressive pedagogy to better meet student interests simply by gaining
full attention toward tangible ideas. His attention to sensory stimulation as part of the learning
process also speaks to the valuable utility of graphic texts to engage readers’ minds differently,
especially during an oft-monotonous school day no matter the date in history.
Going beyond images, Mann insists on actual objects when available. This effort
promotes “a conscious union of the name and object as in the case of the words river, boat, moon,
etc. If the object itself cannot be exhibited . . . then some representation or model of it should be
presented” (as cited in Smith 2002 p. 75-76). Connecting knowledge with sensory details –
especially sight – is further emphasized as Mann states, “There are many single words which
represent an entire picture; while for other pictures we must use sentences” (as cited in Smith
2002 p. 76). Such pictures that require sentences are likely intangible concepts often located in
literature and language arts such as irony and foreshadowing and less abstract ideas like conflict
and characterization. Images combined with text can either explicitly demonstrate these concepts
to students, or they can scaffold imagination and understanding to aid comprehension.
Efforts to build upon Mann’s delivery of Pestalozzean pedagogy to American schools are
seen in the 1890s with The Ward Rational Method in Reading featuring full-page colored
illustrations. According to Smith (2002), The Ward Rational Method was “the first school reader
in which colored pictures were used . . . There were several small uncolored pictures . . .
Approximately 16 percent of the book was made up of pictures – a decided increase in picture
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space” (2002, p. 127). Smith explains how Ward’s publication weds word and phonetic methods,
but beyond citing the increase in picture space, she does not consider how these images reinforce
the word method’s effect on students’ retention and imagination. As Ward introduced his ideas,
comics – a combined textual and visual medium whose components are mutually reinforcing –
exploded as a pleasurable reading phenomenon that continues to experience controversy today.
At the same time, Americans were reading more. Between 1876 and 1915, illiteracy decreased
from 20 percent to 6 percent, and publishing profits soared (Walker, 2004, p. 21). The comics
revolution gains notoriety in this same period, but the origins of graphic texts date back further.
A Brief History of Graphic Texts and Their Cultural Significance
John Dewey establishes the necessity of using images to construct and communicate
knowledge in My Pedagogic Creed (1897). In his words:
I believe that the image is the great instrument of instructions. What a child gets out of
any subject presented to him is simply the images which he himself forms with regard to
it. I believe that nine tenths of the energy at present directed toward making the child
learn certain things, were spent on seeing to it that the child was forming proper images,
the work of instruction would be indefinitely facilitated. I believe that much of the time
and attention now given to the preparation and presentation of lessons might be more
wisely and profitably expended in training the child's power of imagery and in seeing to it
that he was continually forming definite, vivid, and growing images of the various
subject with which he comes in contact in his experience. (p. 14-15)
Conceptual knowledge and understanding reinforced by powerful imagery leads to powerful
learning, deeper understanding, and more imaginative individuals. Graphic texts perform the
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exact function of imagery that Dewey speaks of by presenting images to be examined, analyzed,
and committed to memory over time.
Evidence for Dewey’s perspective dates back to the beginnings of recorded history when
cavemen recorded facts and events through visual storytelling. Later, “the historical record
suggests that visual storytelling evolved gradually. Egyptian hieroglyphics, Greek friezes,
Roman carvings, and medieval tapestries provide evidence of this long progression” (Walker,
2004, p. 8). McCloud (1993) notes a distinction here, however, by explaining that Egyptian
hieroglyphics represent sounds – not whole ideas. McCloud cites a 1519 discovery by Cortes of a
“Pre-Columbian picture manuscript . . . This 36-foot long, brightly-colored, painted screenfold
tells of the great military and political hero 8-Deer ‘Tiger’s Claw’” (1993, p. 10), but he then
describes visual storytelling dating back as far as the 1066 Norman Conquest of England and
even 32-century old Egyptian painting before admitting to having no idea about the origin of
comics (1993, p. 12-15). This confusion results from print-text and visuals gradually separating
with technological advances. Walker (2004) explains how movable-type printing presses forced
a separation of words and images in the fifteenth century, requiring different printing techniques.
Single pages called broadsheets often contained images, but they were not comics. Again, the
utility of comics and any attempt to consider what may serve as a viable ‘text’ as an educational
medium must be considered in its historical context. Thus, while visual storytelling contributes
to early recorded history, technological advances pushed print and image away from one another.
Four centuries passed before text and image reunited on a larger scale.
The Growth of Comics in the late 1890s and early 1900s
It was not until a growing and diversifying American nation, population, marketplace,
education system, reading pedagogy, and newspaper industry all converged in the late 1800s that
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comics become a valuable literacy medium. Walker (2004) notes how more technological
advances eradicated broadsheets to allow for greater distribution of multi-page periodicals and
newspapers. He states, “Publishers discovered that entertainment sold better than enlightenment.
It was during the nineteenth century that the comic strip took its present form (p. 8). As this form
developed, population shifts changed necessary outcomes of the American education system,
needs of immigrant students, and philosophical battles over American reading pedagogy. With
nine million immigrants arriving in America in the first decade of the 1900s, “The early comics
were not consciously directed toward a specific target audience, but there is little doubt that the
colorful graphics appealed to immigrants, and the content of the Sunday funnies reflected this
readership” (Walker, 2004, p. 23-24). Later, this popularity contributed to anti-comics rhetoric.
Just before this decade of massive population growth began, Richard Felton Outcault’s
“bald-headed, flap-eared, buck-toothed street urchin, who made his first appearance in Truth
magazine on June 2, 1894” (Walker, 2004, p. 7) became widely known as the Yellow Kid,
appearing in color by February of 1895. While many scholars and historians credit Outcault’s
Yellow Kid as the onset of American comics, Walker notes a more gradual progression, noting
how speech balloons, images, and sequential narrative were already established forms dating
back as far as 1860. Still, comics in the 1890s displayed the more recognized pieces of modern
comics into singular works: speech balloons, sequential narrative, recurring characters, regularly
titled series, color printing, adaptation to other media, and product licensing (Walker, 2004, p. 810). Moreover, Outcault’s first publications may not even be considered comics but instead
“single-panel city scenes with cavorting slum kids” (Walker, 2004, p. 11). Such single-panel
scenes resemble traditional children’s books where illustrations establish visuals for characters
and setting, but visuals are not established in sequential panels that drive passage of time.
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The Yellow Kid and Hogan’s Alley progressed into the modern comic form. By April
1896, The Kid talked through “crude, grammatically incorrect writing pinned to his nightshirt” in
the ‘First Championship Game of the Hogan’s Alley Baseball Team’” (Walker, 2004, p. 11).
The introduction of speech balloons and sequential panels changed the medium to resemble
current comics. With speech housed within panels, “the characters appeared to speak with
greater immediacy than when text was placed below the illustrations. Balloons transformed twodimensional performers into personalities with thoughts and emotions, who could speak and
move simultaneously like real people” (Walker, 2004, p. 12). These comics provided readers
with signals and signposts to help them confidently navigate a text. Thus, for a population
experiencing such varied educational, class-rooted opportunities in the early 1900s, comic strips
provided access to narrative, entertainment, and pop culture. Popularity of and experimentation
with comics forms would continue to grow throughout the duration of the 1900s to engage wider
audiences with new content, but not without challenges and downright contempt aimed at the
medium as well. Such frustrations were aimed at comic books emerging in the 1930s and 1940s.
The Super-Heroic Growth of Comic Books in the mid 1900s
Upon the publication of Action Comics #1 in June 1938, Superman forever etched his
imprint into the American psyche. Growing from the popularity of pulp magazines and larger
collections of successful comic strips over the initial decades in the 1900s, comic books became
mainstream in the 1930s as newspaper publishers profited from selling rights to comic strips
(Wright, 2001). As an artistic medium, comics provided entertainment and social commentary
for readers who paid attention to the medium’s evolution. Heroes like Superman caught teenage
attention during this time. In post-depression America where struggles for justice and reform
mounted, the new superhero genre reflected, satirized, and combated social issues of the period.
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With initial issues of Superman selling upwards of 900,000 copies per month, readers
experienced victory as Superman “[produced] evidence that [freed] an innocent woman on death
row” (Wright, 2001, p. 11). Other artists and publishers soon took advantage of Superman’s
popularity. Wright notes, “During these early years, the sheer novelty of comic books and
costumed superheroes was sufficient to generate strong sales. Writers and artists had little
motivation to get very sophisticated in their storytelling” (p. 22). Other infamous heroes
developing during this period included Green Lantern, Batman and Robin, and Captain America.
Developing “at a critical moment in the evolution of youth culture” (Wright, 2001, p. 26), these
titles engaged adolescent readers whom attended high school and clashed with traditional
American ideals more than ever. Adults struggled to accept growth in American culture
(especially entertainment and mass media), and children and adolescents became target
audiences for publishers capitalizing on emerging Depression-era spawned guilt over children’s
deprived livelihoods (Wright, 2001). Thus, fantastical tales of superheroes who could accomplish
deeds impossible to film (which pinpoints today’s popularity of superhero films) became staples
of American teenage bookbags and bedrooms. Traditionalists objected to such childish fantasies,
and crime comic books became the main target of a powerful anti-comics movement that
succeeded in casting the medium out of the realm of acceptable academic and adolescent
literature – a move from which comics and graphic novels have only recently begun to recover.
Anti-comics climate
Comics’ popularity in newspapers led to the growth of the Sunday funnies section as
more advertising dollars supported added publication and color printing. In 1930, Gallup found
that “‘more adults read the best comic strip in a newspaper on an average day than the first rate
banner story’ . . . comic strips ranked right behind the picture pages in overall popularity among
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
20
his project group of two million readers” (as cited in Walker, 2004, p. 186). With popularity
came scrutiny, however, and McCarthyist paranoia and fear-mongering in the mid-1900s
combined to destroy the legitimacy of comics as an educational medium, further establishing it
as literature unfit for academic or enlightened citizens – a point of view that still persists. As
practitioner and scholar Terry Thompson says, “Many teachers remember graphic books from a
time when comics and graphic novels were viewed negatively” (2007, p. 29). Early accusations
leveled at comics combined religious moralizing, artistic snobbery, overzealous parenting, and
classist beliefs about artistic merit and value – all of which are also similar objections toward any
literature taught or read in schools as well as every pop culture entertainment medium. It seems
that there have always been and always will be concerns that popular artistic mediums that
engage youth contribute to delinquency.
Early 1900s rhetoric against comics and a 1954 Senate subcommittee investigation of the
comic book industry lend great insight into why graphic texts in literacy classrooms – even half a
century after the peak of such an emotionally charged anti-comics crusade – still face barriers
rooted in American pop culture and history. While these anti-comics voices had good intentions
and goals of improving society by decreasing delinquency, their goals were rooted in antiquated,
conservative ideas about the function of literacy in a world that had grown more technologically
advanced and complex since the development of Mann’s common schools in the late 1800s.
These voices were not educators or literacy researchers; rather, these were voices of discomfort
in a rapidly changing, less stable world where atomic weapons and Communism forcibly
changed politics, government, and culture.
Former United States Assistant Secretary of Education and noted educational historian
Diane Ravitch is quoted in an e-mail as saying, “Once kids know how to read, there is no good
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21
reason to continue to use dumbed-down materials . . . They should be able to read poems, novels,
essays, books that inform them, enlighten them, broaden their horizons” in reference to comics
(Mendez, 2004). Ravitch’s current rhetoric pales in comparison to other 1900s comics critiques.
Religious groups protested publication and sales of Sunday newspapers as early as 1825, with
Pennsylvania clergymen calling Sunday papers ‘“the most potent influence in our midst for the
destruction of the Lord’s Day as a day of rest and worship’” (as cited in Walker, 2004, p. 22)
seventy years later. Later, M.J. Darby, president of the National Association of Newspaper
Circulation Managers, uttered, “The crude coloring, slap-dash drawing, and very cheap and
obvious funniness of the comic supplement cannot fail to debase the taste of readers and render
them to a certain extent incapable of appreciating the finer forms of art” (as cited in Walker,
2004, p. 22). Such snobbery was hurtful, but fear-mongering and alarmism inflicted greater pain.
An early example is found in a 1909 edition of The Ladies Home Journal:
calling comics ‘a crime against American children.’ Edith Kingman Kent, chairman of
the Committee for the Suppression of the Comic Supplement, warned in 1910, ‘The
avidity with which many children seize this pernicious sheet, with its grotesque figures
and vivid and crude coloring, amounts to a passion, which wise parents should regard
with alarm and take steps to prevent’. (as cited in Walker, 2004, p. 23)
Walker admits that some of these accusations were somewhat true. For example, many
newspapers had comics sections recommended for children and adults based on subject matter,
and rude behavior, sexual innuendo, and violence were quite evident.
How would early pre-prohibition critics respond to more graphic and vulgar publications
read by teens today? Has anti-comics rhetoric changed much at all in the last century? Walker
estimates, “The reformers who attacked the comics were mostly upper-and middle-class, white,
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
22
native-born Americans. They were shocked by the rough-and-tumble humor of the Sunday
funnies and found the characters to be vulgar, brash, and disrespectful” (Walker, 2004, p. 24).
Censorship and alarmism toward adolescent literature have become constant in democratic pushand-pull surrounding literacy education. Many teachers today note Walker’s same observation a
century ago that “Immigrants and children loved the comics for the same reasons that the ruling
classes abhorred them: they celebrated anarchy, rebellion, and the triumph of the underdog”
(2004, p. 24). At the same time, today’s teachers work in a society that has long socialized adults
to despise comic books. In 1948, many comics publishers formed the Association of Comics
Magazine Publishers (ACMP) to develop a content code similar to today’s Motion Picture
Association of America. Within two years, the association disbanded, and other proposals to
limit and monitor the spread and influence of comics came and went. One psychiatrist’s voice
shouted loudest throughout the paranoia of the McCarthy-era (DeCandido, 1991).
Dr. Frederic Wertham’s crusade. Throughout the mid-1900s, somewhat
misunderstood psychiatrist and critic Dr. Frederic Wertham moved to censor and limit the
influence of comic books in Seduction of the Innocent. This voice of paranoia and scapegoating
is still alive today, but Wertham’s charges against comics focused mainly on psychological and
emotional defects caused by comic consumption when Hollywood could not yet create violent
imagery digitally; thus, comics were an easy target for well-meaning adults seeking to ensure
American youth’s purity to keep the nation strong and free of Communist influences. Comic
books were caught in the middle of the debate surrounding American adolescence’s place within
the growth of American consumer culture (Wright, 2001). While many parents and teachers
loved to see their children reading, they were disturbed by violent and aforementioned crude
content. To be attacked so vigorously, comic books had to exert a major influence. While 540
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23
million comic books were printed in 1946, these numbers doubled after only a few years (Wright,
2001, p. 88-89). Moreover, this influence was not always visible to parents as comics were
readily available, cheaply purchased, traded, and conveniently covert. Thus, somewhat ironically,
Wertham – a liberal, generally progressive individual with a strong desire to aid society’s ills –
took aim at comics after basing his research on various adolescent (generally criminal) clients.
According to Wright, “The most curious feature of a controversy plagued by peculiarities and
contradictions was that a grassroots crusade marked by calls for censorship and book burnings
found scientific legitimacy and leadership in an elitist liberal psychiatrist and professed opponent
of censorship” (2001, p. 98). Similar to emotionally driven rants against video games today,
Wertham’s writing is short on science and heavy on anecdotes that ultimately paint him as an
unfortunate alarmist through the biased lens of the present. The data in Seduction of the Innocent
is far from transparent, and while it is possible that children who read only comic books will
display reading problems, Wertham’s argument rests largely upon conversations with juvenile
delinquents: not exactly the best sample for discussing language instruction. In his own historical
context, however, Wertham begs a relevant question about comic books: where is the line
between education and entertainment, especially when content is violent or crass?
