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The Graphic Novel Classroom

POWerful Teaching and Learning With Images

By: Maureen Bakis

Foreword by James Bucky Carter

Secondary language arts teacher Maureen Bakis shows how to engage adolescents by using graphic novels to teach 21^st-century skills, improve reading comprehension, and promote literacy learning.

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Product Details

Grade Level: 6-12
ISBN: 9781412936842
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2011
Page Count: 176
Publication date: November 08, 2011

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Description

A secret weapon for engaging adolescents

Could you use a superhero to teach reading, writing, critical thinking, and problem solving? While seeking the answer, secondary language arts teacher Maureen Bakis discovered a powerful pedagogy that teaches those skills and more. The amazingly successful results prompted her to write this practical guide that shows middle and high school teachers how to incorporate graphic novels into their classrooms in order to:

Teach 21st century skills, including interpretation of content and form
Promote authentic literacy learning
Grow learners' competency in writing and visual comprehension
Motivate students to create in multiple formats, including images
Engage struggling as well as proficient students in reading

This comprehensive resource includes teaching and learning models, text-specific detailed lesson units, and examples of student work. If you are looking for an effective, contemporary way to jump-start learning and inspire students to love reading, The Graphic Novel Classroom is the superpower you need!

Key features

Offers detailed lesson units for teaching specific graphic novels in the secondary English language arts classroom
Presents a framework for the effective use of graphic novels in an English langauge arts class
Suggests various ways to assess learning
Includes examples of student work

Author(s)

Maureen Bakis

Maureen Bakis is a mother of four children and has been teaching English at Masconomet Regional High School in Topsfield, Massachusetts for seven years. Maureen presents her experiences teaching graphic novels to high school students at local, regional, and national conferences and events, most recently New York Comic Con, Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and New England Comics in the Classroom. She also blogs about her experiences as webmaster at www.graphicnovelsandhighschoolenglish.com.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Welcome to the Graphic Novel Classroom

Part I. Looking at Literacy in the Graphic Novel Classroom

1. Looking at the Comics Medium

Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics

2. Interpreting Images

Shaun Tan’s The Arrival

Rachel Masilimani’s Two Kinds of People

Gene Leun Yang’s American Born Chinese

3. Looking at the Big Picture

Will Eisner’s A Contract with God and A Life Force

Part II. Looking at Memoir in the Graphic Novel Classroom

4. Pictures, Perception, and the Past: Teaching Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis

5. Legacies & Images: Teaching Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Elie Weisel’s Night, and Scott Russell Sanders’ “Under the Influence”

Part III: Looking at Superheroes in the Graphic Novel Classroom

6. A Glimpse at the Superhero Genre: Teaching Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

7. Making the Invisible Visible: Teaching Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta

Afterword: The Value of Teaching Graphic Novels in School

Resources

References

Index

Reviews

"There may be other books that promote the use of graphic novels, but none that are so specific or offer such concrete, user-friendly lessons. I really enjoyed reading this book—and now I want to read and teach some of these graphic novels."

Rebecca Rupert, English Teacher
Bloomington New Tech High School, Bloomington, IN

"This book shows without a doubt how a graphic novel can foster deep thinking, vibrant discussion and multiple opportunities for writing with a purpose."

Rachel Hanson, Writing Coach & Gifted Language Arts Teacher
Lakeside Middle School, Cumming, GA

"This book provides a great framework for structuring a graphic novel English language arts class. The practical rationales for using these texts, as well as the activities included, do meet the need for a book aimed at ELA in instruction with graphic novels."

Stergios Botzakis, Assistant Professor, Adolescent Literacy
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN

"This book is very readable and makes a clear case for using graphic novels. More importantly, it provides readers with examples that they can use in their classrooms. It’s very practical, yet challenging."

Douglas Fisher, Professor
School of Teacher Education, San Diego State University, CA

"Even if you don’t want to (or can’t) teach graphic novels, this book offers so many wonderful ideas adaptable to other texts about how to get students thinking about what they read."

Cindy A. Spoon, Basic Reading Teacher
Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, MD

"High school English teacher and graphic novel advocate Maureen Bakis offers educators a guide for using comics as teaching tools, based on her own experience. She examines the compositional elements of comics using several volumes as examples and demonstrates how they can be used to teach different concepts and skills."

Diamond Bookshelf

'This informative teacher's guide demonstrates how McCloud's Understanding Comics can be utilized in class and offers tried-and-tested ideas for the classroom, taking select graphic novels as an example'

Roswitha Henseler
Der fremdsprachliche Unterricht Englisch

Other Titles in: Middle School Teaching Methods | High School Teaching Methods | Literacy, K-12

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