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Comic Books' Latest Plot Twist

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Comic Books' Latest Plot Twist R&D n David N. Rapp Comic books’ latest plot twist: Enhancing literacy instruction Graphic novels can add tivities will help children gain lish, 2003). Some of these re- and drawing inferences that knowledge from what they ports have focused on media go beyond what’s explicitly value to literacy instruction, read, as well as a broader ap- literacy, for example, using stated in the text. Graphic especially for struggling or preciation for reading itself. television news programs and novels require similar activity, disaffected readers. Lifelong learning, after all, movies in classroom compre- as they include text in word requires sustained interest in hension activities (National balloons that convey charac- and success with understand- Association for Media Liter- ters’ utterances and thoughts, Students need to acquire ing what others have written, acy Education, 2007). These as well as narration boxes that literacy skills and strategies making connections among activities are intended to help provide setting, background, for understanding, thinking the texts we read, and apply- students develop core prac- and plot information. But, about, and using informa- ing that knowledge in our ev- tices by integrating text and because they rely on visual de- tion garnered from what they eryday lives. visual information in the ser- pictions, comic panels recruit read. In formal settings, lit- Despite carefully designed vice of building meaning, and other processing behaviors eracy training usually begins instructional materials and making connections among that support comprehension. with picture books, becomes methods, many children have diverse information sources. Readers must learn to iden- more complex with struc- trouble acquiring and apply- Recently, support has tify the differences between tured short story readings, ing reading skills necessary grown for using comic books pragmatic features — the and culminates in critical to build meaningful under- and graphic novels to en- particular shapes of word bal- evaluations of classic works standings. Sometimes, the hance and support literacy loons signifying characters’ of literature. Instructors and texts they get in class fail to instruction precisely by ad- utterances versus the mean- parents hope that these ac- sufficiently motivate them dressing these core practices. ings of visual cues; speed lines to learn to read or to read to In some ways, it’s surprising to indicate motion; and how learn. Literacy activities as- that the medium has only re- the contents of panels help sociated with texts assigned cently enjoyed such support. readers understand the larger DAVID N. RAPP is an associate in school include formal Stereotyped views of comics story (McCloud, 1994). professor in both the School of practices that, unfortunately, as unsophisticated, disposable Learning the “language” of Education and Social Policy and fail to benefit some students. entertainment, or material comics is a literacy skill of its the Department of Psychology, at Some of us also argue that written to the lowest com- own that requires moving be- Northwestern University, Evan- reading tasks and texts can mon denominator fail to con- yond focusing solely on text. ston, Ill. seem unduly restrictive, given sider the diversity of comic This, of course, means read- that literacy skills should materials. Comic books (or ers must actively participate R&D appears in each issue of transfer to other areas of stu- graphic novels) can teach lit- in the comic experience in a Kappan with the assistance of dents’ lives — listening skills, eracy skills and critical think- way that instructors seek to the Deans’ Alliance, which is interpersonal communica- ing in ways that other formats encourage during literacy in- composed of the deans of the tion, and multimedia com- can’t. struction. education schools/colleges at prehension. Comprehending comics re- the following universities: Harvard Recent reports on literacy quires integration of text and Comic book University, Michigan State practices have called for us pictures, presented simulta- comprehension University, Northwestern University, to broaden classroom mate- neously, to account for ideas rials to encourage a lifelong Understanding what we and events depicted in panels. Stanford University, Teachers love of reading and to include read requires identifying the This integration has impor- College Columbia University, comprehension experiences letters and sounds that make tant benefits for learning. In a University of California, Berkeley, that focus on reading skills up words, determining the recent set of projects, my col- University of California, Los but also to help students underlying concepts those leagues and I taught college Angeles, University of Michigan, transfer those skills beyond words convey, relying on students simple procedures, University of Pennsylvania, and the written word (National grammar to determine how such as putting together University of Wisconsin. Council of Teachers of Eng- those concepts fit together, simple toys using instructions 64 Kappan December 2011/January 2012 Comments? Like Kappan at www. facebook.com/pdkintl that contained only text, only peating what was just read or prised three panels that in- the types of literacy skills pictures, or combinations of seen. Literacy involves gener- cluded a beginning, a middle, necessary for comprehension. pictures and texts (Brunyé, ating new ideas and interpret- and an end — for example, Taylor, Rapp, & Spiro, 2006). ing of those materials. This a boy running down a hill, The students were most suc- necessitates the construction tripping over a log near a Value-added comics cessful at learning and later of inferences that help read- lake, and falling in the lake. Comic books can also help re-creating those multi-step ers make connections across Before presenting a sequence, develop critical thinking skills procedures after viewing the text elements, predicting we removed the beginning, in novel ways. For example, combined text/picture pre- what might happen next in a middle, or end panel to see graphic novels often present sentations. Students needed narrative, and enriching text whether readers would fi ll in stories that continue across to connect the visual and contents based on personal any undepicted information. multiple volumes. To com- verbal information offered at experiences and thoughts. Students saw only edited ver- prehend such events, students and across each step, which Comics, as part of their struc- sions of the stories, so they must consider how stories are didn’t know that we had in- going to advance in ways that tentionally left out some ele- single-volume texts normally ments. After reading several ignore or avoid. Indeed, one of these stories, students were popular activity for students shown individual panels and reading literary classics is to asked whether they had seen consider what will happen to them during reading. We characters after a story ends. tested students on panels they But only in a small subset had seen before and panels of cases do characters actu- that had been omitted. Stu- ally reappear in subsequent dents often said they were fa- stories. Many comics pres- miliar with middle panels that ent stories that have gone they had never before seen. on for decades; characters develop and mature through the years. All of that can spur students to evaluate cultural Comic books (or graphic context, story innovations, novels) can teach literacy character development and so on. These are complex lit- skills and critical thinking eracy practices that comple- in ways that other formats ment traditional classroom activities. can’t. Graphic novels can also serve as innovative literary supplements. For example, the most popular classics in Presumably, readers inferred the Western literary canon the missing events as they have comic adaptations. Ask- read the stories and, when ing students to compare orig- tested, believed they had ac- inal texts with adaptations tually seen the omitted pic- encourages them to evaluate tures. These fi ndings indicate multiple sources. This could that readers are constructing include asking students to inferences as they attempt to think about the kinds of de- understand story events in cisions that writers and art- graphic narratives. For text ists have made with respect reading, such inferences are to including and leaving out also reduced the effects of ture, can’t depict everything associated with richer under- aspects of stories. Reading a distracting secondary task and thus require students to standings of stories. So, the an original source and com- that could have impeded per- draw inferences. processes that readers apply paring its contents to subse- formance. The procedural In a set of experiments, as they read comics mir- quent adaptations can foster instructions were similar to my colleagues and I asked ror those that are crucial for multiple interpretations and comics, conveying sequential students to view sequential, reading texts, although they highlight aspects of plot or events that needed to be con- graphic narratives that de- involve both visual and verbal historical descriptions. Some sidered together to under- picted characters engaging in information. In sum, reading comic adaptations even dif- stand what they meant. actions (Kopp, Magliano, & comics requires, and perhaps fer in their cultural design But literacy involves more Rapp, 2011). encourages, substantial cog- or setting (consider Japanese than simply
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