Classics to Comics -- Part 2 Using Graphic Novels to teach Classic Literature

1. Classics to Comics Part
2
NICOLE LOBELLO
Ascension Episcopal School
Youngsville/Lafayette, LA

2. Scott McCloud
Cartoonist & Comics Theorist

3. Theory of Comics in the Classroom

4. Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics (1993)

5. The Potential of Comics in Today’s World
1989 Speech by Bill Watterson (creator of Calvin & Hobbes)
Peanuts has held my interest for many years because the strip is very funny on one level
and very sad on another. Charlie Brown suffers - and suffers in a small, private, honest
way. Schultz draws those quiet moments of self-doubt: Charlie Brown sitting on the
bench, eating peanut butter, trying to work up the nerve to talk to the little red-haired
girl – and failing. As a kid, I read Peanuts for the funny drawings and the jokes, and later
I realized that the childhood struggles of the strip are metaphors for adult struggles as
well. Peanuts is about the search for acceptance, security, and love, and how hard those
self-affirming things are to find. The strip is also about alienation, about ambition, about
heroes, about religion, and about the search for meaning and "happiness" in life. For a
comic strip, it digs pretty deep…Comics are capable of being anything the mind can
imagine. I consider it a great privilege to be a cartoonist. I love my work, and I am
grateful for the incredible forum I have to express my thoughts. People give me their
attention for a few seconds every day, and I take that as an honor and a responsibility. I
try to give readers the best strip I'm capable of doing. I look at cartoons as an art, as a
form of personal expression.

6. Comic Book/Strip vs. Comics
[medium] [genre]
Illustration above from Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics (1993)
“Let’s get one thing straight: sequential
art, cartoons, comics [meaning comic
books], and graphic novels are not a genre;
they are a format and a technique for telling
a story or conveying information. Second,
comics are a form of social history that can
be used to impart knowledge about a
particular era. Captain America, Superman,
Wonder Woman, Iron Man, Crime Does
Not Pay, etc., are time capsules in the same
way that say, John Steinbeck’s Grapes of
Wrath or Dante’s Inferno are.”
~ Robert V. Smith [former Provost and senior V.P. of Texas Tech University, Foreword of
Graphic Novels and Comics in the Classroom: Essays on the Educational Power of
Sequential Art (2013)

7. Comics Through the Ages
Ancient Egyptian people c. 1300 B.C.
Like in the Tombs of Menna (above), Ancient Egyptians used sequential,
two-dimensional art to express their world and its inhabitants

8. Comics Through the Ages
Mixtecan people of early 11th century
Story of great king named 8 Deer Tiger’s Claw
who ruled in the Oaxaca valley of southern Mexico

9. Comics Through the Ages
Ancient Roman people c. 100 A.D.
Trajan’s column stands almost 100 feet high in Rome and is a
series of 20 colossal marble drums depicting the triumphs of
Roman Emperor Trajan and his army in battle against the Dacians

10. 12th - 19th century A.D. -- Japanese Samurai Scrolls (above) and
Events leading to Norman Conquest in the c. 1476 A.D. Bayeux Tapestry (below)
Comics
Through
the Ages

11. Some Say Comics are NOT a substitute
for Classics …
I say…are we really arguing that point?

12. Comics are not Literary Junk Food
“The reading process in comics is an extension of the text. In text alone the process
of reading involves word-to-image conversion. Comics accelerate that by providing
the image. When properly executed, it goes beyond conversion and speed and
becomes the seamless whole…[Comics] is entitled to be regarded as literature
because the images are employed as language…When this language is employed
as a conveyance of ideas and information, it separates itself from mindless
entertainment. This makes comics a storytelling medium.”
Will Eisner, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative (1996)