In a culture seeking answers for the spread of adolescent crime and poverty, comics
became a popular outlet for fantasy, frustration, and finger-pointing. Wertham writes, “Chronic
stimulation, temptation and seduction by comic books, both their content and their alluring
advertisements of knives and guns, are contributing factors to many children’s maladjustment”,
further noting how “good” comic books are simply overshadowed by the burdensome weight of
violent ones (1954, p. 10). To be fair, some rather strange and ill-advised pieces were found in
comic books during this time period. Wertham’s concern is actually quite admirable and speaks
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
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to a powerful democratic need to balance certain intellectual and creative freedoms with parents’
rights to raise their children as they see fit. Such concerns found receptive legislators as fifty
cities censored or banned comics by 1948 (Wright, 2001, p. 98). Wertham’s concern about comic
book content is not the problem; rather, his argument identifies him as a questionable authority.
Wertham’s seductive argument. Wertham’s Seduction becomes a sometimes humorous
time period piece because of its reliance on oft-fallacious logic. Relying on oversimplification,
either-or thinking, emotional appeal, and appeal to ignorance, Wertham attempts to blame comic
books for the same outcomes that today’s education rhetoricians place upon bad teachers and
parents. Blaming comics (and implicitly non-discerning teachers) for reading disorders, he
states:
[Comics prevent] early detection of reading difficulties, by masking the disorder and
giving parents the impression that the child can read; they aggravate reading difficulties
that already exist; they cause reading disorders by luring children with the primary appeal
of pictures as against early training to real reading; they attack the child just at the age of
six or seven when basic reading skills ought to be developed, and again at preadolescence when on a higher level good reading habits should be fostered. Discerning
teachers are well aware of this. (1954, p. 141)
Wertham’s statements like this lend comic books omnipotent educational power to do evil. Any
researcher today would hopefully laugh at statements like, “Comic books and life are connected.
A bank robbery is easily translated into the rifling of a candy store. Delinquencies formerly
restricted to adults are increasingly committed by young people and children” (1954, p. 25). It is
hard to take seriously an idea that adolescent crime directly results from consumption of
obviously fantastical comic books after decades of growth in Hollywood, video games, gangsta
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
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rap, and even heavy metal music. With all of these mediums, polemicists still float absurd
statements that invent imaginary behavioral correlations to discredit such artists and genres.
Wertham does the same when he writes, “All child drug addicts, and all children drawn into the
narcotics traffic as messengers, with whom we have had contact, were inveterate comic-book
readers” (1954, p. 26). Were these same children also omnivorous? Wertham’s heavy hyperbole
makes it sound like comic books literally force juvenile delinquents to act. Given this argument,
what might Wertham say about contemporary young adult literature – even print-text? Would he
be another Harry Potter challenger?
Wertham wants the same product from American families and schools that today’s
progressive educators seek: good students and citizens. He and his peers cannot be faulted for
seeking these ends. However, like many superfluous writers and gregarious speakers, Wertham
considers himself an expert on education and reading, and even quick consideration of his
statements betrays his intellect. For example, he writes, “All the negative effects of crime comics
on children in the intellectual, emotional, and volitional spheres are intensified by the harm done
in the perceptual sphere. Comic books are death on reading” (1954, p. 121). Then what is life?
Wertham will not even admit that struggling readers might better access classical literature
through comics as he chastises the Classics Illustrated publications that were widely used in
schools during the time, writing:
I have never heard a more serious indictment of American education, for they emasculate
the classics, condense them (leaving out everything that makes the book great), are just as
badly printed and inartistically drawn as other comic books and, as I have often found, do
not reveal to children the world of good literature which has at all times been the
mainstay of liberal and humanistic education. They conceal it. (1954, p. 36)
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Despite Wertham’s good intentions, he presumes that comic books could replace the canon or
other print-text. Just like his concerns about society, Wertham’s concerns about literacy are valid,
but his overall approach to correcting perceived ills is simply misguided. He states, “A very large
proportion of children who cannot read well habitually read comic books. They are not really
readers, but gaze mostly at the pictures, picking up a word here and there . . . They are
bookworms without books” (1954, p. 122). This observation and phrasing is mere perception,
nothing more. Wertham could just as easily consider that comics often contain imaginative,
context-specific vocabulary requiring readers to reflect upon new language and tone. George R.R.
Martin highlights this point by stating, “You need a lot more expression for, ‘Aha, Superman,
now my red kryptonite will turn you into a BOILED EGG!’ than you do for ‘See Spot. See Spot
run. Run, Spot, run’” (Martin, 2011, para. 2). Wertham could choose any range of responses, but
he chooses to dwell on pre-conceived notions of literacy and literature. Minds like his cannot
change.
Wertham coins his assumptions about learning to read as if he were a reading teacher, but
in the 1950s, his ideas were already outdated (although admittedly, these ideas are still popular if
not dominant). Wertham is not a whole language advocate, and the imbalance between his
vision for society and his apparent approach to teaching reading is where his ideas fail. He
fancies himself as a social progressive, but in the classroom, he seems to prefer tradition and
authority. Noting how intelligence, vocabulary, and reading are intertwined, he calls comic
readers, “Handicapped in vocabulary building because in comics all the emphasis is on the visual
image and not on the proper word. These children often know all that they should not know
about torture, but are unable to read or spell the word” (1954, p. 125). To Wertham, the
prescription for what he labels “reading retardation” (p. 125) is canonical literature – even while
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many students have similar negative preconceptions toward print-text fiction that Wertham
levels at comic books. He believes that non-discerning teachers and parents willfully assaulted
the collective consciousness of American society by simultaneously enabling criminal minds and
illiteracy, and he believes that these problems are best treated with canonical literature. Wertham
proposes the question, “But who can say that the crime would have occurred if this boy’s reading
disability had been cured early and he had been given decent literature to read instead of comic
books” (1954, p. 137) to hammer this point home, but what about those students – functionally
literate or not – who simply learn to NOT read literature through the sum of their in-school and
out-of-school experiences? Are these students really served best by more of the same?
Wertham even suggests micromanaging all reading, and yet again, while his goals are
certainly agreeable, his argument cannot stand up to today’s environment of hypertext, busy
textual layouts, and a totally different culture of advertising far more intense than the older
advertisements Wertham so vehemently despises. In discussing proper reading technique,
Wertham explains how “fluent left-to-right eye movements, which is so indispensable for good
reading” take time and care to develop, but comic books can destroy these efforts. To Wertham,
“It is different with the comic-book reader who acquires the habit of reading irregular bits of
printing here and there in balloons instead of complete lines from left to right” (1954, p. 127).
He fails to consider how informational texts need not always be read to completion, and he also
fails to consider how analyzing literature sometimes requires readers to go back and skim pages
for various reasons. Wertham simply is not a literacy teacher. Were he one, he might focus on
the availability of high-interest texts for young adults instead of bemoaning the quality of the
pages in comic books as insensitive to the young reader’s consumption of text, writing, “Most
comics are smudgily printed on pulp paper. The printing is crowded in balloons with irregular
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lines . . . to our children we give the crudest and most ill-designed products” (1954, p. 139).
Nobody can say that Wertham does not care about children; rather, he cares too much about the
wrong problems. As a psychiatrist, his apparent approach to literacy instruction is misguided.
While relying too much upon No Child Left Behind-esque pathos, these ideas are worth
consideration in the 1950s, but the future influence of these ideas could not have been anticipated.
As digitally native children now consume text faster than ever before across many mediums
(Palfrey & Gasser, 2008), Wertham’s comics critiques are only relevant if we consider the
positive and negative effects of electronic reading devices and mass media. These examinations
should not constrain mediums, genres, or texts used in classrooms. While we all have our own
personally privileged ideas about literacy and literature, most teachers and parents realize that
reading is most pleasurable when it grows from and toward one’s interests. As an added medium,
graphic texts are an arguably beneficial method to promote wider reading than solely video
games or other electronic textual/visual mediums because graphic texts are more closely linked
to narrative and storytelling in book form and within the educational institution.
Comic books were formerly one of the more visible adolescent entertainment mediums,
so Wertham’s critique of comics deserved consideration. Wright weighs Wertham’s influence
diplomatically, stating, “Even if comic books were only one factor among the multiple causes of
juvenile delinquency, many reasoned, would it not be best to act against them?” (2001, p. 164).
Wertham influenced the Comics Magazine Association of America (CMAA) to develop a more
stringent code regulating overall comic content, censoring both text and images. As America
sought to separate itself politically and ideologically from supposedly controlling Communist
regimes, Americans were willingly censored comics to presume an ideal vision for American
society. This effort still poses lasting effects upon graphic texts as Yang points out (2003), “The
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American educational establishment has shied away from comics for incidental, historical
reasons rather than deficiencies within the medium itself” (para. 11). This point must be
acknowledged to consider the place of graphic texts within American culture and education
throughout history and NOT to sit and point fingers at easily identifiable contradictions and
hypocrisy in American society. “Dr. Werthams” will continue to pop up, but knowledgeable
teachers can be confident in their rationales for using graphic texts as literature.
Comics and Continued Cultural Change
From the inception of comics in the late 1800s to their growth into a 1950s publishing
powerhouse, comic strips and later comic books were always subject to ideological push-andpull in American culture. During the tail end of Wertham’s anti-comics efforts in the late 1950s
as televisions captured America’s attention, other mediums of expression – arguably more
engaging and even more lucrative – helped turn attention away from comic books and their
dubious contributions to educational malfeasance, juvenile delinquency, and illiteracy. Rock n’
roll, drugs, Civil Rights, school integration, white flight, color and cable television, Hollywood,
music videos, gangsta rap, video games, more immigration, more wars, the personal lives of
public figures, and finally the internet all captured similarly emotional, combative rhetoric and
controversy. Comic books had to grow up in a world where cultural commentary was most easily
accessed on television.
In 1986 as these particular cultural institutions congealed, two comic books finally
changed the ballgame: Art Spiegelman’s Maus and Alan Moore’s Watchmen. According to
Behler, “During the 1970s and ‘80s, comics began to take on a more literary tone; many
publishers focus[ed] on more complex, book-length titles, and as a result, comic readership
expanded from children to young adults and adults” (2006, p. 17). Eisner’s A Contract With God
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
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(1978) made the term graphic novel a less pretentious term to describe lengthier comic books
with more mature content than stereotypical superhero and crime texts of old. Thus, a discourse
of graphic novels as literature can only be approximately 25 years old – hardly enough time for
the medium to fully establish itself. While comics were questioned throughout the 1900s, the
definition of comics or graphic novels is now hotly debated in today’s environment where
graphic texts slowly find acceptance as a mature literary medium for classroom instruction.
Why the Term “Graphic Texts”?
In a popular New York Times piece, McGrath states:
Comic books are what novels used to be – an accessible, vernacular form with mass
appeal – and if the highbrows are right, they’re a form perfectly suited to our dumbeddown culture and collective attention deficit. Comics are also enjoying a renaissance and
a newfound respectability right now. In fact, the fastest-growing section of your local
bookstore these days is apt to be the one devoted to comics and so-called graphic novels.
(2004)
Dumbed-down culture or not, McGrath’s caustic diction here points toward the need to promote
the medium’s practical utility for literacy. The future educational and literary stock of graphic
texts necessitates an understanding of their current place in American culture because the
discourse of graphic texts must shift to promote the formerly despised medium’s legitimacy.
The Impossibility of Defining Comics Definitively
Defining ‘comics’ or ‘graphic novels’ precisely is headache-inducing. One can read
dozens of scholarly documents and depart more confused than clear, leading Walker to admit,
“There is no consensus among the leading comics scholars on a basic definition” (Walker, 2004,
p. 12). In Understanding Comics, McCloud defines the medium as “juxtaposed pictorial and
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other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an
aesthetic response in the viewer” (1993, p. 20). The word ‘sequence’ sets comics apart from
other mediums that present one solitary image; passage of time between panels drives narratives
and gives life to comics. As the reader interprets comic-based dialogue in real time, he will react
and think as events and ideas unfold. The dialogue combines with illustrations in sequence to
situate readers in an imaginable piece of time. Walker explains, “Sequential drawings created
the illusion of time. The space between two successive images could represent seconds, minutes,
days, or years. The combination of speech balloons and sequential panels increased the potential
for more effective character development and storytelling in comics” (2004, p. 12). These
features are generally agreed upon, but comics terminology can be overly technical.
McCloud suggests that skeptics have pigeonholed sequential art, stating, “The art form of
comics is many centuries old, but it’s perceived as a recent invention and suffers the curse of all
new media – the curse of being judged by the standards of the old” (151). These standards are
why Walker admits that relativism in defining comics is the best route because of the medium’s
constant growth (Walker, 2004). Watchmen author Moore has the most cynical perspective:
It's a marketing term . . . The term "graphic novel" was something that was thought up in
the '80s by marketing people and there was a guy called Bill Spicer who used to do a
brilliant fanzine back in the sixties called Graphic Story Magazine. He came up with the
term "graphic story" . . . The problem is that "graphic novel" just came to mean
"expensive comic book" and so what you'd get is people like DC Comics or Marvel
comics - because "graphic novels" were getting some attention, they'd stick six issues of
whatever worthless piece of crap they happened to be publishing lately under a glossy
cover and call it The She-Hulk Graphic Novel, you know? (Kavanagh, 2000)
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Many graphic novels are merely collected comic books, and many comic books are more literary
than some sold as graphic novels. Moore’s attention to marketing is wise because Eisner
“devised the term as a marketing technique to increase the chances that his illustrated series of
interlinked short stories about working-class Jewish families during the Great Depression might
be published” (O’English, Matthews, & Lindsay, 2006, p. 1). Since the term ‘graphic novel’ has
contrary origins both in profit and social justice, I propose a varied term – “graphic texts” – to
frustrate the great label debate even more. Others have weighed in on the attempt to label the
medium and its many genres, and the debate has carried on longer than the modern comic strip.
Differences in Definitions and Designations
Most of the definitions differ subtly, but the subtleties account for the differences in the
formats. For example, early Swiss ‘picture novels’ artist Rodolphe Topffer describes his efforts
by stating, “The drawings, without their text, would have only a vague meaning; the text, without
the drawings, would have no meaning at all” (as cited in Walker, 2004, p. 9-10). Should the
‘picture novel’ focus on a short-term narrative, it could be a graphic novel, but if it reoccurs, then
it is a comic strip. Founder of the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Bill Blackbeard believes
these strips are “serially published, episodic, open-ended dramatic narrative[s] or series of linked
anecdotes featuring recurrent named characters. The successive drawings regularly include
ballooned dialogue that is crucial to the telling of the story” (as cited in Walker, 13). At the same
time, characters are not necessarily the singular medium through which narratives are told; thus,
others scoff at the need for recurring characters. Moreover, as far as a discussion surrounding
incorporation of graphic texts in literacy classrooms, do these subtle differences necessitate
quibbling over finite definitions? Thierry Smolderen notes how, “Different social groups (editors,
artists, readers, censors, printers, teachers, etc.) participating in the existence of the medium will
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
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forge different working definitions, by selecting and generalizing the traits that are pertinent to
their way of participating in it” (as cited in Walker, 2004, p. 13). Of course, these definitions
discussed here have only focused on established art critics; so what do educators have to say?
