Out from the Comic Shop

The best book ever one of my favorites!!

2012-02-02T15:11:24.221-08:00

The best book ever one of my favorites!!

Great news for me especially, as I've got 15 i...

2011-12-04T21:31:23.506-08:00

Great news for me especially, as I've got 15 iPod Touches coming into my classroom this year.swtor credits swtor credits

Thanks for the great blog! Students nowadays love...

2011-09-24T16:24:51.092-07:00

Thanks for the great blog! Students nowadays love graphic novels, especially with all of the movie tie-ins. It's nice to know of somewhere they can go to get quality reviews. Keep up the great work.

Resources -- Writing a Comics Script <-- that...

2011-09-23T14:01:28.076-07:00

Resources -- Writing a Comics Script <-- that's what i was looking for
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Thank you so much for response! It was very helpfu...

2011-07-21T14:54:01.887-07:00

Thank you so much for response! It was very helpful, and I have passed along the blog to my fellow colleagues!

Welcome, Ishmael! It's difficult for me to de...

2011-07-19T10:28:44.573-07:00

Welcome, Ishmael!

It's difficult for me to describe my process for selecting what is 'acceptable' or not. Basically, though, I rely on my teaching experience, which includes six years of high school teaching and two years of middle school teaching. And since Lexile scores aren't available for 99% of comics, I make sure that I look at sentence structure, difficult/inappropriate vocabulary, as well as panel layout (straightforward vs. more complicated) when deciding on which comics I used.

I will say that I've been lucky enough to have some fairly open-minded administrators who've let me test out comics in the classroom. My sell was that this medium has a unique power to engage struggling readers, as they're aided by the blend of images and text. Though bear in mind that these same administrators, who may have looked past similar language in novels, often winced at even the slightest hint of any suggestive material in comics. It's almost as if they figure, "Well, we let you bring in funny books. Don't push it!"

As far as incorporating them into the classroom, there are two primary strategies I've employed.

Independent Reading:
When students needed a book to read independently, I would steer them toward graphic novels, whether they were motivated readers or not. Considering I had images of superheroes plastered all over my classroom walls, they were already curious. School and local libraries recognized the power of comics long before teachers did, so students can find any number of critically acclaimed comics and graphic novels there. I also kept three longboxes of my own (kid-friendly) comics in the classroom for students to read during independent reading time. I would often dig through $1 bins at my local comic shop to find cheap runs of kid-friendly titles.

Curriculum:
As far as incorporating comics into the ELA curriculum, I made sure to take themes that we were already exploring in the course literature and look for comics that would fit that mold. I used "Bone" by Jeff Smith, for example, with my seventh graders because it tied in with our yearlong theme of "Celebrating Diversity" (I attempted to use Gene Luen Yang's "American Born Chinese" in the same unit, but was told that some of the potty humor was too touchy).

I hope that gives you some insight. I'm always willing to help, so feel free to follow/message me at @comicsteacher. And if it's not too much to ask, tell your teacher friends about my blog! The more readership I get, the more motivated I am to generate new content!

Eric

I just started following your blog for my Educatio...

2011-07-19T10:01:11.134-07:00

I just started following your blog for my Education and Technology class, and your blog caught my eye because of its emphasis on graphic novels. I was curious how you choose 'acceptable' graphic novels, determine appropriate ages for certain graphic novels, and how you incorporate them in the classroom?

Your post really helped me to understand the Artic...

2011-07-18T03:29:11.320-07:00

Your post really helped me to understand the Article. It has great details and yet it is easy to understand.
Nice read.

Great review of the book.You have nicely put light...

2011-05-10T03:25:31.707-07:00

Great review of the book.You have nicely put light at each aspect of book.

Visual literacy is great thought.. Its up to teach...

2011-05-07T05:03:32.050-07:00

Visual literacy is great thought.. Its up to teachers how they present it...

I agree that characterization is too familiar.. Go...

2011-05-07T04:59:48.927-07:00

I agree that characterization is too familiar.. Good

@Miss K I'm glad you found my site! I've ...

2011-04-17T10:47:55.524-07:00

@Miss K I'm glad you found my site! I've got some more reviews coming up, so be sure to check in!

I agree! I was really disappointed by Foiled. I...

2011-04-17T08:14:20.099-07:00

I agree! I was really disappointed by Foiled. I'm really happy to have found your website!

Thanks for the updated listed of comics. I'd l...

2010-08-25T15:46:20.441-07:00

Thanks for the updated listed of comics. I'd like to check some of them out this weekend as my kids love them and think they should be policed more due to content.
Shelly

good post and nice blog, I really like this type o...

2010-07-06T01:03:56.590-07:00

good post and nice blog, I really like this type of interesting articles keep it up.

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2010-05-31T22:55:09.088-07:00

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Many institutions limit access to their online inf...

2010-05-13T23:42:29.740-07:00

Many institutions limit access to their online information. Making this information available will be an asset to all.

I think that you nailed it, Sarah. I really don&#...

2010-02-11T17:39:21.102-08:00

I think that you nailed it, Sarah. I really don't feel I can do a greater service than to help students become more aware/critical of the images that they're bombarded with on a daily basis. Through instruction using comics (or film, or television), and with cooperation with like-minded institutions and administrators, this should be a major focus of our schools.

The concept of visual literacy is a very interesti...

2010-02-09T09:01:25.949-08:00

The concept of visual literacy is a very interesting one. Outside of maybe an art class we don't necessarily teach students how to look at pictures. The Chicago Sun Times made a comment about one of my favorite books that happens to be a graphic novel, "American Born Chinese," that I thought related to it. They said,"Visually astute teens will find the tale of suppressed identity as compelling as a movie." I guess the question is are teachers teaching kids to be visually astute?

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2010-01-24T21:17:25.546-08:00

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2009-12-22T21:37:39.473-08:00

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