13. Why Comics IN the Classroom?
Josh Elder, founder and president of Reading With Pictures, sums up the strengths
of comics as educational tools with his “Three E’s of Comics.”
Engagement: Comics impart meaning through the reader’s active engagement with
written language and juxtaposed sequential images. Readers must actively make
meaning from the interplay of text and images, as well as by filling in the gaps
between panels (aka the “gutters”).
Efficiency: The comic format conveys large amounts of information in a short time.
This is especially effective for teaching content in the academic subject areas.
[“Amplification through simplification,” as described by Scott McCloud]
Effectiveness: Processing text and images together leads to better recall and transfer
of learning. Neurological experiments have shown that we process text and images
in different areas of the brain (Dual-Coding Theory of Cognition). These experiments
also indicate that pairing an image with text leads to increased memory retention
for both. With comics, students not only learn the material faster, they learn it better.
http://teach.com/comics-in-the-classroom/why-comics

14. Why Comics in MY Classroom?
1. Comics contain the same story elements and literary devices as narrative stories.
Characters, conflict, resolution, setting, symbolism, theme, point of view---all of
these and more are present in comics.
2. Comics provide built-in context clues. Because comics are visual, even if the text
is difficult, the visuals give the reader support in comprehending the story.
3. Reading a comic book is a different process of reading using a lot of inference.
With a comic, readers must rely on the dialogue and illustrations. The reader must
infer (a complex reading strategy) what is not written out by a narrator.
4. Readers need variety in their reading diet. Monotony = boredom…need I say more?
5. We are an increasingly visual culture, and the visual sequencing of comic books
makes sense to kids. [See academic research on Digital Natives]
6. Reading comic books may lead to drawing and writing comics. Linking reading and
writing is essential. Comic book creation is particularly enticing for kids who prefer
drawing to formal writing, but will make exceptions for dialogue bubbles.
7. The selection of comic books and graphic novels is bigger, better, and reaches a
wider age-range than ever before. Every month more comic books and graphic
novels enter the market for younger readers, providing more and more choices.
8. Comics are fun to read! Reading can and should be fun. Which is why I love to read
YA…because it is enjoyable! I love reading literature, too. See # 4 above 
Borrowed and enhanced from http://imaginationsoup.net/2011/08/8-reasons-to-let-your-kids-read-comics/

15. But it’s a Comic book…
not a Classic

16. But I Want My Students to READ…
American journalist and author Tom Wolf noted: “For the last
hundred years, the subject of reading has been connected
quite directly to the concept of literacy;…learning to read…has
meant learning to read words…but…reading has gradually
come under closer scrutiny. Recent research has shown that
the reading of words is but a subset of a much more general
human activity which includes symbol decoding, information
integration and organization…Indeed, reading—in the most
general sense—can be thought of as a form of perceptual
activity. The reading of words is one manifestation of this
activity; but there are many others—the reading of pictures,
maps, circuit diagrams, musical notes…”
“Reading Reconsidered” in Harvard Educational Review (47.3 – 1977)

17. But I Want My Students to
LEARN LITERARY SKILLS…
Comics and graphic novels can be used as a “point of reference” to bridge
what students already know with what they have yet to learn, according to
Shelley Hong Xu, associate professor in the department of teacher
education at California State University, Long Beach. For example, comics
and graphic novels can teach about making inferences, since readers
must rely on pictures and just a small amount of text. By helping students
transfer this skill, she says, teachers can lessen the challenge of a new
book. Xu uses comics and graphic novels in her reading methods course.
She asks preservice teachers to read an unfamiliar comic or graphic novel
and then record the strategies they used to comprehend the text. “I think
that every preservice and inservice teacher needs to experience this
activity in order to better understand literacy knowledge and skills that
students use with reading comics and graphic novels.”
“Using Comics and Graphic Novels in the Classroom” in NCTE The Council Chronicle (Sept. 05)

18. But I Want My Students to
EXPERIENCE the Classics …
The goal of this presentation is NOT an “all or nothing” proposal. I am not rashly
suggesting we toss out our pieces of classic literature from our library shelves or
curricula. Rather, my goal is to ask each of us to consider what are we really aiming for
in our classrooms…what are the GOALS we are striving for each day, each year…
with each child? How do we best instruct and assess in order to achieve these goals?
accessibility
activating background knowledgequestioning
searching for information
summarizing
Integrating information graphically
structuring a story
elaborative interrogation
question-answer
relations
building of
vocabulary
fluency
Developing reading comprehension
prediction
sensitivity to
text structure