Educators Attempting to Distinguish Between Types of Graphic Texts
Weiner calls graphic novels, “book length comic books that are meant to be read as one
story” (2003, p. xi). Goldsmith agrees, noting that even when published in multi-volume series,
graphic novels have distinct beginnings, middles, and ends, and comic books are episodic
without limitation (2005). A similar definition calls the graphic novel “a monographic work
[that] has a storyline with a start and a finish. It is published on an independent schedule and is
typically in bound book format (trade paperback) and has a higher quality” (Lyga & Lyga, 2004,
p. 16). Graphic novels are generally larger than the comic book, “which emerged in the 1930s,
[and] is typically thirty-two pages long and either is a collection of comic-strip stories or is made
up of one sustained story, often an installment in a series” (Chute, 2008, p. 453). The distinction
between ‘comics’ and ‘graphic novels’ also distinguishes between content – not just format or
packaging. Generally, advocates justifying the use of graphic texts in classrooms note an absence
of superheroes and the presence of social justice issues. Christensen (2007) states, “In contrast to
superhero comic books, graphic novels are more serious, often nonfiction, full-length, sequential
art novels that explore the issues of race, social justice, global conflict, and war with intelligence
and humor” (p. 227). In another example, Weiner reflects, “Instead of limiting themselves to the
superhero genre, many graphic novels are now concerned with conflicts often found in more
accepted forms of literature” (2002, p. 55). Given the history of comic books, however, the
above definitions of graphic novels indicate a desire to modify the image of graphic novels as
separate from pejorative superhero comics rather than acknowledging that they can be the same.
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Many comic books – even superhero books – address social issues just as intelligently as graphic
novels, and lines are blurred once original comics are collected into hardcover editions and trade
paperbacks such as Bryan K. Vaughan’s Ex Machina and Y: The Last Man. Both series transcend
attempts to separate comic books from graphic novels by being smart while appealing to latent
adolescent male fantasies. Thus, we need a new term and a new discourse because the current
ones limit the scope of literary graphic texts instead of promoting a broader vision that might
incorporate comic strips like Calvin & Hobbes, comic books, and graphic novels of many genres.
While teachers and students should acknowledge differences between comic strips and
books and graphic novels, can any single variation of the medium be any more useful in any
single classroom to any single teacher at any single moment? Graphic texts’ immediate, attention
getting, instructional power make Carter (2009) state, “Integrating comics into existing thematic
units can be more effective than studying the form in isolation . . . One powerful panel can help
establish or reinforce a major theme and be a jumping-off point for discussion and further
literacy-related activities” (p. 69-71). Only recently has the tone of the overall discussion of
graphic texts in the educational realm moved toward this direction: less attention toward defining
or justifying the presence of such texts and more toward how to use them effectively.
What About Manga?
Finally, this discussion is incomplete without mentioning arguably the most popular
graphic texts: manga. Wildly popular in Japan, manga are easily the most circulated books at my
own school’s library. Manga texts are characterized not by superheroes or social justice, but by
their overall layout. Poitras notes, “While there is still a logical progression of images, they are
not confined to simple rows of boxes. A panel may be a triangle, a polygon, or circle; it may
even overlap and flow into an adjacent panel” (2008, p. 49). While Americanized versions exist,
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authentic manga read from the apparent rear of the bound title toward the front. Moreover, while
most American exposure to manga comes in bound fiction titles that students read obsessively, in
Japan, “Manga is published with every demographic and genre that one finds in prose, fiction,
and nonfiction” (Poitras, 2008, p. 49). While these texts provide mainly visual appeal and fewer
words overall, they still provide the same sequential narrative experience that can be used to
promote literacy for all students.
Shifting Comics Discourse Toward Teaching with Graphic Texts
Graphic texts may also be called ‘bande dessinee’ in France, ‘historietta’ or ‘tebos’ in
Spain, and ‘fumetti’ in Italy (Shanower, 2005). While awareness of differences in mediums and
genres is important, the primary aspect of comics and graphic novels that bears merit for the
classroom is their potential to engage readers. Graphic texts deserve space in academic realms,
and given intellectualized attempts to denote the mediums and genres, new discussions await. In
his popular New Yorker piece, Schjeldahl projects:
A certain theoretical frenzy about comics today is understandable, as it has been in other
art forms in periods of their rapid development – think of the debates about painting that
roiled Renaissance Italy. But such intellectual arousal rarely precedes creative glory. On
the contrary, it commonly indicates that an artistic breakthrough, having been made and
recognized, is over, and that a process of increasingly strained emulation and diminishing
returns has set in … but if the major discoveries of the graphic novel’s new world of the
imagination have already been accomplished, its colonizing of the territory, like its threat
to foot traffic in bookstore aisles, has only just begun. (2005)
This territory can also become classrooms. If educators bicker or merely theorize about why
graphic novels have more utility than comic books, we only do favors for ourselves and
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publishers profiting from the industry. Instead, if we say “graphic texts may be single-panel
comics, comic strips, comic books, or graphic novels – whatever the content, and here is how to
use them to promote literacy and content knowledge,” we will move past the literature scattered
across journals dwelling on defining something that need not be so complicated. Thompson
(2008) agrees in his offering of his definition of his proposed term, “[Graphica; noun;] A
medium of literature that integrates pictures and words and arranges them cumulatively to tell a
story or convey information; often presented in comic strip, periodical, or book form; also known
as comics” (p. 6). This discussion about the possibilities presented by graphic texts is still very
new. Only in 2005 were library and education journals discussing graphic novels in young adult
collections and classrooms (Williams and Peterson, 2009, p. 166). Thus, attention should turn
toward practical applications that graphic texts might see in literacy classrooms. This is where
my focus has been in the last year, and this is where attention will grow in the near future.
Graphic Texts and Their Significance in Education: What Has Already Been Said?
Practical suggestions for use of graphic texts are found throughout the education
community, mainly in language arts and social studies classes. Throughout the literature, most
proponents suggest that graphic texts – both in whole-class use and as independent reading –
offer readers genuine access to literacy and content, increased motivation as a result of this
comfortable access, and increased opportunities to visualize narratives which symbiotically aids
access and motivation (see Behler, 2006; Downey, 2009; Frey & Fisher, 2004; Krashen, 2004;
Smetana et al., 2009; Williams, 2008; and Versaci, 2001). It is difficult to pinpoint which comes
first: access, motivation, or visualization. Many students benefiting from reading graphic texts
are already motivated readers. In contrast, many students may be highly motivated, but they may
lack the imaginative habits to fully visualize a narrative unfolding in their mind. Generally
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37
quicker to consume, graphic texts should not be used without prior thinking toward the practical
applications they can serve; they should not just be thrown out for students to read without
direction or discussion. Thankfully, educators have already begun this discussion, but its
continued facilitation is also much needed.
Promoting Thoughtful Engagement for All Students
Much of the graphic texts discourse seeks to engage “reluctant” readers, but graphic texts
benefit all readers. Downey (2009) notes, “What was once disregarded as a lower form of
literature has evolved into pop culture artifact, then into a tool to lure the reluctant reader, and
now a medium to increase literacy, comprehension, knowledge, and creative thinking” (p. 181186). If a teacher presents a graphic text – whether a Boondocks strip or Marjane Satrapi’s
Persepolis – as a dumbed-down text for remedial readers, then students shall perceive it as such.
However, if presented in a relevant context, possibilities for higher-level purposes remain open.
If the focus is solely on reluctant readers, then access to literacy may be the point to begin
considering how to use graphic texts. If all readers and myriad learning styles are the starting
point, however, then access, motivation, and visualization could all be possible starting points,
making the question not “To whom will these texts appeal?” but instead “How will these texts be
used to engage everyone differently?” The latter approach better serves all students.
Graphic Texts Promote Access to Literacy
Nobody grows continuously as a reader by loathing the act. As Krashen states in The
Power of Reading, “Perhaps the most powerful way of encouraging children to read is by
exposing them to light reading, a kind of light reading that schools pretend does not exist . . .
light reading is the way that nearly all of us learned to read” (2004, p. 92). While challenge is
part of the learning process, nobody learns to read optimally and critically without first loving
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
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reading. Wide textual experiences are necessary to create effective readers, especially as critical
attention to textual meanings and intents are highly important to societal and individual health.
Deep understanding of literature requires quickly decoding words to help form meaning, tracking
narrative sequence, and understanding and recalling events for later interpretation. Yet how can
interpretation occur without attention to and imagination of characters, their actions, artful details,
setting, intensity, mood, and tone? These concepts can be taught and recalled factually on paperand-pencil tests, but careful attention to contextually-created meaning through language is not a
skill that can be banked or transferred by a simple Powerpoint. These skills are nurtured over
time both within the classroom and through independent reading of texts and the world of human
beings. Moreover, while one text offers significant access to learning a literary concept while
motivating one individual, the same text may be wholly irrelevant and uninteresting to another.
Because of such disparity, graphic texts offer added flexibility to engage students.
Graphic texts provide more students another forum to demonstrate understanding while
aiding comprehension. Just as an excerpt from a graphic version of a Shakespearean play could
be offered to enrich understanding, the same text could be lent out individually as added
scaffolding – not to replace canonical literature, but to supplement it. Classics Illustrated
volumes condense original literature into comic form and provide essays and study aides (Lavin,
1998). A teacher who offers this individual attention to students as readers is conscious of how
reading and meaning-making are subjective, analytical processes that grow over time. With text
and image, according to comics scholar Versaci, “Comic books facilitate this analysis in a way
unlike more ‘traditional’ forms of literature because . . . comic books force students, rather
directly, to reconcile these two means of expression” (2001, p. 64). This “graphic language”
(Versaci, 2007, p. 1) allows more students to access and interpret the sometimes mysterious and
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
39
abstract literary realm that more active readers just “get” so easily. Thus, more important than
recognizing and reviewing literary terminology in action to satisfy curricular demands, graphic
texts promote critical reading that less motivated readers of print-text experience less.
Graphic Texts can Motivate Students to Read More
In his overview of comics studies, Krashen (2004) concludes, “Comic book readers do at
least as much reading as non-comic book readers, and the most recent research shows that they
read more overall, read more books, and have more positive attitudes toward reading” (p. 109110). Students should be surrounded by diverse texts that expose them to many ideas and styles
that facilitate their growing understanding. Yet in my experience, many students feel annoyed
and consumed by these texts rather than feeling empowered to consume them. To many students,
print-text is print-text no matter how you slice it, and the paragraph columns in Biology
textbooks are not very different from Shakespearean plays or historical documents. For these
reasons, graphic texts “are also perceived as less threatening by overwhelmed students”
(Downey, 2009, p. 183), even “somewhat subversive to students” (Smetana, Odelson, Burns, &
Grisham, 2009, p. 231). Exposed to extensive blocks of print-text throughout the often
monotonous day-to-day school grind, students enjoy graphic texts and their “making accessible
to some readers works that would otherwise be off-putting” (Behler, 2006, p. 17). With a graphic
text, students are not reading print-text that verbally describes a specific action or appearance
through imagery or other figurative language, but their minds still process these details visually,
mutually reinforcing future efforts to process textual details in print. While graphic novels may
not present the sheer quantitative measure of total words in a given moment, they offer welldeveloped, high-interest narratives that offer vocabulary acquisition to engaged readers (Smetana,
et al., 2009). This vocabulary might be directly featured in the text itself, or it may be
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
40
thematically related to the current unit. Either way, Frey and Fisher point out, “The limited
amount of text [in graphic texts allows] students to read and respond to complex messages with
text that better matched their reading levels” (2004, p. 20). In some contexts, this match might
appear more remedial; in another contexts, students may examine graphic texts as scaffolds
toward more complicated print-texts that require understanding of a certain literary or textual
feature (maybe dialogue or characterization for example) for full comprehension and critical
interpretation. Either way, graphic texts offer teachers and students another tool to achieve
desired outcomes.
Access, Motivation and Engagement Mutually Reinforce Reading and Learning
Word Volume and Vocabulary Acquisition
One can choose to perceive graphic texts positively or negatively. It is easy to say, “it’s a
dumbed-down text” and leave it at that, but according to Trelease, “When a child reads a Tintin
[graphic] novel, he is reading 8,000 words. The beautiful part is that children are unaware that
they are reading 8,000 words” (as cited in Lavin, 1998, p. 32). Teaching literacy involves more
than just deciding what students should read or judging the appropriateness of certain texts for
certain students; rather, literacy instruction also necessitates knowing how to use any one text to
foster further engagement. Student engagement should lead to powerful learning under skilled
teachers who facilitate construction of knowledge in a community of learners, and used
effectively, comic books offer twice the words in an average children’s book and expose readers
to five times the total words in conversations with adults (Smetana et al., 2009, p. 231). In
considering graphic novels for older students, “The books range in length from 48 to 224 pages,
and there may be as many as 180 words on a page. Therefore, a 175-page graphic novel might
contain approximately 31,500 words” (Weiner, 2004, p. 115). What is more important? The total
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
41
pages or words consumed, or the total time actively reading? The 175 pages of graphic text are
surely read faster than 175 pages of print text, and this function of timely convenience offers
instructors increased flexibility to engage students in the act of reading and subject area content.
Longer print-texts that go unread cannot offer the “important benefit of graphic novels [to]
present alternative views of culture, history, and human life in general in accessible ways, giving
voice to minorities and those with diverse viewpoints” (Schwarz, 2002, p. 264). Chun states
graphic texts “allow many readers, especially adolescent ones, to imagine and interpret
characters’ experiences that are far removed from their own daily lives” (2009, p. 146). With
genres ranging from fantastical fiction to newsworthy nonfiction, graphic texts engage students
in reading. If students are engaged, they will learn, so why worry about pre-conceived
perceptions?
Engagement Creating Engagement
Graphic texts need not be viewed as separate entities from print-text, but rather graphic
texts and print-texts mutually support one another. According to Seyfried, who observed student
engagement with graphic texts:
[Student] engagement demonstrated to me what theorists like Janne Seppanen and
McCloud postulate: that visual literacy is ‘the capacity to perceive the visible reality as
part of broader cultural structures of meanings … the most essential thing thus is the
understanding of the mechanisms of culture and the meaning of production in society’ . . .
Successful readers of graphic novels learn that rereading and slow reading support close
observation, a necessary skill of visual literacy. (as cited in Seyfried, 2008, p. 46-47)
This engagement in reading leads to engagement in learning. Graphic texts will motivate
students to power through a portion of a lesson. For example, in an interview with a 5th grade
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42
teacher, Shea suggests, “Once kids are hooked on characters and their stories, the opportunities
to make ‘teaching points’ are endless . . . The visual cues enable kids to follow narratives while
inferring the meanings of words they’ve never seen before” (2006, p. 16). While visual cues
jump out of graphic texts, characterization and dialogue across panels keep readers invested.
Often, readers will be motivated to power through a challenging text if they feel
connected to certain characters. As literacy teachers, we may assume that any given character
will be welcomed by students, but what about those students who do not visualize a character’s
presence within the narrative? Graphic texts offer the same building block for reading
comprehension that movies can offer as instructional aids or in-class texts. In graphic texts,
Williams states, “Readers watch characters wrestle with history and their personal and surprising
reactions to events. Empathy is one of the most important topics generated by this type of
material. Art allows viewers to . . . consider a different point of view” (2008, p. 15). As students
progress, content standards move away from learning to read toward reading to learn and
interpreting literature. But again, how can this demand be placed responsibly upon students who
do not imagine textual worlds and actions or who have learned that this act of reading is one that
they dislike? And how can literacy teachers offer new points of access to students who are
already successful, motivated readers who seek new ways to tackle texts and further design their
imaginative landscapes? Graphic texts offer a valid tool to respond to such questions.
