tncorgi writes “Comic Book Science in the Classroom
In case you missed NPR story on Friday April 8
Comic Book Science in the Classroom
by Sarah Hughes
Morning Edition, April 8, 2005 · A new experiment in Maryland has students and teachers using comic books as learning tools. The program illustrates an ongoing debate: do teachers give students a challenge, or offer less difficult material that is more likely to spark their interest?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor
Easy vs. difficult?
Why does the use of comics in class illustrate the “easy vs. difficult materials” debate? I’m sure someone who knows more about comics than I do can confirm this, but my understanding is that the text in many graphic novels is quite challenging.
Re:Easy vs. difficult?
As with anything it depends. Some are, some aren’t. Also there’s the question of density. Is the text really challenging if there really isn’t a lot of it?
Also, I believe its the latest issue of Booklists that focuses on Graphic Novels. I noticed ads for graphic ‘novels’ dealing with classic writers and their works. I saw one on Poe. If you have art work provided for you when reading his poetry I think that has to be less challenging then trying to come up with the imagery on your own.
There was another company selling graphic ‘novels’ of Shakespeare’s plays. From the description I understood that the plays were actually abridged to some degree. Definitly less challenging.
I’m not knocking the whole idea. Cliff Notes have their purpose, so do Classics Illustrated. It depends on what the student is capable of.
Re:Easy vs. difficult?
I think a lot of ideas are getting mixed up here. Graphic novels vary widely in quality, just like all literature. The Shakespeare comic books, as I recall, were terrible in terms of art as well as text.
The art in a true graphic novel is there to enhance the reading experience, not dumb it down. I have great difficulty reading manga not because it’s above my reading level (I don’t think), but because I find it difficult to interpret the art. I can’t figure out whose or what perspective I am looking from/at/near/sideways? But I know all kinds of teens who have no difficulty with following the art.
The world is filled with far more images than it was 100 years ago, when newspapers barely had photographs, and children’s books illustrations still relied heavily on wood block prints. Visual literacy is a real issue (especially for those of us who have done so well by text). If our first reaction to a genre is to say “we must protect real literature/scholarship/art from these Huns,” we may again fall prey to the dreaded librarian-as-dragon syndrome.