19. Metacognition
Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe’s Understanding by Design provides one
particularly effective approach to marrying standards or goals to effective
best practices in the classroom and supports the following:
•Learning is enhanced when teachers think purposefully about learning
• We should focus curriculum and teaching on development and deepening of student
understanding and transfer of learning (ability to effectively use content knowledge and skill)
•Understanding is revealed when students autonomously make sense of and transfer
their learning through authentic performance
•Effective curriculum is planned backward from long-term, desired results through a three-
stage design process (desired results, evidence, and learning plan) --- this process helps
avoid treating the textbook as the curriculum rather than a resource, and activity-
oriented teaching in which no clear priorities and purposes are apparent
•Teachers are coaches of understanding, not mere purveyors of content knowledge, skill,
or activity. They focus on ensuring that learning happens, not just teaching (or assuming
that what was taught was learned); they always aim and check for successful meaning
and transfer by the learner
•Regularly reviewing units and curriculum and a continual improvement approach enhances
curricular quality and effectiveness and provides engaging and professional discussions, as
well as informing needed adjustments in curriculum and instruction so that student learning
is maximized
http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/siteASCD/publications/UbD_WhitePaper0312.pdf

20. Thinking about Adaptations
For the reader, spectator, or listener, adaptation is unavoidably a kind of intertextuality
if the receiver is acquainted with the adapted text. It is an ongoing dialogical process,
as Mikahail Bakhtin would have said, in which we compare the work we already know
with the one we are experiencing…is an interpretive doubling, a conceptual flipping back
and forth between the work we know and the work we are experiencing ”
A Theory of Adaptation by Linda Hutcheon (2012)
“Hutcheon and Sanders [Adaptation and Appropriation by Julie Sanders] explain
adaptations become new works of art, and the new work then reflects its textual
inspiration…the visual techniques that the adapters use give added insight into how we
interpret meaning…[the] introduction of telling visual images, in combination with
intelligently selected text, can direct the reader toward themes, motifs, metaphors, and
background issues present but not always apparent in the original versions of classic
literature” Drawn from the Classics edited by Tabachnick & Saltzman

21. Thinking about Adaptations
Both Sanders and Hutcheon address the inadequacy of fidelity as a gauge of adaptation
quality…Hutcheon emphasizes the importance of the creative process in adaptation and
and discusses the importance of intentionality in the analysis of it…the adapter’s interpre-
tation of a given text can follow or expand on historical meanings of texts or provide
material for possible new meanings or, through ambiguity or word/image choice, can
facilitate the graphic novel reader’s own interpretations of meaning. The potential for
new interpretations and the discussion of established one then adds to the value of these
graphic novels for scholarship”
Drawn from the Classics edited by Tabachnick & Saltzman

22. Harmony of Classics AND Comics
“A way to create meaning for students learning about literature is to introduce
them to the various critical approaches for analyzing text”
“But This Book Has Pictures! The Case for Graphic Novels in an AP Classroom” by Lisa Cohen
http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/courses/teachers_corner/158535.html
• Make complex concepts approachable
• Teach visual rhetoric terms and techniques
• Incorporate literary elements and theories into the teaching of graphic novels
• Apply various critical approaches

23. Fruitful Discussions about
Classics AND Comics
The discussions we as educators should be having with each other and our
students include the following:
•How does the graphic novel reading experience differ from the reading of the
text-only work?
•How does the combination of image and word create a new perception and
interpretation of a prose text?
•What makes a graphic novel adaptation effective or ineffective?
•What can theory add to an understanding of these adaptations?
•How can graphic novel adaptations contribute to an understanding of the
adapted texts? Stephen Tabachnick and Esther Saltzman (eds.),
Introduction of Drawn from the Classics: Essays on Graphic Adaptations of Literary Works (2015)
The adaptation should be evaluated in terms of its success as a comic book and
how creatively it uses and expands on the artistic and technical possibilities of the
medium. Does it use the full range of verbal and visual techniques peculiar to the
comic book as a form of creative expression? M. Thomas Inge, Comics as Culture (1990)