Developing critical reading habits. An instructor who uses graphic texts as instructional
tools realizes “The skills students use to interpret graphic novels include analysis, interpretation,
and conjecture, all higher order thinking skills” (Smetana et al., 2009, p. 230). Used as an added
scaffold toward greater engagement with print-text, greater exposure to graphic texts will lead to
improved engagement with reading. In order to develop critical dexterity with any variety of
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
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texts, readers must already independently engage with text, but such engagement is less likely to
happen if students only read more of the same. Once again, graphic texts provide a scaffold or
another practical option for teachers and students of all skill levels,
Engaged readers of graphic texts do not lazily jump from panel to panel. Rather, they
interpret narrative sequence through accessible texts that permit a motivating, empowering sense
of engagement and accomplishment. Not mindlessly consumed, “Graphic novels, or the good
ones anyway, are virtually unskimmable. And until you get the hang of their particular rhythm
and way of storytelling, they may require more, not less, concentration than traditional books”
(McGrath, 2004). This concentration on text and narrative sequence is missing for many
struggling, reluctant, or non-readers. Such readers are often motivated to engage with internet
texts, and graphic texts present similar processes that keep readers engaged to foster further
motivation. According to Cromer and Clark, “[Graphic texts] have been likened to hypertext, a
format with which students are increasingly familiar, because they are flexible and open-ended
and can be approached in multi-layered ways, and read along both linear and nonlinear paths”
(2007, p. 574). If a nonlinear mind is only presented with linear approaches, negative
temperaments and attitudes are more likely to form toward tasks that do not cooperate with a
nonlinear individual’s preferred habits. Such minds are equally capable of comprehending and
interpreting challenging texts; they just do not always demonstrate these capabilities given
traditional classroom tasks that demand point-A-to-point-B reads of linear text that follows even
a predictable pattern. These students can and will perform such a task with time, patience, and
focused attention to individual needs.
Yet again, graphic texts can offer support through the “highly subjective experience of
the image, and moreover the bridging of gaps or breaks between images, vacancies which
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44
function very effectively as the textual indeterminacies that Wolfgang Iser speculates are
essential to the activation of readerly engagement” (Carney, 2008, p. 197). An engaged, critical
reader will develop his own interpretation of a narrative’s events, and graphic novels offer
necessary scaffolds to readers less able to develop visual details upholding plot recall or specific
textual details reinforcing meaning. As Williams (2008) states, teachers incorporating graphic
texts “present numerous opportunities for students to deconstruct these texts on multiple
levels . . . While words, images, layout, and story are all elements in these texts, none dominate
the act of reading” (p. 13). Critical reading and deconstruction of text are not isolated skills that
students only employ while reading; humans participate in this analysis every moment of every
day as they engage in the world around them and negotiate interactions. Critical readers make
this connection and employ it while reading, but any literacy teacher realizes that all students
need continued practice in these habits of critical thinking. Graphic texts may better serve this
need than some more traditional texts by providing direct practice in critical and analytical
thinking instead of first requiring decoding and textual comprehension.
Responding to culture and technology to motivate reading. The learning process is
never linear, and it cannot be oversimplified to become the same for every individual student.
While I believe that graphic texts should be approached as yet another tool, many others will
simply never agree to share this perspective – just like many students will not enjoy a given text,
for example. For this reason, if necessary, one may certainly hold the valid position that “comic
books seem much less of a threat to literacy in an era when many teenagers spend their free time
playing electronic games” (Bell, 2005, para. 11). Engagement and motivation function hand-inhand, and as students continue to engage with other non-print-texts such as video games (which
present engaging narratives, recurring characters and themes, and literary elements), popular
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
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movies, and electronic texts scattered across the internet, graphic texts could help motivate
students who are obviously motivated to read most by less traditional texts outside of the
classroom.
Using graphic texts to hook the attention of more visually attentive students is hardly a
revolutionary idea. Rather, it responds to the rapid changes in popular culture and mass media
over the last few decades. Citing rapid visuals in video games and television, Downey says,
“Today’s students . . . seek the same characteristics in their reading materials: a scaled-down
approach featuring short narratives and graphic indicators” (2009, p. 183). Alarmists will call
this move “dumbing-down” or childish pandering, but again, this reaction is mere perception.
While perception and politics certainly matter, ultimately student engagement and achievement
are the end goals we all agree upon, and “by placing a comic book – the basic form of which
[students] no doubt recognize – into the context of a classroom, teachers can catch students off
guard in a positive way” (Versaci, 2001, p. 62). Especially with adolescents who are well trained
to expect the already expected throughout a given school day, motivation can be fostered simply
by catching students off guard.
Scaffolding Visualization: Graphic Texts Bring Words to Life
Year after year, reader surveys indicate that my most voracious readers visualize while
they read, and my less-inclined readers simply do not. This needed support explains why high
school teacher Diane Roy found a remedial 9th grade literature class newly motivated to read
after allowing more independent consumption of graphic texts. Mendez reports how students
were required to read “five graphic novels. But ‘there wasn’t a single student in this class of
kids . . . who didn’t read double that number . . . They would read them overnight … they were
reading them at lunch, in the hallway” (Mendez, 2004, para. 8). I have seen this motivation to
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read out of many so-called non-readers in my own classroom over the last year, and I suspect
that this newfound motivation results from the added boost toward visualization offered by
graphic texts. According to Thompson, “When we teach children to create mental images, we
have to show them what we mean. Comics can help by serving as a tangible model of the
visualization that good readers create in their heads as they read” (2008, p. 71). Wilhelm presents
a similar case for visualization in You Gotta Be the Book (1997). He recalls bringing in graphic
texts including Classics Illustrated volumes as well as Spiegelman’s Maus (1986). Wilhelm
states, “There was a stampede for these books, and it continued for months, on the part of the
less proficient readers. Many of these students read nothing else but comic books for their free
reading for the rest of the year” (1997, p. 123). I have never observed a literal stampede, but
many students of all reading levels have responded positively toward my graphic text shelf and
the library’s collection, too.
In the absence of visualization habits, graphic texts present an engaging method to boost
understanding of figurative language and characterization. Graphic texts develop, “Decod[ing]
facial and body expressions, the symbolic meanings of certain images and postures, metaphors
and similes, and other social and literary nuances teenagers are mastering as they move from
childhood to maturity” (Goldsmith, 2003, para. 2). With a more common reference point of
experience than print-text, graphic texts offer more opportunities to engage in critical analysis of
abstract components of literature and human experience; simultaneously, literary experiences
with graphic texts support reading of print-text by exercising the same critical thinking habits
over time. Because of their visuals, graphic texts simply offer a different point of access and
reference that allows more students to engage in literate discourse. While reading, students can
more readily analyze often implied visual elements such as color, shadowing, and lens to better
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
47
understand tone and mood. Similarly, emotions and body language are implied visually rather
than textually (Smetana et al., 2009, p. 230). By enabling visualization for less vividly
imaginative readers, graphic texts scaffold analytical processes that make reading most engaging.
So if these texts noticeably engage students in reading, why are they still marginalized in
the classroom? Wilhelm presumes the print-text privilege where anything but prose fiction and
nonfiction is less desirable. He states, “So despite compelling evidence of its importance, neither
teachers nor materials seem to emphasize visualization in reading as an important element of
active reading, comprehension, comprehension monitoring, and response” (1997, p. 118).
Honestly, what paper-and-bubble test used for accountability measures one’s imagination?
The need to help struggling, reluctant, and striving readers use their minds more actively
to engage with text is not just supported by anecdotal evidence. Purcell-Gates (1991) compared
less proficient readers in grades 6-8 to proficient secondary readers from a previous study and
found that the less proficient readers, “find it difficult to move into an envisionment, and when
they do, they elaborate upon it only momentarily before they again find themselves outside
trying to get” (pp. 246-47). This study also indicated that the same readers who struggled to
develop or maintain visualization also struggled to comprehend figurative language, often
glossing over important details literally which confounded later meaning-making exponentially
as one confusion further confuses another. These comprehension problems build over the course
of an entire text, so attempting to pinpoint where a student’s reading problems begin can be
rather futile depending on the situation.
With these insights in mind, graphic texts offer a viable tool to begin reconstructing a
struggling reader’s approach. According to Weiner (2004), graphic novels lend the “immediacy
of the prose reading experience, with the pictures and the words working simultaneously . . . like
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
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reading and watching a movie at the same time. Only the movie isn’t on a screen, it’s on the page
in the reader’s hands” (p. 115). But how? It seems almost completely common sense to just say
“graphic texts offer visuals, so use them.” So how are they being used practically in classrooms?
Overview of Literature Focusing on Graphic Texts in Curriculum and Instruction
Aside from affective classroom components such as access and motivation and cognitive
pieces such as visualization, literacy teachers can capitalize upon these utilities of graphic texts
to employ comics for more specific purposes including directly teaching literary technique and
terminology, embedding graphic texts in lesson plans to grab attention to establish understanding,
sparking research interests, teaching reading strategies both individually and socially, inspiring
creative writing opportunities, providing alternative texts to support reading canonical texts,
adding context to supplement reading, and studying graphic texts as literary works themselves.
Teachers will hold different comfort levels with any or all of these suggestions as will students,
and instructors should focus on an overall picture of literacy experiences in the classroom to fit
graphic texts into that larger picture rather than scrapping their previous visions.
Given the number of publications focusing on graphic texts in classrooms in the last ten
years, more and more educators agree that graphic texts are useful educational tools. For
example, “The New York City Department of Education began promoting and supporting
graphic novel use in their classrooms by spring 2008 by training hundreds of the city’s school
media specialists” (Downey, 2009, p. 182). Such training focuses on choosing appropriate titles
to avoid challenges, ensuring shelf-life of paperbacks, organizing collections, and displaying
titles to promote circulation. Similar attention is now needed for classroom teachers using
graphic novels to teach literary terms and devices (Schwarz, 2002). Adult consumers of graphic
texts already understand that “Graphic novels are also helpful in examining literary elements
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
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such as plot, scenery, character, premise, conflict, as well as devices such as simile, metaphor,
and exaggeration” (Downey, 2009, p. 183), but other literacy teachers will need guidance to
engage students effectively with graphic texts. The gap in comfort and experience may seem
problematic, but in fact it is somewhat of a good problem because after gathering initial
familiarity, graphic texts are easily consumable and incorporated into lesson plans no differently
than print-text selections that teach specific curricular pieces as well as offering points for critical
inquiry. Literacy educators must understand how to use graphic texts to tell as well as show
students how to recognize literary terms and concepts, reinforce or enrich classics, and catalyze
independent reading. Additionally, as sometimes pedagogically constraining, mandated
instructional frameworks attempt to universally define effective instruction for student
achievement, graphic texts may be more readily incorporated into lesson hooks, mini-lessons,
and lesson summaries to provide variety and make learning fun(ny) again.
Teaching Strategies with Graphic Texts
Teaching literary curricula. Graphic texts can be used to teach literary concepts
mandated by curriculum standards. Elements of fiction present in print-text are also present in
graphic texts that truly show as well as tell a narrative. This aforementioned union of text and
image presents unlimited opportunities when “Educators use graphic novels to teach literary
terms and techniques such as dialogue, to serve as a bridge to other classics, and as the basis for
writing assignments” (Bucher & Manning, 2004, p. 68). But how are teachers using graphic texts
in these ways? Much of the current literature is overly general, presenting only suggestions
without what most teachers want: ready-to-use, easy-to-implement activities, generic or specific.
Chun (2009) offers one generic suggestion that could be easily implemented at any level:
photocopying pages from graphic texts for students to record comments and notes on literary
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
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devices as well as their own thoughts to engage directly with the text (p. 150). Such an activity
could be used with any text in any classroom. This activity could be an agreeable formative
assessment for a more complicated text like Romeo & Juliet – for which several different graphic
versions are readily available, or the activity could be used to allow students to trace their
developing understanding of a literary concept such as irony or characterization. These concepts
require augmenting interpretation throughout a text, and students who struggle to decode and
comprehend canonical fiction often grow frustrated and appear unable to display critical
deconstruction of such literary elements in traditional reader-response exercises.
Additionally, graphic texts help establish background context for foreign or ancient ideas.
While superheroes are considered overly “pop” pop culture, Versaci suggests, “superhero tale
serves as an allegory to modern life and provides an escape for readers. Others believe that the
superheroes can be compared to the heroic figures in classical mythology” (2001, p. 68). The
hero cycle is imperative to studying a text like Beowulf, but any particular unit could benefit
from aided understanding of the hero cycle by examining its components through comic books.
Campbell (2009) sees this potential in graphic texts in his commentary on Shanower’s Age of
Bronze series, recommending it as supplemental reading to aid and enrich understanding of
Greek mythology to better comprehend less accessible texts such as The Odyssey and The Illiad.
Teachers need not invest in class sets to use graphic texts as supplemental literature. School
libraries should invest in these materials, and teachers can make copies of smaller excerpts to
illuminate relevant ideas. Additionally, because graphic texts are often high interest pieces that
can be read quickly and easily, teachers can differentiate instruction based on student needs by
assigning graphic texts as both in-class and homework reading depending on student needs.
Given the choice between reading a comic book or a seemingly insurmountable canonical piece,
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
51
many students will take the opportunity to boost their understanding by examining a graphic text
to help them better understand perceived heftier reading assignments.
Sparking research interests with graphic texts. Graphic texts make concrete what is
often too abstract for less-able readers to comprehend. Through graphic texts, “Students can
explore such questions as how color affects emotions, how pictures can stereotype people, how
angles of viewing affect perception, and how realism or the lack of it plays into the message of a
work” (Schwarz, 2002, p. 263). With a research outcome in mind through such a critical
approach, an instructor presents “ . . . an opportunity to encourage students to adopt research
habits, such as examining historical events surrounding this narrative for authorial bias”
(Boatright, 2010, p. 474). While Boatright focuses specifically on graphic immigrant narratives,
Williams notes a generalized approach to social justice themes, outlining a project where
“students produce texts about human rights issues . . . We asked students to produce a comicsbased fictional or non-fiction narrative to illustrate an article from the United Nationals
Declaration of Human Rights” (2008, p. 17). Such practices involve higher-level thinking and
critical processes that many students simply disengage with when faced with traditional tasks.
Developing creative writers. In addition to literary analysis and formal research, graphic
texts can stimulate creative writing. Weiner suggests whiting-out dialogue in a short graphic
excerpt and allowing students to re-write it. He also suggests blotting out illustrations but
keeping the dialogue (2004, p. 117). Such activites allow students to engage in the same
narrative and literary elements as prose text as students employ new angles to demonstrate
understanding. Practicing these skills will develop the tools used to produce narrative writing as
students develop dialogue and descriptive characterization through a new medium.
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Fostering engagement through lesson planning. Instructors can also consider graphic
texts as pieces used to structure overall lesson plans to engage students rather than the text being
used to move students toward a specific outcome. Graphic texts are generally “a medium whose
main aims are humour, adventure, and fantasy. As a result, comics within pedagogical contexts
have always been relegated to the affective domain, most often used as attention grabbing
elements – as signposts to more symbolically encoded instruction” (Mallia, 2007, para. 1). As an
activating or summarizing strategy or as a piece of a mini-lesson, a graphic text of any variety
provides a quickly read but rich text to engage students in classroom discourse. As an extended
reading assignment, graphic texts can be incorporated into literature circles where “Instead of
passages, students cite panels. The new role of art director allows students to focus on how a
graphic novels’ art contributes to the story in some unique fashion” (Seelow, 2010, p. 60). A
short graphic text could introduce and rehearse roles within literature circles to familiarize
students with the formal process that promotes varied points of access to a small community of
literate discourse. In all of these roles, instructors pay attention to how the structure of a lesson
plan can both promote and inhibit student understanding. Business-as-usual routines can help
students know what to expect, but disrupting comfort zones to grab attention is another piece of
effective instruction over time. Here graphic texts can serve more generic instructional needs by
simply keeping students engaged throughout the ebb-and-flow of a daily lesson plan.
