Memo 5--Synthesis of Research and Culmination of Ideas

I was inspired to investigate graphic novels as teaching tools after I had some wonderful experiences with learning through graphic novels in my own education.  There are two graphic novels that initially got me excited about the form—Craig Thompson’s Blankets and Lynd Ward’s Gods’ Man.  The more I thought about the beauty and the value behind these works, the more I realized that my wonder and interest could be translated into research that could one day help me to be not only a better writer but a better teacher of writing.  I could be the teacher I didn’t have in high school—the one who introduced new ideas about what literature is and what it can do for us (and what we can do with it).  

My research during this I-Search process has taken me down many varied paths.   Over these last few months, each path I have taken has led me to new discoveries regarding teaching reading and writing using graphic novels or comics in high school classrooms.  On a basic level, my research has broken my thinking on the subject into three (somewhat loose, but I’m working on it) categories. 

First, I have realized and read about what I have labeled the importance and purpose of using graphic novels—why should we use them? Why do they matter? 

Second, I have discovered (and considered at length) a text which lays out a plan for teaching writing with graphic novels—a bit of the how behind instruction. 

Last is a combination of the why and how in my first two categories—how reading graphic novels can be beneficial, and how we as teachers can make sure that it is. 

My (very) initial research landed me on a single question:  How can teaching graphic novels in the high school classroom help engage students as active readers and writers for today’s world?  I feel that the  more I have explored graphic novels as an instructional tool the more answers I have found to this question.   It has proven a question worth asking, and my endeavors have certainly been fruitful. 

I was immediately struck by the amount of relevant information I found when I first began searching—teachers were using graphic novels in their classrooms, and they were taking the time to explain, describe, and  defend their methods and their reasoning for doing so.  This discovery validated my efforts tenfold.  I found, during this stage, two examples of teachers using graphic novels in their classrooms and writing about their positive experiences.  One of the pieces I found addressed teaching English Language Learners specifically, and the other addressed using graphic novels to teach multiple literacies.  Already, I was beginning to realize the scope of the uses of graphic novels in classrooms. These examples of real world use seem to fall under all three of the categories listed above.  In this case, the answer to the question of why is, simply, because they work—and we have proof!  Examples are given as to how to use graphic novels with students (and what can happen if you do).  Additionally, these are real teachers working with real students—they give valid information about how we as teachers and future teachers can make learning happen in our classrooms. 

I went on to investigate a textbook (partially in the form of a comic book itself) by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden that essentially lays out an entire curriculum for the synthesis of actual comics in your classroom.  The textbook turns into a play by play unit on teaching writing using graphic novels.  This aspect of my research clearly falls into the second category—the how of using graphic novels and the graphic novel form to teach writing.  This portion of my research was eye-opening beyond the realization that oh-my-goodness-comic-formatted-textbooks-exist.  Upon investigating the text, I realized that graphic novels can be particularly fitting for teaching unconfident students that they can create fictional writing.  Writing comics (limited words, quick and easy options) can make the act of creating accessible—something that is so valuable for teachers and students of the writing process.  Most importantly, Madden and Abel’s text got me thinking about the importance of the act of creating in the classroom.  This is, after all, the meat and potatoes of my initial question and of my I-Search as a whole.

In keeping with my interest in the creation of narrative writing, I turned to Linda Christensen’s book Teaching for Joy and Justice, a course text of ours.  Christensen’s ideas about the all-importance of students learning to write narratives led to my realization of the importance of fiction itself in creating excited, competent, confident writers and learners.  This is my ultimate goal in teaching with graphic novels.  Really, this should be the ultimate goal for any teacher of English.  Christensen’s text also helped me to flesh out my understanding of the fear of writing fiction—a fear that ties in directly to the myth of the “born” writer.  Graphic novels can be used in the classroom to build writers and to help writers learn that a writer can be built and developed in the first place. Much of my reading of Christensen’s work led me back to a discussion of the why of graphic novels in the classroom.

Later, an investigation into a specific graphic novel taught in classrooms led me to a deeper investigation into category three.  I read the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, and I began to consider the specifics of teaching graphic novels as literature.  I landed on two specific benefits of teaching graphic novels like Persepolis—teaching genres through graphic novels (the autobiography, in this case) and teaching reading through critical lenses.  The more I thought about Persepolis as a piece of fantastic literature like any other the more I realized how valuable it would be to teach students about the autobiography as a category of literature (an oft underappreciated and misunderstood category, at that).  In a unit on Persepolis, students could even explore their own autobiography, eventually composing it in the form of a graphic novel.  Additionally, a critical reading of the novel in terms of historical or gender identity perspectives could give students practice with understanding the lenses through which we read, write, and exist. 

Despite my growing excitement, I maintained an awareness that a public school teacher always has people and systems to answer to.  For this reason, I chose to investigate teaching graphic novels in terms of the Common Core State Standards, the current standards system employed by Rhode Island and much of the United States.  I was surprised and pleased to find that teaching writing through graphic novels is a practice that can align with reading and writing standards in the CCSSs.  The realization that my ideas have the practical aspects necessary to become reality was a motivating factor in my research.

Teachers of writing (and writers) such as myself and my fellow teacher candidates have a responsibility to give students an eclectic range of options in our classes that will help prepare them for real world learning and success.  We also have a responsibility to help students view themselves as writers in a world where being a reader and a writer is a key to survival, let alone success.  It is my belief—as I continue on this path of discovery—that teaching critical reading and writing of fiction and non-fiction through graphic novels is an avenue that can lead to positive outcomes in terms of student success.  More immediately, it can lead to the development of confident, competent, and engaged readers and writers for today’s world.