Graphic Novels

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For this week’s blog post, I read a blog post on TeachersFirst about the use of graphic novels and comics in the classroom. The article is called “A Comic Approach to Reading: Graphic Novels.” The article discussed the stigma that surrounded graphic novels for a long time, especially when used in the classroom. Nowadays, graphic novels are considered very legitimate literary works. The article I read gives the Young Adult Library Services Association’s definition of a graphic novel; “a full-length story told in paneled, sequential, graphic format. The list does not include book-length collections of comic strips, wordless picture books, or hybrid books that are a mixture of traditional text and comics/graphics.” The article also mentioned the most common graphic novels to use in the secondary classroom, such as Maus and Persepolis. Maus had a lot to do with the acceptance of graphic novels as legitimate literature to use in the classroom.
I am currently doing my Three-Week Unit Plan on American Born Chinese, a graphic novel written by Gene Luen Yang. While researching the theory behind using graphic novels in secondary classrooms, I have frequently come across the idea that graphic novels can be useful to help reluctant readers be more interested, as the story is told through the words and visual panels. Graphic novels can also be helpful when reading difficult literature, either in theme or language. Graphic novels often adapt stories with difficult themes or advanced language to a more easily digestible read for secondary-level students.
This course’s optional text, the serious of graphic novel adaptations, gives great examples of classic literature that I would have never been interested in reading in middle school or high school. For example, there is a graphic novel version of Beowulf that would be way more effective to use in a classroom than the actual novel.  

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