Shifting the Discourse to Promote Practicality
Even with the suggestions I have cited here, I must admit that the available literature on
graphic texts is limited in terms of classroom practicality. It is still somewhat generalized,
offering broad suggestions rather than specific applications for specific texts. Most articles offer
a limited attempt to define graphic texts before presenting an overview of inviting opportunities,
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few of which offer the specific documents that new teachers often need in order to begin
implementing new ideas effectively. Some researchers are beginning to shift this discourse,
however. Dr. James Bucky Carter has written extensively across several mediums, the most
notable being his book Building Literacy Connections with Graphic Novels: Page by Page,
Panel by Panel (2007) and his more recent Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novels CD-R
(2010). Carter’s suggestions provide teachers with overviews and rationales for incorporating
specific texts into related units, fulfilling a definite need for teachers who are wholly unfamiliar
with the medium. Similarly, Dr. Katie Monnin’s Teaching Graphic Novels: Practical Strategies
for the Secondary ELA Classroom (2010) provides more practical classroom applications
through her use of various story maps and the “literate eye” graphic organizer that allows
students to critically unpack graphic text as literature by noting all of its various narrative
techniques. Finally, educator Chris Wilson (2011) mainly focuses on graphic texts for
elementary school students on his blog The Graphic Classroom, although he occasionally
reviews texts aimed more at adolescents. His thorough reviews provide teachers with both a
rationale for using the text in the classroom as well as ways to begin imagining how to
implement such texts more specifically. While other writers and websites offer other points of
inquiry, these three offered the most direct guidance in the last few years of my studies.
In the midst of changing notions of literacy and education reform in an era defined by
handheld multimedia devices and tablets, fast-paced high-definition images, powerful and
expertly tailored advertising, and exponential growth in access to information, any citizen with
their own presumed student interests in mind clamors for space in discussions about what
classrooms should begin to look and feel like to meet the bold demands established by No Child
Left Behind and other politicized education rhetoric. If graphic texts are to become a stronger
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part of this discussion, academic discourse surrounding these texts must shift away from
justifying the presence of graphic texts in the classroom, providing definitions (and debates about
such definitions) of mediums and genres, identifying key texts, and providing broad overviews
of culminating assessments designed by innovative teachers. Not to diminish these discussions
and the overall body of literature, but most teachers do not have time to engage with it unless it
provides them with ready-to-use ideas and activities that they can adapt quickly for their own
classroom purposes. To achieve this end, teachers can turn to free internet publishing venues to
engage in broader communities of educators who want the same thing: more easy-to-implement
ideas at their disposal. This shift is already occurring as Carter, Monnin, Wilson, and myself are
all using online venues. While it still needs continued attention, I believe that my Graphic Texts
in the Classroom blog will help drive this conversation in the near future.
Becoming an Internet Blogger about Graphic Texts
As my interest in graphic texts as adolescent literature grew two years ago, a professor
suggested that I center my applied project around this interest. At the time, I was also
experimenting more in the classroom with online publishing mediums, using blogs, Wikis and
other internet forums as tools to engage students in literate, democratic discourse to promote
more active reading and writing. While I have my hunches, I wanted to find out more about how
a writer and literacy teacher seeking to engage a global audience via internet blog should go
about his efforts to reign in a participative community, so I coupled this interest with my
affection for comics as a tool to promote greater reading and engagement. My research question
focused on exploring this question: what does my experience and feedback suggest about my
audience’s needs in using online venues to aid implementation of graphic novels in literacy
classrooms?
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As a reader in the last year, I filled four bookshelves between my home and school with
graphic novels and related academic texts; I was motivated as a reader and a learner. Obviously,
I was drawn to this idea because it would be fun, but I was also intrigued because of the
possibilities it presented. How would my blog grow over time? Would I advertise on it? Would
anyone famous read my work? Would I ever make my internal opinion rants public? These
questions excited me. Moreover, I have been vocal about my disdain for academic writing and
publishing in traditional mediums, so I welcomed the opportunity to develop a professional
development avenue where my editor existed somewhere between myself and a general audience.
While I know that specific editing feedback is important, I like to keep the writing process to
myself.
In September 2010, after quickly scanning the internet and realizing that there was an
absence of a specific focus on graphic texts as adolescent literature (with teachers in mind as the
audience), I decided to register and develop an internet blog to document my efforts in the
classroom and my own thoughts in order to promote graphic texts as adolescent literature. This
website is still located at http://classroomcomics.wordpress.com. While I had experimented
previously with Blogger’s user-friendly interface – especially since it was the only blogging
service not blocked at my school, I had heard that Wordpress offered more variety in terms of
layout and functions. Wordpress is unique because it allows users to experiment with many
avenues of internet convergence for highly professional layouts, and more web-savvy users
wishing to pay for private domain hosting can shed the “wordpress” from domain names to
develop their own sites, more freely choosing from available widgets and site features, including
advertising. While I had previously built websites via HTML as a high school student, Web 2.0
tools present challenges that I just do not have time to learn as an adult. This understanding of
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HTML would later prove helpful in understanding how to use Wordpress’ many publishing and
design features. I registered as a free Wordpress user and established a domain name in
September 2010, but I did not begin posting content until October. I also chose Wordpress
because I knew that it had its own analytics system that would keep track of statistics on my blog
for me; this feature was appealing because I did not want to be responsible for monitoring site
traffic on a day-by-day basis. I wanted to use this information to determine what readers want by
considering what posts my audiences responded to and how my audience found my webpage.
After a few weeks of posting, I quickly learned one basic, simple premise of internet blogging: if
you post it, they will come. Because I began posting content beginning in October 2010, my
reflections and findings mainly reflect my website between October 2010 and March 22, 2011.
Developing the Initial Blog Site
After registering my website, I struggled to post content. I wanted to make it look and
feel perfect, but I did not know how. For example, why would I want to begin posting content if
my site banner was still a generic picture of a sunset? I also paid no attention to site feedback at
first because I was so unfamiliar with the medium – or at least with Wordpress’ version. I first
focused on overall organization, and I tried to organize my site by various genres of graphic texts,
mainly focusing on various graphic novels in my classroom. This effort was tedious as the
dropdown menus on the main page’s navigation bar became too cluttered. By then, I had
developed so many secondary pages on my website that I could not even remember where I
intended to post content, and when I tried to post content as practice, it did not always appear
where I thought it would. In over my head, I scrapped this layout and simplified my approach to
fit my site’s evolving needs. I decided that I would only design pages and tabs for features that
were actually posted for readers to examine. With a need to begin posting to satisfy the project’s
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demands, I scrapped that organizational model and went back to Wordpress’ default site
organization.
I then designed a site banner that encapsulated my vision for my project: an overarching
question about my own practice, a picture of my classroom library, and a student reading a
graphic novel. From there, I developed two starter posts: one focusing on my suggestions for
evaluating texts for classroom use, and another reviewing Donner’s Burnout. Honestly, my
initial posts were highly unimaginative as I forced myself to write content just to familiarize
myself with publishing via Wordpress. I quickly realized that I wanted to embed as much extra
content in my posts as possible by linking other sites and content whenever feasible. I still do
not know if this format works for my readers, but I love stumbling upon a website rich in
embedded links. While I could not figure it out initially, I later changed all of my links to open
in separate windows upon Dr. Graff’s recommendation. I wanted to do this from the beginning,
but it was a minor feature that I had to figure out through experience. At this point, I also
developed the category and tag clouds that are located in the right-hand margin on the homepage.
These clouds orient users to find content that matches their needs as well as allowing both
readers and myself to reflect upon the totality of the content on the site. Unfortunately, site
analytics do not indicate if my readers are using these features or not.
Wordpress analytical feedback. After posting some basic content, a few hits slowly
rolled in, and I realized that Wordpress offered a counter widget as well as feedback on clicks on
my site and Google searches that lead readers to my site. As long as I am logged in, Wordpress
will not count my own visits, so I logged in permanently on both my desktop and laptop
computers. This information self-archives over time and updates automatically with each site
visit, so I was thrilled that I would only need to check on it sporadically to reflect upon my own
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successes and failures in the coming months. In October 2010, however, with only a few posts
to my name, my site was hardly developing the readership I wanted.
Determining what to post. The freedom to write about anything in my own style was
both empowering and frustrating. Readers do not always appreciate my quirks and humor, and I
grow frustrated when people dwell on my editorializing. I do not enjoy rules for writing, and I
do not teach my students to abide by rules blindly. I think all writing should be expressive and
fun, and I do not enjoy reading pieces where the author edits or restrains himself out of
consideration toward the audience. Writing should be open and honest, I think, and I did not
want to grow frustrated if my posts were deemed unacceptable. I wanted to write as myself, but
my self is split between several forums: my private life, my life as a teacher, my life as a
graduate student, and how others perceive me. This uncertainty caused some anxiety, so I did
not post for a while. I knew that I wanted to review graphic texts (mainly graphic novels) to
discuss their possible uses in the classroom and to share my experiences with them, but I was
timid to begin out of a fear of being judged.
After I realized that 30-60 visitors read new posts within 48 hours, I got over myself and
enjoyed writing. While I want to write about every book I come into contact with, I chose to
focus on graphic texts that my students enjoy most in my classroom as well as texts that I chose
to use in lesson plans. These decisions were productive for me because I found extra
supplemental materials about these titles to share with students and teachers, and I often re-read
these titles while writing about them. As a result, my conversations with students selecting these
titles for independent reading became more thorough.
As I posted more, I found myself being generous with my evaluations of the merits of
these texts. I did not want to drive readers away from recommending these titles to their students,
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so I tried to refrain from being overly critical of content, artwork, and writing quality. Still, I
was not always a cheerleader, and I tried to accept titles for what they are: pieces that I believe
will engage adolescent readers who do not always enjoy what I deem finer literature.
As I sorted posts into categories and tagged them, I developed the navigational menu bar
located across the top of the homepage underneath the site banner. My general themes include:
book reviews, classroom practice, why graphic texts?, graphic texts and pop culture, ready-to-use
activities, and research. As of now, each section is developed except for the research tab. This
tab will be the next section to grow as I plan to develop a linked bibliography of literature
focusing on graphic texts so that readers can locate professional and academic literature from my
site. Since I am not the biggest reader of these materials in my own free time, I will be interested
to see if this section succeeds or not.
My tag cloud also develops as I post content. I tag each post according to its assigned
category as well as other themes I attach to it personally. The cloud displays in the same fashion
as Wordle graphics with more frequently used terms displayed in larger, bolder type. As of April
2011, my most frequent tags include: book reviews, classroom practice, hip-hop, pop culture,
social justice, and why graphic texts? When I examine the cloud, I laugh because the more
frequent tags offer a mirror for my hobbies, biases, and preferences. This cloud will continue to
self-edit as the site grows, so it will be interesting to see how my interests grow and mature in the
coming years.
Initial efforts and concerns. Initially, I was also very concerned that I might host a
copyrighted image illegally, but at the same time, I do not really think that traditional copyright
issues would threaten my content as long as I remain considerate. I still do not know what is
appropriate and legal and what is not when it comes to internet blogging. I am not profiting from
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my website in any way, and all of my content is designed to promote authors, their texts and
readership. I embedded links to images hosted elsewhere on the internet in my early posts, and
while I think this strategy is effective, I think that presenting my thoughts in the same window
and page promotes more effective reading. Fortunately, in a culture where the internet has
become the best avenue to promote books and reading, plenty of free previews and official
images are easily available to post and host throughout various websites.
I did purchase a scanner to help me display images, but I was usually able to find
sufficient pieces on the internet. As the site grows, I plan to add my own scans to see if I receive
any negative feedback. I do not plan to encourage stealing copyrighted material; rather, I want to
show other teachers how my ideas are shaped by my reading of graphic texts. For example,
there are many pages throughout Bill Willingham’s 15 volume Fables series that can be used to
demonstrate how authors use more abstract literary devices, and I want to share these images
with other teachers. This is why I still have not reviewed my favorite series; I have a specific
idea in mind, but I do not want to see my site’s legitimacy threatened.
Initial success. Still, even with the then-rudimentary appearance, my most successful
days came on October 25 and 26, 2010, a few days after I posted a review of Percy Carey’s
Sentences: the Life of M.F. Grimm. 142 visitors came to my site on October 26; I can still check
this information when I view my site statistics (also see Appendix C). The funny part about this
post’s success is that I found out about its response by checking my e-mail on my phone while
eating lunch before attending a funeral. Imagine my surprise to see that the author himself left
me a simple “Thank you” while promoting his own website in my comments section underneath
my post. After finally seeing that I had a shared interest with a verified celebrity in promoting
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61
his book as a classroom text, I was motivated to further promote my website upon saying a final
goodbye to my friend.
Converging with Facebook. Upon arriving home that evening of October 25, I thought
to myself, “What would happen if I just shared my writing on Facebook?” Plenty of friends
shamelessly plug their businesses and blogs on Facebook, so why not me? I decided to self
promote, and within minutes, several friends shared my post with their friend communities.
Thus, with a few simple clicks, my writing had a (more) possible audience of over one thousand
people. By the time I arrived home from work the next day, 38 readers clicked the link from
Facebook, and readers were still finding their way to my blog from Carey’s personal blog. An
invitation-only message board was also referring my post, but after they rejected my membership,
I was never able to find out exactly why they were discussing my writing. This was the first
occasion where visitors were referred to my webpage from seemingly irrelevant or somewhat
invisible sources, and I expect this trend to grow as more and more content gets added to the
webpage. At least 43 unidentifiable referrals have led readers to my webpage, and while I’m
sure most of these are chance clicks through some completely random web avenue, I would like
to think at least a few stumbled upon a new idea or two.
After seeing that Facebook possessed serious power to promote my writing, I went ahead
and developed Graphic Texts in the Classroom as a “product” on Facebook just in case I ever
decided to profit from it. While this move was likely just an excitable moment in time, the
product page allowed me a range of options in self-promotion that I had not previously
considered. For example, I no longer had to remember to promote my own writing on Facebook;
by linking the product page to my Wordpress blog, my Wordpress posts would automatically
publish to both my personal Facebook account and my blog’s product page. Thus, my writing
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62
would be automatically available to my personal web of Facebook friends as well as the
community that my product page recruits – keeping my professional and personal lives
somewhat separated. I also experimented with developing Facebook advertisements for the
webpage just to walk through the process, fully understanding that I would likely have to payper-click if I actually submitted my advertising plan. While I chose not to advertise, I found that
if I wanted to, I could promote my webpage for approximately $1-per-click leading to my site.
While this might seem like an outrageous amount given how easy it is to filter out a message
over time through Facebook and internet connectivity in general, it is a definite option in the
future if my blog ever experiences stagnation. Thus far, however, as long as I post content, my
audience expands naturally.
The most useful piece of developing a Facebook page for my blog is one that I have only
barely utilized: using the wall to promote articles and other websites into my audience’s newsfeeds. For example, on any given day, I may come across a relevant article that promotes
reading comic books or reviews a new graphic novel. It may not be blog-worthy, or I might just
be busy. With a few simple clicks, however, I can still spread that web link to my growing
community and ensure that a wider audience reads the same ideas. Advocacy groups, political
candidates, and celebrities do this everyday to promote their various causes. I could do this
under my own name just as easily, but the specific community that subscribes to my Graphic
Texts news-feed is more likely to read and share posts than the wider community of my friends.
While it is impossible to document here, other comics scholars and proponents use their personal
Facebook accounts to promote their ideas, and I am sure that their posts are less effective overall
because they’re not targeted at a specific community. My Graphic Texts product page is still
very rudimentary as I have only experimented with it minimally. Still, I think it will provide an
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alternate avenue for promoting related reading to a specific community that is directly linked
with my blog, and it will help me keep a growing, self-archiving list of internet sources for
educators to refer to when considering graphic texts.
Other promotional efforts to build community. As I posted more content throughout
November 2010, I found other ways to promote my blog via Networked Blogs and Technorati.
