Graphic novels have always been a nighttime-flashlight-under-the-covers motivator and they are, as you already know, making a sweeping comeback. Recently, I nit picked the files searching for teachers who have used these magazines and illustrious novels in their own classrooms as of late, and to see what worked, what didn’t, who liked them, who didn’t, pros, cons and what not. After the ballots were tallied, the chads decided upon, and the results in, the following theorems were agreed upon:

Graphic Novels & Comics are:
Great motivators!
Lasso in the Reluctant Readers!
Vivid Links of Frame to Story!

But you already knew that, didn’t you? What we all want to know and the questions that keep popping into the corners of our quest for the perfect student read are questions like:

What’s hot?
What’s not?
What do kids take from graphic novels to motivate their writing?
What do they pull from to keep reading?
What allows them to branch out?

Some of the answers you seek may be found with Jedi-stealth in a sleepy, valley town, nestled snuggly amidst mountains, miles from the Eastern seaboard’s metropolises. While this may seem an unlikely place to do research; using students from a demographic-buffet in a classroom Petri-dish, I posed an experiment to discover the possible reasons behind the glittery lure of the graphic novel read.

And so our comic unit began (as all units begin) with a background-knowledge Think-Aloud. The students were an amazing wealth of knowledge. This genre had already permeated my student’s reading experience more than I could have ever anticipated. And so the answers popped into view:

What’s HOT…Peak interest television, movie and videogame animation and spin-off books/magazines. Big money names like Kim Possible, Spongebob Squarepants, Nemo, Dragonball Z, Pokemon and game characters from Playstation, Ninetendo, Xbox and Game Cube (just to name a few) were by far the trend setters. Anything to do with Japanese anime also created a buzz. Students spend hours recreating the art found in the Manga offshoots of graphic novels. Linking this art with word creates interest you just can’t deny. However, the more standby comics have been lured back into the spotlight by the likes of Hollywood’s blockbuster movies X-men, Spiderman, the Hulk, and Electra!

What’s NOT…Older comic strip into book spin-offs- kids had little interest in what they hadn’t come across in their own lives. Lengthy, wordy comics were put aside for bold, visual works like Shrek and Lizzy McGuire. However, formats such as the University of Kentucky’s spectacular Periodic Table of Comic Books or Mark Trail’s nature strip during science held a much more interested audience! And they came back for more!

What do kids take from graphic novels to motivate their writing...

1. They take cues from adults around them. One of the students in my class, held an intense interest in our discussion. His grandfather had just given him a large box of comics, which his parents were kind enough to bring in and share. Full of fascination, the faces of the students as they held a few of the touchable “doubles,” backlit the incredible motivation factor that comics hold! Even my lowest reader looked like Christmas morn had just returned.

2. The bold expressive characters. Of all the comics in the box, The Star Wars series seemed to be the most successful for both boys and girls alike (surprisingly enough). Characters from Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, Bobba Fett and Tales of the Jedi helped students check out the ways those characters interact and express themselves both in text AND in illustration. The kids ate it up with loud and convicted discussions on which character was the strongest and why! With a response like that, a teacher has no choice but to jump! And so I did (Maybe not quite with Skywalker speed, but…) I took a few of the treasured glossy pages home and melded reading standards with questions that went with each of the stories, using both the visual story boards and the text to ask students to respond to the tale. Predicting, inferring, connecting, summarizing, re-reading for detail and character analysis were just a few of the target skills tested. The climax, one of the most difficult reading standards to meet, builds to a highlighted, Technicolor reality in the frames of the comic. It’s much easier to grasp the roller-coaster ride of the story and the elements of great story telling through the action on each page.