24. Classics AND Comics in the Classroom
Methodology for meaningfully incorporating comics in our classrooms and utilizing
comics to introduce classics, enrich classics, make classics accessible, or re-envision
classics abounds in a plethora of professional resources. Here are a few ways in which
to see the value of teaching classics via comics:
•Parallel Texts: utilizing both original classic text and comics adaptations side-by-side
(scene by scene) for deeper, intertextual analysis of the both works
•Literary & Visual Terms: using resources like Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics
supports teachers in blending visual/graphic terms and literary terms (already familiar
to the teacher) and sharing these with students via texts
•Compare/Contrast: analyzing using Venn diagrams and compare/contrast essays as vehicles
for students to transfer insight regarding similarities and differences in original classic text and comics
•Student Creation: creating comics versions (writing, illustrating, printing) of classic pieces of literature
Many websites exist to stimulate lesson ideas – Check out the following:
http://www.edutopia.org/comic-books-teaching-literacy
http://www.ncte.org/magazine/archives/122031
http://www.openeducation.net/2008/01/23/innovative-teaching-comic-books-in-the-classroom/
http://www.openeducation.net/2008/01/24/innovative-teaching-chris-wilson-discusses-the-comic-book-movement/

25. Finding Classics in Comics
Classical Comics -- http://www.classicalcomics.com
Campfire -- http://www.campfire.co.in/t/genre/classics
Papercutz / Illustrated Classics -- http://papercutz.com/comics/classics-illustrated-2
Barnes & Noble -- http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/?category_id=2274161
Amazon -- http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-
keywords=fiction+and+literature+classics+comic+and+novel+graphic+adaptations
GoodReads --
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/34639.Graphic_Novel_Adaptations_of_Classic_Bo
oks
Google -- For more lists, type search phrases like the following:
Fiction and literature classics comic and novel graphic adaptations

26. One Last Comment on Snobbery
Of ANY Kind…and
Achieving Balance
Inside and Outside
The Classroom
Before we too hastily judge comics or become snobs of any sort (either wildly pro-classics OR pro-
comics…let us recall that Mark Twain’s Huck Finn was publicized in the New York Times in 1885
under the headline “TRASHY and VICIOUS,” in reference to the Concord Public Library’s banning
of Mr. Clemens’ book that “degenerates into a gross trifling with every feeling” whose stories are
“no better in tone than the dime novels which flood the blood-and-thunder reading population.”
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/archival/18850319ConcordLibraryBan.pdf

27. Classrooms as Centers
That Foster a
LOVE of Reading
A Perfect Time to Explore a Fun Lesson
Involving High-Interest Graphic Novels
or other Medium of Comics (strips, comic
books, et cetera) with your Students (:

28. Free Internet Sources – Comics in the Classroom
• https://secure.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Books/Sample/03920Chap01_x.pdf
• http://www.ncte.org/magazine/archives/122031
• http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/magazine/not-funnies.html
• http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/books/review/Gee-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
• http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/26/education/26comics.html?_r=0
• http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/magazine/11GRAPHIC.html
• http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/courses/teachers_corner/180039.html
• http://www.readingwithpictures.org
• http://cbldf.org/2013/07/cbldf-releases-raising-a-reader-a-resource-for-parents-and-educators/
• http://www.floobynooby.com/pdfs/Will_Eisner-Theory_of_Comics_and_Sequential_Art.pdf
• http://comicsintheclassroom.net
• http://teach.com/comics-in-the-classroom/why-comics
• http://www.edutopia.org/blog/graphic-novels-comics-andrew-miller
• http://www.teachingdegree.org/2009/07/05/comics-in-the-classroom-100-tips-tools-and-resources-
for-teachers/
• http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1055&context=englishdiss
• http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2012/aug/26/teaching-with-comic-books
• http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/profdev/profdev105.shtml
• http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/09/how-comic-books-are-creating-super-
classrooms/380236/
• https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/student-reading-through-comics
• http://www.artwayalliance.org/blog/2015/1/7/science-fiction-and-comics-in-the-classroom
• https://www.pinterest.com/casadelindquist/graphic-novels-in-education/
• http://www.graphicclassroom.org/p/best-comics-for-your-classroom-list-for.html