Bloggers register their sites with these indexes to promote their own work and critique others.
While I am not even going to attempt to sound like an expert on how these sites function, they
appear to index various blogs and group them into certain categories to help writers self-promote
on the internet. From there, bloggers can receive additional feedback. For example, when
logged into Facebook, Networked Blogs (which functions as a Facebook Application) provides
me with how many “impressions” my post formed (in other words, how many users were
directly exposed to the post via Facebook walls and news-feeds) as well as a feedback
percentage that relates to how many “likes” are clicked per impression. Generally, posts average
between 100-200 impressions, with more successful posts such as my review of Kill Shakespeare
and my piece on a student’s locally published work receiving more impressions. Such
information is helpful in considering how to use social networking to promote messages and
ideas on the internet. With Facebook, timing is everything as posts could drop to the bottom of
news-feeds if ill-timed. Given my still relatively small audience, timing is not much of an issue,
but once my audience expands and gaps in impressions become more visible, I will have a better
idea of when to post content to best engage readers. Without these analytical tools offered by
these networking mediums, I never would have considered that the success of self-promoted
internet publishing actually depends upon timing. I would have said that for some types of
content such as a blog post with a specific lesson plan example, time and timing does not exist,
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64
while for others like immediately relevant reviews of new books, timing can help promote one’s
ideas. Wordpress does not timestamp each individual site visit, so this information from
Networked Blogs will be valuable moving forward. Networked Blogs referred at least 42 new
visitors to my site thus far, and with more and more content, I expect that number to grow over
time. I recently moved the Networked Blogs badge up on my site to be more visible, and I
expect it to refer more visitors as I continue to add content and gain exposure.
Findings on Building an Internet Community (or Lack Thereof)
Before blogging thoroughly, I had grandiose visions of writers and educators everywhere
making vast contributions to my website to help promote our shared vision for using graphic
texts in classrooms. This simply has not happened. I could chalk up the overall lack of material
engagement to how I have set up the site aesthetically, but I have received little to no feedback in
that sense. I have solicited feedback personally, via e-mail, and through Facebook, but I
generally only hear “It’s great. I think teachers will love it.” Plus, I think my site looks very
professional, especially considering my limited experience. A similar webpage advertises itself
as focusing on graphic novels and high school English, and it hosts its own discussion forum for
registered members. With 88 total members, one would think that this site would be rich in
ongoing discussion, but with 22 threads, 17 started by the site owner, only six threads have
replies, and the longest thread has only six posts. I personally find this similar website nearly
impossible to navigate, but that may just be a matter of subjective taste. In considering my site
along with others, it seems as if teachers using graphic texts in classrooms have their own niche
community that is definitely connected across the web, but efforts to share materials on a larger
scale simply have yet to happen. For me, time is the main factor here. While juggling work
responsibilities, it is hard to find time for blogging, and when I sit down to do it, I want to focus
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more on possibilities with new texts than repeating what I just did (whether significant or not)
with a previously reviewed text. I also suspect that other teachers are not as willing to share their
daily experiences and lesson plans as I am, but given the overall lack of internet conversation
that my blog and others are stimulating, mere speculation is all that is possible here.
Successes at engaging authors. I have come to view my website as a great place to
engage actual authors who seek to promote their work for an adolescent audience. After getting
noticed by Carey, I was able to catch the attention of G. Neri (author of Yummy: the Last Days of
a Southside Shorty), Gan Golan (author of The Adventures of Unemployed Man), and Conor
McCreery (author of Kill Shakespeare). In a private message through Vimeo.com, Neri wrote:
MarcThanks, and thank you for pushing to use the book in the classrooms, which is very
important to me. You need something hard hitting and honest to talk about these issues,
no BS, no morality, just reality. Yummy's story is shocking but that's what it takes to
make young'uns sit up and take notice. Schools I've been to can't stop talking about it.
You have good thoughts all the way through your piece and definitely, I wanted to reach
the non-readers out there so the comic format was vital. I appreciate any and all attempts
to use this to reach out and plant seeds in young urban minds. Check out how a juvenile
detention facility is getting the faculty involved to use this book:
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/newslettersnewsletterbucketsljteen/887339444/the_readers_speak-yummy_the_last.html.csp
A side note: Suddhir Venkatesh is an associate of my wife's and almost came to stay with
us last year. I thought his book was pretty spot on.
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Keep spreading the word! And I'd be very interested in your observations from your
students (personal communication, November 2010).
Golan was just as happy to see another positive review of his work, and his team later sent a free
copy of Unemployed Man to my school’s library upon my suggestion. He wrote:
Hi Marc,
This is great. Thanks for the review, and suggesting our book as a teaching material. We
think exactly as you do, that when communicated through the use of storytelling, drama
and humor, complicated ideas about about economics, society, and politics suddenly
become accessible and engaging, especially to young folks. After all, when real life
events are so crazy these days, what could be more dramatic and engaging than the actual
state of the world!
Keep us in the loop and definitely us know if you are finding that other instructors are
finding it a useful (and fun!) book to use in the classroom. We'd love to hear about it.
Also, if you know of any particular organizations. publications or reviewers who you
think should have a copy, let us know!
be well,
gan (personal communication, November 20, 2010).
I later thanked their team by posting a picture of a student reading their book in our library, and
Unemployed Man returned the favor by linking the blog post on their Tumblr page which is used
to centralize reviews, press, and other web buzz around their publication. My most recent
interaction with an author came after my review of Kill Shakespeare where I tried to demonstrate
that literary mashup was hardly an underground, fan-fiction genre and more of a pop culture
phenomenon. McCreery wrote:
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Wow, this is one of the most interesting analysis of our work that I have been fortunate
enough to come across. I think you nailed a great deal of what we were hoping to achieve
with Kill Shakespeare while fairly acknowledging some of the flaws of our work. As
we’ve progressed with the project we hope the character’s interactions add a complexity
that the fairly simple plot may not (which I suppose could be considered a reflection of
Shakespeare).
We’d be happy to support your class any way we can.
All the best,
Conor (McCreery, 2011).
While these interactions are likely normal and necessary for authors of adolescent literature, they
point to how the authors would like to see their work featured in classrooms, and they also show
that the authors are open to working with students. I posted about Carey’s visit to a Chicago
high school (to which Carey returned the favor by posting my story directly on his blog again),
and I think many of these authors will respond to invitations if they are simply extended.
Moreover, I think these authors will respond directly to students who initiate similar
correspondence over the internet. I plan to incorporate this idea into independent reading plans
in the future by asking students to reach out to these authors (and others) in writing, and I hope to
see a few more students get excited about reading and writing as a result.
Geographical feedback with Clustrmaps. The most valuable feedback on my blog has
come from other quantitative insights from ClustrMaps and Wordpress analytics. By hosting a
ClustrMap on my webpage, I have been able to track my audience throughout the globe. Up to
March 22, 2011, my page has attracted unique visits from visitors in 58 different countries with
the greatest readership coming from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia,
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68
Germany, and India (See Appendix A). While this traffic surely reflects upon global internet
access as much or more than it does global interest in graphic texts as educational tools, my 258
visitors from other countries represent an untapped marketplace for publishers and writers. One
might think that web surfers in Japan would have more interest in my website given the
dominance of manga as educational, informational, and narrative text in Japan, but seeing as I
only reviewed one manga title – and more for the hip-hop theme than the manga format – I can
understand why visitors from Japan are underrepresented. This form of feedback is helpful
because I now see that I can recruit more readers simply by catering more toward specific
geographical locations and what little I know about reading in those cultures. Moreover, the
international language for graphic texts does not appear anywhere on my website, and I am
gambling that simply adding the terms for comics and graphic novels throughout the globe to the
body of text on my website will make my page more visible internationally.
Reflecting on search terms used to find my site
Wordpress archives Google search terms that have led visitors directly to my webpage, so
I periodically check to see what visitors are searching for when they arrive at my website. As of
late March, visitors have used at least 378 unique sets of search terms to locate my webpage in a
rather wide range of searches: some specifically targeted toward graphic texts, some targeted
toward teaching in general, and others completely out of left field. Organizing these search
terms into any kind of meaningful sets of data was quite tedious. I chose to organize the
searches into categories that I thought likely led readers to specific posts or types of posts on my
website. Thus, searches related to Shakespeare’s Othello were organized thematically,
regardless of if they were specifically focused on graphic texts or not. The categories I labeled
included: comics features, @ Large, Shakespeare and Othello, Unemployed Man, graphic
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organizers, Blockhedz, texts and teaching, John Dewey, Deogratias and Rwanda, Sentences and
M.F. Grimm, Yummy, hip-hop, Geoffrey Canada, literary elements, Burnout, relevant individuals
and terms, and random and unidentifiable terms. Overall, by my read, at least 110 of the 378
unique searches that led to my website were specifically focused on graphic texts and using them
in the classroom. Drawing any kind of conclusion based on this number is a futile effort, I think,
but investigation of the search terms does provide some valuable insight.
With regard to Othello, I wrote a review of Kill Shakespeare to tie it to popular culture
and to discuss how the revisionist mashup narrative could engage students with the characters
that make Shakespeare’s plays so inviting to readers. I specifically addressed the engaging
visuals in the comic book and provided samples scattered across the internet in hopes that
teachers might use visual representations of characters like Othello and Iago to scaffold
understanding of their motivations in the original text. Searches that led readers to my website
and this post included: using graphic novels to teach Shakespeare, Shakespeare comics,
Shakespeare graphic novel Othello, Othello popular culture, best graphic Othello text for
teaching, and Othello graphic novel (see Appendix B). All of these searches represent different
points of access and reference for Shakespearean text and Othello. This breadth means that
while my numbers are still quite slim, at least 17 different searches led readers to examine my
ideas of how to engage readers in Othello through graphic texts. Given that these searches come
from various angles of isolated literary elements, characters, or entire texts, my own thoughts
about how to design instruction to include graphic texts as scaffolding are hardly individualized
amongst practitioners. At least 90 searches directly related to Othello led readers to my website,
and this indicates that this is a text that is still widely read in schools. As new teachers take to
the internet to examine lesson planning ideas, my site offers them practical suggestions that they
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can use for their own purposes – for free. I think this is why more visitors came to my website in
search of materials on Othello and Deogratias than other texts that I included in my writing:
these are two widely available texts that are taught at both the high school and college levels.
Students and teachers alike need help reading them and figuring out how to best engage students
in reading them. While I wish I had actual feedback from individuals to advise me as to if my
suggestions are in fact helpful or not, I doubt site traffic would continue to mount in absence of
new posts if people did not find my posts useful.
General searches related to texts and teaching generated at least 79 unique searches, and
28 of these searches related directly to graphic texts. These search terms included: graphic texts
(used six times), critical reading through comics, use of graphica in the classroom, graphic texts
in the classroom, graphic texts + literacy activities, teaching symbolism using comics, teaching
graphic novels to high needs students, and student work with comics as a resource for plot (see
Appendix B). These searches speak to individual efforts to seek practical information about how
to begin using graphic texts in classrooms. Cleary, there is an audience out there that wants
more information and practical documents to use in classrooms. In order to better serve them, I
simply need to focus on one thing: providing more content that provides pieces that can be
implemented easily. Because my hits are spread over a fairly wide number of search terms, more
content will generate more hits by making me more visible in more searches. Seeing as the
majority of searches that led to my website are actually indirectly related to graphic texts and
teaching, I can probably stimulate just as much conversation indirectly simply by developing
more content over time. I plan to keep the content on my site focused on classroom lesson
planning and supplemental materials to use with graphic texts; similarly, I will archive related
articles on my site’s Facebook page. As a point of comparison, Wilson’s Graphic Classroom has
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been up since 2007, and in four years he has recruited five contributors (not regular) and over
139,000 hits according to his site counter. With less than a year into this effort, I believe that I
am moving toward similar success. Recruiting more writers and contributors will be key in this
effort.
Reader behavior during site visits. A final window into how readers are engaging with
my website exists in examining what my readers click on as they navigate my webpage (see
Appendix E). While I am not an expert on the behavior of internet users, I believe that these
numbers indicate both the interests of my readers as well as how they engage with various
features on my website. Predictably, the most clicked feature is the Facebook badge; 40 visitors
clicked it, and it is a safe bet that many then became ‘fans’ in order to stay updated. I chose to
keep this widget highly visible on my site because it is such a familiar and expected piece to any
legitimate webpage these days. I figured that if random visitors noticed that I had a connected
community linked up through Facebook, they would assume that my website has some kind of
credibility. The success of this link is probably due to both its own popularity as well as the
prominence I gave it by its placement on my webpage: it is immediately visible to any visitor
toward the right side of browser windows near the scrollbar. Four times as many visitors choose
to click this link than those who subscribe directly through Wordpress; thus, it seems as if
readers would rather receive sporadic updates through social networking than be notified via email about new posts. At first this thought was frustrating to me, but given that Facebook has
referred over 247 site visits and e-mail visits accounted for a small, somewhat unidentifiable
handful of referrals, I can only conclude that readers are considering my content more in their
own leisure time as they browse their news-feeds. If this is what the audience wants, then I
should probably embrace it. While some research on using Facebook in educational
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
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communities exists, it appears to mainly focus on university students in classroom settings and
not on adult learners independently seeking enrichment (see Bosch, 2009; Mazer, Murphy, &
Simonds, 2009; and Selwyn, 2009). As a beginning guide, these pieces suggest that while
educational and community building opportunities exist in using Facebook, the medium is far
from perfect and reveals student apathy as much as interest.
Aside from Facebook, visitors clicked a wide array of 307 different links scattered
throughout my webpage. Only five links – Facebook, ClustrMaps, Plasq’s Comic Life, Percy
Carey’s blog, and a This American Life episode link – have garnered double-digit clicks, so my
guess is that readers either get referred to my website or locate it via Google, begin reading, and
click a few of the links I’ve scattered throughout my posts to gain greater context and
understanding. Approximately half of the 307 links that were clicked were only clicked once. It
could mean that many individual visitors are reading for specific purposes, or it could mean that
a few individual visitors are reading everything. The only viable conclusion here is that the
variety of clicks means that readers in fact are engaging with my content – why else would they
click on specific links scattered throughout the text and images on the site?
Assuming that this data is correct, I am disappointed to see that most of my visitors are
not clicking on my links to other websites specifically focused on teaching and graphic texts.
Whereas Dr. Monnin’s webpage has referred nearly 50 visitors to my page (see Appendix D), I
have only referred one visitor to her site. This gap could exist for several reasons. For one, she
is much more visible than I am. She publishes books and teaches college students; I’m a high
school teacher with an internet connection. She has the credibility and mission to write and
publish regularly, and I work in a different field and realm. Moreover, my links section is not
very visible as readers must scroll down quite a bit before they see it. It is also housed in the
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
73
margin, so by the time a reader scrolls down that far on my page, he is likely reading one of the
featured blog posts rather than scanning the overall site content. To experiment, I have moved
the links section further up on the page to see if users begin clicking on these sites with greater
frequency, but until I post more content, it is hard to reflect upon a few clicks here and there.
While I want them to stay on my site and examine all of my content, I also hope to contribute
toward building a larger community. I am not in competition with other teachers or bloggers; in
fact, I wish there were more!