3. Visual cues. The student response was remarkable! Even students reading below grade level were capable of comprehending a large portion of the story. Utilizing those visual cues held by the illustrated frames helped students who had difficulty decoding the text and therefore allowed them to experience success! Higher level students were able to stretch the ideas in the text and bridge the deeper meaning to other stories they had read. One student, who had produced little in the way of academic work from the beginning of the year, was overheard, “I can’t wait (to start her own comic strip), mine’s gonna be better than this guy’s, my characters will be smarter than Obi-Won. They won’t get fooled like that! ” Character anaylsis, from a formerly failing student, success at the fingertips of a formerly difficult-to-motivate student, a teacher’s dream, “thank you” Star Wars and the artists that make it a visual reading adventure. “Thank you” to an entire genre!

What do they pull from to keep reading?

Sparks from the Star Wars series led students’ interest to other comics that were offered. Shrek, Pokemon and Spongebob were all big hits with the boys (all characters that hold non-graphic counterparts in the library. The Magic Flute and Kim Possible were a few titles that the girls were more interested in, leading to discussion of classic verses newer characters. One of the girls compared Kim Possible to Laura Ingalls from The Little House on the Praire book she was reading, comparing and contrasting female roles in books and in our society today and from the past.

What allows them to branch out?

1. The success students see in their ability to decode text with the incredible use of the visual aids allows them to want to branch out, to discover new reasons to succeed. During our weekly “Sell-n-Tell” (where students share current reads) one of my lowest readers shared a first - a full length chapter book he was reading. The confidence brought on by the comic mini-unit, along with the character discussions that the unit produced, sparked a craving for more, a need to “see for himself” what this reading thing was all about!

2. Inspiration. Students produced comics of their own following our unit. Some of the incredible works produced showed signs of the genius in graphic novel presentation. The following comics are excerpts from the students’ work that required tension, character mood and personality and climax through both the drawing and the worded frame. In fifth-grade animation - amazing!

Okay, all this may be well and good, but you might ask, “This may have worked in Sleepy Valley Pennsylvania, but will it work in my little chunk of the world?” Three current trendsetters seem to think so:

The most recent issue of NEA Today has devoted an entire center, seven-page article on motivating and educating kids to read which includes praise for using graphic novels in the classroom. More info can be found at www.nea.org.

In the January, 2005 issue of Time, Andrew Arnold highlights a new graphic novel Epileptic, by French cartoonist David B.. This breakthrough novel on a family’s struggle with epilepsy is even being compared to the likes of Art Spielgelman’s Maus. Arnold writes, “By taking us to the most fantastic limits of his imagination, David B. has made his family’s struggle palpably, powerfully real.” Epileptic is the kind of novel that makes graphic novels come-of-age and leaves an indelible credibility to this spectacular literary format.

And although in Thomas Grillo’s article in NEA Today, he seems to thinks that in using graphic novels, “teachers aren't replacing Shakespeare with Spiderman…in an age where students are raised on images in movies, TV, video, and computer games, educators find comics connecting with students in a way traditional literature can't.” At www.graphicclassics.com, a literal smorgasbord of graphic novel classics can be found! Heavies such as Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, H.G. Wells and O. Henry are fantastically paired with equally and extraordinarily talented illustrators and modern artists. Artists, whose main objective was to forge beyond the watered-down versions of the illustrated adaptations of the past. In the words of Tom Pomplun of Graphic Classics, these texts are more “graphic analogies than graphic novels.” Pomplun wanted to move beyond the stand-by CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED; from the looks of things, he’s done fabulous job! You learn more at www.graphicnovel.com.

So you see, graphic novels are an ever-changing kaleidoscope of page turners that every educator should shelf amidst the window dressing lure books and the classics. Circulation means reading and reading means success! No Child Left Behind can be translated as no child’s commercial eye can be ignored! Graphic novels fill the gap and web an intricate bond between trend and classic. As a teacher, the flexibility that this page-tattooed format holds is the most enticing aspect of all! There is many a lesson out there, the internet can attest, that will differentiate for every student. What students buy into however are flexible, easy to use, tools. Tools with the Pop, Pow and Shazam that graphic novels have! Get yours and try them out today!

About Brenda Pennella
Brenda Pennella graduated with a B.S. in Elementary Education from Edinboro University and is cheerfully teaching our future generations in the fifth grade at Sheridan Elementary in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.