1. Graphic Novels and the
Common Core
Presented by John C. Weaver, PhD
Williamsport Area High School

2. Why Graphic Novels?
•
Increased student engagement and, more importantly,
student excitement
•
Encouraged by the ELA CCSS (p. 57, range of text types,
stories)
-
“Includes the subgenres of adventure stories, historical
fiction, mysteries, myths, science fiction, realistic fiction,
allegories, parodies, satire, and graphic novels”
•
Proper understanding of graphic novels require knowlege
beyond the common core

3. Common Core
Standards (ELA)
• Literature (10)
• Informational Text (10)
• Writing (8)
• Speaking and Listening (6)
• Language Standards (6)

4. Watchmen Unit: Informational Texts
•
RI.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of
words and phrases as they are used in a
text, including figurative, connotative,
and technical meanings; analyze
how an author uses and refines the
meaning of a key term or terms over
the course of a text
•
RI.11-12.6 Determine an author’s point
of view or purpose in a text in which
the rhetoric is particularly effective,
analyzing how style and content
contribute to the power,
persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.
•
McCloud’s Understanding Comics
teaches students the technical
vocabulary of comics

5. Technical Vocabulary from McCloud
Gu(er
Panel

6. Technical Vocabulary
Scott McCloud’s Taxonomy of Panel Transitions

7. More Nonfiction Related to Watchmen
•
Watchmen and Philosophy,
later in unit, provides more
nonfiction opportunities
•
Rl.11-12.5 Analyze and evaluate
the effectiveness of the structure
an author uses in his or her
exposition or argument, including
whether the structure makes
points clear, convincing, and
engaging.

8. Introduce Watchmen Through Research
•
•
Vietnam, Manhattan
project, vigilantism, punk
culture, etc.
•
SL.11.12.5. Make strategic use
of digital media (e.g., textual,
graphical, audio, visual, and
interactive elements) in
presentations to enhance
understanding of findings,
reasoning, and evidence and to
add interest.
Small groups research
historical and cultural
background of
Watchmen and give
presentations
•
SL.11-12.2. Integrate multiple
sources of information
presented in diverse formats
and media (e.g., visually,
quantitatively, orally) in order
to make informed decisions
and solve problems, evaluating
the credibility and accuracy of
each source and noting any
discrepancies among the data.

9. Teaching Watchmen: An Overview
•
Watchmen is an alternate United States where masked
adventurers exist
•
Traditional elements of literature--plot, character, setting,
theme, tone, mood, metaphor
•
•
•
•
Costume adventuring and sexuality
Competing visions of justice (Rorschach vs. Police)
Alternate moral systems (Rorschach vs. Adrian Veidt)
Metatexuality (interaction between plot and Tales of the Black
Freighter)

10. Watchmen and Reading Standards
•Establishing character, setting,
tone
•RL.11-12.3. Analyze the impact of the
author’s choices regarding how to develop and
relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where
a story is set, how the action is ordered, how
the characters are introduced and developed).
•RL.11-12.4. Determine the meaning of
words and phrases as they are used in the text,
including figurative and connotative meanings;
analyze the impact of specific word choices on
meaning and tone, including words with
multiple meanings or language that is
particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful.

11. Watchmen and Reading Standards
•
•
Costumed adventuring and
sexuality
RL. 2. Determine two or more
themes or central ideas of a text
and analyze their development
over the course of the text,
including how they interact and
build on one another to produce a
complex account; provide an
objective summary of the text.

12. Watchmen and Reading Standards
•
•
Conflicting visions of
justice (Rorschach vs.
Police)
RL.11-12.2. Determine two or
more themes or central ideas of a
text and analyze their
development over the course of
the text, including how they
interact and build on one another
to produce a complex account;
provide an objective summary of
the text.

13. Watchmen and Reading Standards
•
•
Conflict of moral
systems (Rorschach,
Adrian Veidt, Dan
Drieberg)
RL.11-12.2 Determine two or
more themes or central ideas of a
text and analyze their
development over the course of
the text, including how they
interact and build on one another
to produce a complex account;
provide an objective summary of
the text.

14. Watchmen and Reading Standards
•
•
Determining author’s
purpose through New
Frontiersman
RL.11-12.6. Analyze a case in
which grasping point of view
requires distinguishing what is
directly stated in a text from what
is really meant (e.g., satire,
sarcasm, irony, or
understatement).

15. Watchmen and Reading Standards
•
•
Comparing the graphic
novel to the movie
RL.11-12.7. Analyze multiple
interpretations of a story, drama,
or poem (e.g., recorded or live
production of a play or recorded
novel or poetry), evaluating how
each version interprets the source
text.

16. Watchmen and Reading Standards
•
•
Uncertainty in
Watchmen (ambiguous
meaning of smiley face)
RL. 1. Cite strong and thorough
textual evidence to support
analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences
drawn from the text, including
determining where the text leaves
matters uncertain.

17. Watchmen: Beyond the Common Core
•
Metatextuality (main
plot and “comic with a
comic” Tales of the Black
Frieghter)
•
Metatextuality is not
accounted for in the
Common Core

18. Watchmen and Text Complexity
•
Lexile ranges for college and career readiness
(1215-1355)
•
Prose sections at end of chapters in Watchmen
approach 1550, using Metametrics tool
✦ Under the Hood (Chs. 1-3)
✦ Superpowers and the Superpowers (Ch. 4)
✦ “Blood from the Shoulder of
Pallas” (Ch. 7)

19. Writing Standards Addressed
Through Watchmen
•
Interpreting graphic novels must do justice to text
and art
•
•
First writing assignment: analyze a single panel
•
W.11-12.1 (argument); W.11-12.4 (coherent
writing for audience); W.11-12.5 (writing process)
Second writing assignment: interpret novels,
including several panels

20. Problems with Lexile Scores for
Graphic Novels
• Metametrix admits that Lexile is incapable
of calculating reading levels for graphic
novels:
-
“Graphic novels and comic books get a GN code. Text
appears primarily in voice and thought bubble integrated into
comic book-style illustrations. The impact of the pictures on
reading comprehension is not captured in the Lexile measure
of a graphic novel.”
• This passage reveals Metametrix’--and
others’--misconceptions of the comics
medium

21. Moving Beyond Lexile
•
We
need
to
develop
a
theory
of
text
complexity
in
comics
•
The
following
slides
come
from
Watchmen,
Kingdom
Come,
Cuba
My
Revolu7on,
and
How
I
Made
It
to
Eighteen