Limitations in my work. I have a few regrets about my site. Mainly, I wish that I had
been more successful in recruiting other writers, and I also wish I had more content. At least five
adults have told me that they would write or began writing a review for my site, but not a single
one has finished or submitted any work to me. As far as my students, at least four showed great
interest in making contributions to my page, but only one has actually followed through – and
while I am certain he did in fact write a review of Mat Johnson’s Incognegro, he has hardly been
motivated to get a copy of his writing into my hands so that I can post it to the blog and give him
author’s credit for his work. Other volunteers included a colleague writing a review of Craig
Thompson’s Blankets, a university student writing a review of Marisa Acocella Marchetto's
Cancer Vixen, a friend writing a review of David Axe’s War is Boring, and a student reviewing
Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series. None of them have followed up on these efforts
despite constant encouragement and thanks on my part. What I am finding out is that while I am
definitely motivated to promote myself and my own ideas on this blog, others whom I assumed
would be interested simply are not as motivated. If they were, I would have more authors listed,
and more content would be posted. I believe they are sincere in wanting to make contributions,
but seeing as most of my posts took between an hour and three hours to compose and revise, I
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
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understand why others are not submitting writing like I hoped they would. Still, the only way to
recruit more writers is to continue posting content. The more exposure my site gets, the more
likely it is that others will want to make contributions. Also, once readers see that other writers
are making contributions on my blog, I would think that more readers may see contributing as a
possibility. If my site does not promote an image of community and dialogue, then it will
continue to just be another English teacher with an internet connection. Of course, I could not
have predicted these mixed-message responses I have received from interested parties previously,
and I will continue to attempt to recruit writers as I continue to post content. These efforts
should work hand-in-hand.
Next steps for my blog. In addition to ensuring that I recruit more contributors, one-time
or ongoing, I want to post more of my lesson planning implementations and student work from
this year. These pieces will be the most useful for audiences to read – especially an audience of
teachers likely seeking cheap professional learning opportunities during the summer season. I
also plan to review more books for classroom use, and in these reviews, I will make a noticeable
distinction between a recommendation for independent reading, instructional use, or both. I can
use Comic Life to construct graphics to place in my reviews to signal these suggestions. A goal
of one post per week is a feasible target for these efforts. I also plan to re-blog. By this, I mean
that I plan to revisit prior posts and record additional information and links that I have found.
These posts reference prior posts, so they generate on-site reading.
I will be facilitating a professional learning session on graphic novels through the Red
Clay Writing Project 2011 Summer Institute. I will not only include the materials I share with
teachers in our session in June, but I will also photograph the outcomes of their teaching-andlearning explorations to share their budding ideas on my blog. I also plan to show them the
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
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depth of content I have constructed as a resource they can use to begin teaching with graphic
texts in their own classrooms.
Reflecting Upon my Practice as a Teacher and a Blogger
I took on this applied project in order to revise my own beliefs about literacy, teaching,
and learning by forcing myself to actively compose and reflect upon my ideas and practice in
hopes of engaging an audience in ongoing dialogue. While I read wide varieties of texts
voraciously as a child, my adolescence was largely spent playing sports and video games, so I
was fortunate to have the literary exposure at a younger age that allowed me to continue to excel
as a reader in my adult life. As a teacher, I cannot bank on every student having these same
experiences, so I want more tools at my disposal in the classroom to engage students in literate
habits to make them more productive and engaged readers and writers. As this program slowly
immersed me more and more in adolescent literature, I found a revived interest in comic books.
While I certainly read them as a child, I never had the same obsession that many adult comics
readers cite when reflecting upon their own personal reading histories. Thus, I rediscovered a
love of fiction and reading that captured my attention and imagination wholesale and
simultaneously expanded my personal and classroom libraries. This effect on me has
implications in the classroom that are evident throughout this paper: readers will read when they
are interested, writers will write when they are motivated, and teachers must be aware of how to
engage students in these interests constantly.
Persistent Problems in my Classroom
I knew better than to expect a panacea for reading engagement in my classroom, and
while I certainly have seen spiked interest in reading because of my housing and incorporation of
graphic texts in my classes, I have also experienced new problems. For example, what should I
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
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do with a current student who is repeating the 10th grade, refuses to read assigned print-text, and
instead voluntarily consumes any and all graphic texts housed in my classroom? She even sits
right next to my bookshelf where I house all of my comics and graphic novels. This should be a
good problem, but seeing as she demonstrates serious academic and emotional problems, I
cannot honestly say that her consumption of graphic texts will help her in the long run. Of
course I want to supply her with meaningful textual experiences, but the message she has
interpreted is not the same one that I was originally trying to communicate: that I believe reading
and literature can stem from a wide variety of sources and interests, and the textbook is not the
best source of great reading material. I have attempted to work with her interests by designing
individualized assignments that center around her choices of texts, but her habits as a student
tend to undermine these efforts. For example, after she refused to read August Wilson’s Fences,
I suggested that we use her interest in Yummy to develop her own modern drama based on the
events in Yummy. She demonstrated interest, but the only writing that she produced involved
copying the text’s dialogue verbatim into dramatic script. She grew downright angry when I
tried to work on setting and characterization. While I think the assignment may have made her
more conscious of how a playwright develops dialogue, this experimentation amounted to two
weeks of lost instructional time with this student. On one hand, I tried something different and
achieved a similar result, but on another hand, I still achieved the same result: this student is still
very reluctant and sometimes hostile toward assigned reading. I do plan to write a blog post
about her behaviors as a reader after the semester ends, both as a reflective activity for myself
and as an effort to stimulate further dialogue. My point in sharing this story is that while I
definitely believe in the power and utility of graphic texts to reach all readers, like any
instructional decision, they carry negative, unforeseen consequences as well. To ignore this fact
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
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would be to engage in hyperbole and politicking that will not do anyone any favors in the long
run. So I will say it again: graphic texts can present problems, too. I can make this more
apparent on my blog by occasionally sharing some of these negative experiences and being more
honest about negative feedback in my posts.
Continuing to Merge the Teacher with the Blogger
I share several anecdotal pieces here because they make a profound point: if a teacher
wants to try something new, they just need to buckle down and do it. I had incorporated graphic
texts into other units previously, but I had not made them textual centerpieces until last
December. I cannot say that my students are any more motivated than usual as a result, but I do
think that in the long run, the more texts they are exposed to in class, the more likely they are to
read other texts outside of class. In this sense, my own classroom practice is similar to my blog.
When I just get the content posted, more visitors will read the site’s content. As a teacher, when
I just let go of my fears of failure and take risks, students respond because I have trusted them to
engage in a different type of learning opportunity.
As a teacher, I am now completely comfortable and flexible in using graphic texts. For
example, I purchased a class set of Geoffrey Canada’s Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun, and I used it with
both a 9th grade remedial boys class and a 10th grade college preparatory class. The lesson plans
were simple: read each chapter, and upon reading each chapter, write 1-2 paragraphs reflecting
upon the lessons learned by Geoffrey. When finished, reflect upon his growth throughout the
text from childhood into manhood, and then in an essay, develop your own personal philosophy
about violence that reflects upon personal experiences. Throughout reading in class, I engaged
students in conversation about the text individually and in small groups, simply asked them to
discuss their personal thoughts about the events in the text. After reading this text, students
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
78
found this writing assignment easy and engaging, and with groups of students whom often take
over a month to consume an entire text and produce a short essay, we accomplished all of this
reading and writing in two weeks while also developing individual blogs. This amount of work
was successful because students were engaged with the text and felt like the assignment was one
they could complete. They connected with Canada’s experiences growing up in The Bronx, and
as their reading progressed, they disagreed with just as many of his judgments as they identified
with. Used as the central text in an instruction unit, this graphic novel definitely engaged my
students. I am now using this text again with a class of seniors and layering it with literature
circle discussions to further engage students in the text. After this unit, I will write about both
experiences on the blog and make my materials and student work samples available for site
visitors.
In my current Holocaust unit centered around Elie Wiesel’s Night, I plan to have students
choose from a wide array of Holocaust-related graphic texts and then prepare comparisons and
short book talks about their chosen reading to further expose them to further independent reading.
Additionally, students will prepare their own short comic-pieces surrounding social justice issues
identified through reading Night, Stassen’s Deogratias, other related graphic texts, and viewing
the film Hotel Rwanda. While these students would typically struggle to develop writing ideas
based on themes of justice, I am confident they will develop a variety of possible topics together
because of the diversity of texts they are being exposed to through this unit. So far in these
efforts, not one student has complained about reading a graphic novel for class, and several
students borrow additional titles to read for pleasure at home. As supplemental reading, I believe
the graphic texts will aid in student understanding and ultimately motivate them to better
comprehend Wiesel’s haunting memoir.
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
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In the near future, while I certainly plan on continuing to review graphic texts with
broader classroom implications in mind, I hope to further mesh my classroom with my blog. For
example, displaying student work such as their social justice comics could help to motivate them
further in the classroom, and having them write to authors of graphic novels could help to
connect students more with a literary world that often seems to be entirely disconnected from so
many of my students’ lives. While I have not been successful in recruiting student writers yet, I
hope to solidify at least a few posts before the school year concludes. In addition to posting
much of this paper and these reflections on my blog, I also plan to develop some piece that
shows my current library of graphic texts so that other teachers can see what is acceptable in a
peer’s classroom. While I am grateful to have more freedom than most literacy teachers in
choosing the types of content I can bring into my classroom, I think that my comfort with lesstraditional and often controversial texts could help ease the tensions of many of my peers who
seek the same goals as me: more engaged readers.
Finally, after working toward building an audience and community with my blog, I am
beginning to get an idea of how to better use blogs to engage students in writing. I have tried
previously with little success. While students readily use micro-blogging sites like Facebook and
Twitter, few if any write on their own blogs outside of school. They generally demonstrate
intrigue in my classroom, but their enthusiasm generally wanes as they grow frustrated with
navigating a new medium and its new expectations. Seeing as it took me at least two months to
gain even a vague idea of how to use Wordpress to reach an audience, I need to be more patient
with my students and begin developing their blogs and writing interests from day one instead of
waiting for a convenient time during the semester. Their blogs will also be used for less
academic purposes and more for mere writing enjoyment and engagement. Just as I developed a
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
80
vision for my website, implemented it, and reflected upon it gradually in order to build a semisuccessful, growing internet niche, I will engage students in a similar process where they clarify
certain writing interests, develop quality content, examine peer content and provide feedback,
and continue these processes over time. I plan to use my Graphic Texts blog as an example so
that they can see my successes, failures, and efforts and how it is directly related to the
professional self that they know much better than my private self.
The decision to mesh my interests in classroom technologies and graphic texts was a
productive one that will continue to develop more ideas with time. As I established, the growing
popularity of graphic texts is directly linked to a cultural and educational climate that has
facilitated student interest in alternative texts, visuals, and technology. Just as comic strips and
later comic books had specific places within American culture throughout the 1900s, graphic
novels are rising in sales and readership at the same time as conversations about school reform
move into a post-No Child Left Behind era that will likely realize that long-term investment in
classroom technology will lead to improved outcomes for students. While print-text, prose, and
actual books should obviously continue to receive the most attention, graphic texts, electronic
reading, and computer and internet publishing are the best tools to keep students engaged in both
traditional and non-traditional tasks and learning objectives. A responsive, democratic
classroom will not ignore cultural change as school reform moves forward, and literacy teachers
must continue to embrace these changes as they come. While disagreement and debate has
always existed, literacy has never been simple words on paper – even when students merely
memorized Bible passages; it has always incorporated various fine arts and language, and now
more than ever before, images and technology drive literate practices within our culture. I am
proud to say that my classroom will continue to change within this context, and given the
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
81
experiences amassed in my focus on graphic texts and technology in the last few years, I’m
hoping that both myself and my students will be driving these changes more than responding to
them in the future.
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Weiner, S. (2003). Faster than a speeding bullet: The rise of the graphic novel. New York: NBM.
Weiner, S. (2004). Show, don’t tell: Graphic novels in the classroom. English Journal, 94(2),
114-117.
Wilhelm, J. (1997). You gotta BE the book. New York: Teachers College.
Wilhelm, J., Fisher, D., Chin, B.A., & Royster, J.J. (Eds.). (2011). Literature: Georgia
Treasures, Course 5. Columbus, OH: Glencoe.
Williams, V.K., & Peterson, D. (2009). Graphic novels in libraries supporting teacher
education and librarianship program. Library Resources & Technical Services, 53(3), p.
166-173.
Williams, R. M. C. (2008). Image, text, and story: Comics and graphic novels in the
classroom. Art Education, 61(6), 13-19.
Wilson, C. (2011). The Graphic Classroom. Retrieved March 28, 2011, from
http://graphicclassroom.blogspot.com
Wright, B.W. (2001). Comic book nation: The transformation of youth culture in America.
Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Yang, G. (2003). Comics in education. Retrieved March 28, 2011, from
http://www.humblecomics.com/comicsedu/
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
Appendix A
ClustrMap Data: Current Country Totals
Data From 30 Oct 2010 to 22 Mar 2011
Retrieved March 23, 2011, from:
http://www2.clustrmaps.com/counter/maps.php?url=http://classroomcomics.wordpress.com/
Country name
United States (US)
Canada (CA)
United Kingdom (GB)
Australia (AU)
Germany (DE)
India (IN)
Philippines (PH)
Malaysia (MY)
Greece (GR)
Taiwan (TW)
Indonesia (ID)
Egypt (EG)
Singapore (SG)
Japan (JP)
Sweden (SE)
Israel (IL)
France (FR)
Netherlands (NL)
Switzerland (CH)
Poland (PL)3
New Zealand (NZ)
Colombia (CO)
Italy (IT)
Turkey (TR)
Kazakstan (KZ)
Mexico (MX)
Romania (RO)
South Africa (ZA)
Belgium (BE)
Ireland (IE)
Norway (NO)
Slovenia (SI)
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA)
Czech Republic (CZ)
Russian Federation (RU)
Slovakia (SK)
Total hits
885
72
29
21
16
16
8
6
5
4
4
4
4
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
89
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
Austria (AT)
Hungary (HU)
Lebanon (LB)
Trinidad and Tobago (TT)
Netherlands Antilles (AN)
Thailand (TH)
Venezuela (VE)
Ecuador (EC)
Chile (CL)
Argentina (AR)
Rwanda (RW)
Sudan (SD)
Saint Kitts and Nevis (KN)
Korea, Republic of (KR)
Portugal (PT)
Bulgaria (BG)
Syrian Arab Republic (SY)
United Arab Emirates (AE)
Puerto Rico (PR)
Saudi Arabia (SA)
Spain (ES)
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Total countries: 58
Total hits from countries outside of United States: 258
90
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
91
Appendix B
Search Terms for all days ending 2011-03-26 (Summarized)
Organized thematically by searches that led visitors toward specific posts or types of posts
Searches marked in red directly apply to graphic texts and education
Comics features
Search terms
action bubbles
comic book action bubbles
comic action bubbles
superhero action bubbles
comics action bubbles image
characterization does says thinks
rabbi's cat speech bubbles
scott mccloud undestanding comics
understanding comics - the invisible art
scott mccloud film appears to be in motion because of the blank of blank
that transforms
scott mccloud, ‘mentally completing that which is incomplete based on
past experience’
scott mccloud's definition of comic1
scott mccloud definition
classroom label graphic texts
thought bubbles
examples of high quality level of graphic work
Views
12
6
5
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Total # of referrals
37
@Large
Search Terms
@ large ahmed hoke online read
manga texts
"ahmed hoke" comics or illustration or illustrator
ahmed hoke
Views
1
1
1
4
Total # of referrals
7
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
Shakespeare and Othello
Search terms
othello and Desdemona
othello as mock skit
othello kills Desdemona
graphic othello
graphic plot of othello by shakespeare
othello now and then
using graphic novels to teach shakespeare
shakespeare comics
othello kill desdemona
shakespeare othello imagini
direct characterization for a play in the victorian era
desdemona sleep
desdemona's die in othello story
jealousy othello
shakespeare graphic novel othello
othello popular culture
othello killing desdemona
william shakespeare research activitry
othello smack desdemona
best graphic othello text for teaching
othello and desdimona
othello graphic organizer
killing shakespeare novel
othello illustrations
graphic organizers to use with othello
othello classroom1
otelo y desdemona1
shakespeare othello cartoon
graphic organizers on shakespeare1
graphics othello
othello family shit
othello and desdemoan
shakespeare's drama famous dialogue othello
othello and desdemona marriage
othello thinking about killing her
othello almost kill desdemona
shakespeare allusions in modern day
shakespeare comic allusions
ha ha false to me othello
shake speare
othello caricature
shakespeare character mash up
how does shakespeare present the female characters in othello
Views
8
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
92
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
mash up of shakespeare's plays
othello and desdemona cartoon
shakespeare + graphic novel
textuality shakespeare
othello graffiti
literary mash-up examples
othello preparing to kill desdemona
literary mash up
othello by william shakespeare custume
graphic organizers to use with othello with high school students
teach hip hop and shakespeare
literary mashups critical
literary mashup novels
othello classical costumes in shakespeare time
impression of the book othello
symbol that represents othello
dramatic relevance and importance of soliloquies in macbeth
famous artistic portrayals of othello
cartoon characters of shakespeare's plays
othello killing
torture iago
graphic organizer for othello
othello graphic novel
mashup reading activities
picture representing the theme of othello
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Total # of referrals
90
Unemployed man
Search Terms
parody economics
high school economics textbook mc
economic comics
economics graphic novel text
read unemployed man
unemployed man comic
economics parody
america economic comic
the adventures of unemployed man
comics about economic
adventures of unemployed man dewey
Views
3
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Total # of referrals
15
93
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
Graphic Organizers
Search Terms
steal graphic organizer
different graphic organizer that can be used in literature
dialogue graphic organizer
comic graphic organizer
graphic organizer comic
here's what, so what, now what summary graphic organizer
memoir graphic organizer
visualizing graphic organizers
open mind graphic organizer
graphic organizer for popular culture
elements of a newspaper graphic organizer
graphic novel organizer
famous person graphic organizer
graphic organizers
5 paragraph essay memoir graphic organizer
step book graphic organizer
plot line graphic organizer
role on the wall graphic organizer
graphic organizer for favorite person
three piece graphic organizer
dune herbert "graphic organizer"
social justice graphic organizers
graphic organizer on tolerance
classroom comic organizers
analysis of text graphic organizer
point of view graphic organizer
comic book graphic organizers for the classroom
classroom graphic organizer for conflict
graphic organizers, culture
four leaf clover graphic organizer
creating a superhero graphic organizer
choose your own adventure graphic organizer
graphic organizer of hip hop
direct and indirect characterization graphic organizer
interview graphic organizer
hand graphic organizer
grap[hic organizer
john dewey graphic organizer
free graphic organizers
forged by fire graphic organizer
graphic organizer cold war at home
teaching a student critical reading
graphic novel graphic organizer
Views
6
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
94
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
historical graphic organizer
5 ws graphic organizer word document
comic life graphic organizer
hero's journey graphic organizer
american history graphic organizer
local winds graphic organizer
what i know what i think graphic organizer
chemical changes graphic organizer
fun graphic organizers
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Total # of referrals
72
Blokhedz
Search Terms
blokhedz
madtwiinz
young black blokhedz
mark and mike davis
blokhedz cartoon pics
the blokhedz
blokhedz volume 2
blokhedz.com
blak of blokhedz
blokhedz appropriate age
where can i find blokhedz
blokhedz history
blokhedz ratings teacher
when does blokhedz
mike davis madtwiinz
mike davis/rapper
Views
5
3
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Total # of referrals
26
95
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
Texts and teaching
Search Terms
graphic texts
texts for the classroom
critical reading through comics
classroom scaffolding
use of graphica in the classroom
popular texts in the classroom
graphic texts in the classroom
teaching reading explicitly
literary element direct characterization
texts for characterization
using of texts in the classroom
texts to graphic
formative assessment characterization
graphic texts + literacy activities
literary allusion
discussion text
how to fit independent reading into the schedule
plot structure practice
teaching critical reading
easy texts for the classroom
characterization for classroom use
practice activities on characterization
graphic novel kids writing memoir
parody in comics
teaching symbolism using comics
graphic text
k12 reading response facebook
reading text for teaching critical reading
kids graphic memoir
formative assessment for indirect/direct characterization
teaching graphic novels to high needs students
meaningful texts in the classroom
texts to use for characterization
indirect characterization example
practice with plot structure
anti comics
classroom characterization
teaching reading explictily
comic of student teaching student
student work with comics as a resource for plot
teaching critical reading to children
teaching of critical reading through comics
comic on formative assessment
Views
6
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
96
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
lecture notes on comics in classroom
there will be no foul language from anyone in the classroom1
reading sentences nonfiction fluency
analyze narrative text form elementary students
education "parts of" "graphic texts" posters menus
a series of still images into a story of continuous motion
barrio boy cover page
magazine graphic text
shark books films magazines
graphic novels about perceptions of childhood
non fiction table of contents shark books
discovery channel in classroom
social justice classroom
sexism in the classroom
"the right to be a fan" gutierrez
comic life
stuent teachers creed
hazardous classrooms comic
canadian historical graphic texts
comics using for critical reading
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
Total # of referrals
79
John Dewey
Search Terms
john dewey and literacy
what did john dewey do in the classroom
my pedagogic creed
how to use john dewey in classroom
dewey j. 1897 . my pedagogic creed
john dewey graphic organizers
what would a classroom run by dewey
john dewey, graphic organizer
dewey classroom+"robot city"+"graphic novel reporter"
john dewey
john dewey quote on practice
john dewey pedagogic creed
john dewey classroom
Views
4
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Total # of referrals
18
97
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
Deogratias and Rwanda
Search Terms
analysis of deogratias
stereotypical hutu and tutsi
tutsi traditional dress
deogratias
deogratias analysis
teaching implications for deogratias
hutu's en tutsi's
hutus and tutsis
hutus and tutsis conflict cartoon
urwagwa poisoned during genocide
hutu and tutsi
deogratia
tutsi graphic
deogratias a tale of rwanda lack of narration
deogratias stassen narrator
deogratias: a tale of rwanda (spring 2006) deogratias: a tale of rwanda
deogratias google books
deogratias, a tale of rwanda deogratias, a tale of rwanda
rwanda literature deogratias
deogratias graphic novel review classroom
ruanda graphic images
hope in deogratias a tale of rwanda
characterization in deogratias
deogratias - topics for a paper
deogratias graphic novel annylitical review
hotel rwanda compared with deogratias
urwagwa
hutu and tutsi happy
deogratias lesson stassen
npr deogratias
deogratias a tale of rwanda by jp stassen
deogratias a tale of rwanda questions
discussion topics for deogratias
deogratias a tale of rwanda criticism lack of narration
discussion topics in deogratias
deogratias lesson plan
rwandan comics
stassen deogratias
deogratias a tale of rwanda class
deogratias: a tale of rwanda online text
stassen deogratias interpretation
deogratias a tale of rwanda analysis
stassen deograias
Views
4
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
98
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
deogratias rwanda summary sparknotes
poison in urwagwa
deogratias a tale of rwanda review
karikaturen hutu tutsi
confusing characters deogratias
1
1
1
1
1
Total # of referrals
62
Sentences and MF Grimm
Search Terms
sentences the life of mf grimm new york
sentences the life of mf grimm review
the life of m.f. grimm
sentences the life of m.f grimm analysis
wimberly, ronald. sentences: the life of m.f. grimm
sentences by percy carey
ronald wimberly sentences
"percy grimm" read
how many pages is the lifestyle of mf grimm
read mf grimm sentences book
mf grimm graphic novel
sentences mf grimm
sentences the life of mf grimm characters
sentences of m.f.grimm research
sentences the life of mf grimm
sentences: the life of mf grimm
sentences percy carey
mf grimm speech
sentences grimm
sentences illustrated of is
birthday as a grim narrative
sentences: the life of mf grimm"
sentences of life
Views
3
3
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Total # of referrals
28
99
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
Yummy
Search Terms
yummy: the last days of a southside shorty
roger yummy sandifer
new york times southside shorty
gangs and time magazine
yummy time magazine
discussion questions yummy
"yummy" story
graphic text about gang violence
theme of yummy by neri
how can i read the full book of yummythe last day of southside shorty
yummy south side shorty
“yummy: the last days of a southside shorty,” written by g. neri,
time magazine and yummy article pictures
yummy story
theme of yummy? by neri
southside yummy 1994 time cover
read alikes yummy: the last days of southside shorty
yummy died
robert yummy sandifer
southside shorty yummy images
time magazine cover so you to kill yummy
yummy;the last days of southside story the video
time magazine covers archive gang related
yummy the last days of a southside story, excerpts
black disciples chicago robert taylor homes venkatesh
yummy southside shorty
yummy by g. neri
shorty the story of a girl
graphic novel yummy setting plot
magazine articles from 1994
robert taylor homes 1994
Views
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Total # of referrals
39
Hip Hop
Search Terms
nineties hip-hop
hip hop manga
nudist hip hop dont show on tv
Views
2
2
1
Total # of referrals
5
100
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
Geoffrey Canada
Search Terms
geoffery canada audio1
fist stick knife gun lesson activities1
geoffrey canada this american life1
geoffrey canada fist stick knife gun excerpt1
geoffrey canada and harlem children's zone fist stick knife gun2
fist stick knife gun bibliography2
Views
1
1
1
1
2
2
Total # of referrals
8
Literary elements
Search Terms
forged by fire indirect characterization
indirect characterization in the book forged by fire
indirect characterization
direct and indirect characterization examples in forged by fire
forged by fire classroom activities
what is an indirect characterization of gerald in the book "forged by fire"
literary cartoon example of indirect characterization
10 misinterpred symbols
symbol text pic guns
Views
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Total # of referrals
9
Burnout
Search Terms
inaki miranda
texts on burnout
burnout graphic novel
rade burnout by rebecca donner
rebecca donner
Views
1
1
1
1
2
Total # of referrals
6
101
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
Relevant individuals and terms
Search Terms
sterg botzakis
"maureen bakis", youtube
randy duburke
y last man movie
Views
1
1
1
1
Total # of referrals
4
Random and unidentifiable
Search Terms
marktgc@gmail.com
"lauren knowlton" ,athens
shableski jeffcorwinconnect
top ten real dragons
parodies of the school of athens
Views
1
3
2
1
1
Total # of referrals
8
Total unique search terms: 378
Total searches directly relating to teaching with graphic texts: 110
102
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
Appendix C
Specific post hits as of 3-27-2011
Title
Home page
Sentences: The Life of M.F. Grimm - written by Percy Carey; illustrated by
Ronald Wimberly
Yummy: the Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri; illulstrated by
Randy DuBurke
Deogratias: a Tale of Rwanda by J.P. Stassen -- Integrating graphic texts
with multimedia studies of nonfiction and memoir
Illuminating America's economic woes through parody and comics: The
Adventures of Unemployed Man by Erich Origen and Gan Golan 71
Thanks, Unemployed Man! You're saving the day!
Characterization: says, thinks, does ...
Coupling graphic memoir with the original text (and audio) using Geoffrey
Canada's Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun, illusrated by Jamar Nicholas
Literary mashup: killing Shakespeare, or another form of appreciation?
What would John Dewey do?
Fit for independent reading? @ Large, a Hip-Hop Manga by Ahmed Hoke
About
Blokhedz: created by the MadTwiinz, Mark and Mike Davis
Student work and teaching critical reading explicitly via comics
Another graphic organizer ...
Replacing traditional texts?
A graphic graphic organizer
Who wouldn't want to read this book, attend this school, and join this club?
Burnout - written by Rebecca Donner, illustrated by Inaki Miranda
Classroom practice
Discovery Channel sees the potential too!
So you want to utilize graphic texts, but you aren't sure about what to
consider?
Links
Book reviews
Views
1,108
160
77
74
74
70
65
61
57
48
41
40
40
40
35
29
22
15
14
12
11
7
4
3
103
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
Appendix D
Referrer sites as of 3-27-2011
Referrer site name
Facebook
teachinggraphicnovels.blogspot.com
networkedblogs.com
forums.phishhook.com
justgreatsociety.tumblr.com
daybydayent.com
graphicnovelsandhighschoolenglish.com
vimeo.com/13876464
Twitter.com
en.wordpress.com
soapboxpage.proboards.com
graphicnovelresources.blogspot.com
origen.tumblr.com
talkgadget.google.com
Other unidentifiable
Total referrals (clicks)
241
47
42
26
23
23
16
15
12
8
8
6
4
4
43
104
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
Appendix E
What are readers clicking on?
Individual clicks to links on my website as of 3-26-2011
URL
Link to Facebook page
ClustrMaps link
Plasq’s Comic Life program
Percy Carey’s blog
This American Life episode featuring Geoffrey Canada
Facebook ‘Like’ button
My gravatar
Another teacher’s faux-Facebook project
Excerpt from Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun
Classical Othello art
Burnout sample
My Dewey comic
Amazon link to @ Large
TIME article on Yummy
Blokhedz article
Critique of Kill Shakespeare
getgraphic.org
Amazon link to Unemployed Man
My rubric for evaluating texts for classroom use
Interview with Rebecca Donner
Deogratias excerpt
Amazon link to Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun
My Barrio Boy graphic organizer
Excerpt from Gang Leader for a Day
Amazon link to Deogratias
unemployedman.com
unemployedman.com/characters.html
Harlem Children’s Zone
Yummy teaching guide
Onomatopoeia lesson
CBR preview of Burnout
My Wilma Rudolph graphic organizer
graphicclassroom.blogspot.com
gregneri.com/yummy.html
scottmccloud.com
Amazon link to Discovery Channel Sharks book
Kill Shakespeare
Adventures in Graphica – Google Books
@ Large preview from Tokyopop
Clicks
40
17
13
13
11
8
7
7
7
6
6
6
5
5
5
5
4
4
4
4
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
105
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
Link to my student’s work in The Flagpole
Link to Percy Carey’s coverage of my writing
Review of Yummy
CNN on Unemployed Man
Artist adaptation of Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun
blokhedz.tv
My ‘Ready to use activities’ section
Whatever it Takes - Athens
Anti-comics campaign ad
networkedblogs.com/blog/graphic_texts_in_the_classroom
classroomcomics.wordpress.com/author/marcginsberg
Great graphic novels for teens
classroomcomics.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/a-nice-day.jpg
Kill Shakespeare preview
killshakespeare.com/story.html
CBR review of Kill Shakespeare
Shark Week drinking game
Silver Dragon publishing
MTV review of Kill Shakespeare
Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun preview (Scribd)
Geoffrey Canada on Tavis Smiley show
Amazon link to McCloud text
Amazon link to Sentences graphic novel
Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation
Yummy – from publisher
Forged by Fire by Sharon Draper
My Kill Shakespeare post
Body biography assignment link
Link to blog from RSS feed
SFGate review of Unemployed Man
USAToday story on Discovery Channel shark book
My ‘classroom practice’ tag for posts
Frank Miller’s girlfriend’s Twitter feed
Graphic Novels and High School English
Classic Illustrated (from comments)
wordpress.org/extend/plugins
facebook.com/badges/like.php
Blokhedz on Amazon
Yummy cover
Link to my Yummy post
TIME Magazine cover - Yummy
Story on M.F. Grimm
Graphic Novel Reporter RSS Feed
CBR Minx Sampler
DC Comics - Minx
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
106
BUILDING COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE READERS WITH GRAPHIC TEXTS
DC cancels Minx
Sentences preview
Sentences preview
Graphic Novel Resources – link from RSS feed
Sentences official preview - DC
Amnesty International Rwanda information
networkedblogs.com/topic/graphic novels
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_beer
bookrags.com/news/manga-goes-hip-hop-moc
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