This document discusses using comics and graphic novels in history classrooms. It begins by outlining how comics have traditionally been viewed as not "high culture" and more suitable for children than adults. The document then describes some failed classroom experiments using comics. It details a case study where students created their own historical cartoons. Interviews found this approach helped students visualize history, feel ownership over historical events, and stay motivated. The document concludes comics can teach historical reliability, empathy and context when used as alternative texts.

1. The Pedagogical Value of
Comics in the History
Classroom:
An Exploratory Case-Study

2. Introduction: The Problem with Comics
In Literature
They are thrice damned
“Damned as culture, being popular not ‘high’
“Damned as a medium, being neither art nor literature but
some perverse hybrid, at best suitable only for children
(and retarded adults), at worst positively harmful
“Damned as a genre, being the most outlandish fantasy
involving absurd characters acting in the most bizarre
fashion – the very antithesis, one might think, of plausibility.”

3. Introduction: The Problem with Comics
In Literature
They are thrice damned
“Damned as culture, being popular not ‘high’
“Damned as a medium, being neither art nor literature but some perverse
hybrid, at best suitable only for children (and retarded adults), at worst
positively harmful
“Damned as a genre, being the most outlandish fantasy involving absurd
characters acting in the most bizarre fashion – the very antithesis, one might
think, of plausibility.”

4. Our Failed Classroom Experiments
How to Use Comics in Class
Student-generated SBQs
General literacy, specific
medium literacy, metacognition,
reading and writing vs. specific
history use
Comic List

5. Methods & theory
Expressive Constructivism (Millwood & Riley, 1988)
a. Knowledge is a mental
representation.
b. It is not passively received
but is actively built up.
c. The function of cognition is
adaptive. Does it fit? Is it
viable? Is it right? This is
frequently experienced but is
not necessarily
linguistically.
d. Cognition organizes the
person’s experential world. It
is not about the discovery of an
objective ontological reality.

6. Using Cartoons to Enhance Historical
Creativity

7.  Research Question : How do students design their own
historical cartoons? What is it’s pedagogical value? How do
students experience it?
 Methodology: (Next slide)
 Sample size/description: 6 Sec 1 classes (240 students)
 Semi-structured interviews & student group and individual
work
Using Cartoons to Enhance Historical
Empathy

8. Adapted from interpretations of Argyris's writings:
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/argyris.htm and http://bsix12.com/double-loop-
learning/
 Local history
examples
 Punchlines
 Everyday inspiration
 Prior knowledge
Stage 1
 Group Work
 Inquiry question
 Avatar Creation
 Sources/ Problem/
Resolution
 Teacher Comments
 Drawn/ electronic
Stage 2
 Templated cartoons
and scripts
 Tr feedbackStage 3
 Individual Work
Using Cartoons to Enhance Historical
Creativity/ Methodology

9. Importance of prior knowledge & avatar creation
Limited value of
problem-resolution
In P5 and P6 social studies. They talk a lot
about coolies.
Internet: I was on the internet and some people
claim to see weird things like UFOs. It could be
fake but I thought I would include that just for fun.
History Book: For the background I was like
looking at the sources in the history book.
I noticed certain styles that I could take note of
like the building having like curves.
Literature: We got some inspiration from the
Street of the Night Market because it was our
Literature text and set around this …People
struggling to get jobs and money to pay rent
Group Work: I also remembered the previous
group work.
Using Cartoons to Enhance Historical
Creativity

11. Role of inspiration from the moment, loose-
ness/ creativity & punchlines
Jobstreet.com
Using Cartoons to Enhance Historical
Creativity

12. 1. Historical visualization through stories
Sometimes teacher will say, “Can you try and visualize what their life is like?”.
And then you realize that that’s all you can think of. But when we did this, this
opened our mind . So this really help (us) visualize a lot.
2. Historical agency/ ownership through creativity
“Historical agency brings out the relationship between structural forces and the
historical actors to the forefront of the historical event. … That is, human beings as
autonomous agents with abilities to affect change, yet there are social structures that
constrain and limit what individuals can do” (Damico, Baildon & Greenstone, 2010)
3. Affective/ Motivation value"
“It was vey fun. After doing it, I was very proud of what I had done. I kept looking
through it. It makes me real proud that I had created and something and it is
something I have never done before.”
4. Means to An End
Micro-History
Technology
Context
Jigsaw
Using Cartoons to Enhance Historical
Creativity

13. Using cartoons to understand
Historical reliablity
 Comics/Graphic Novel as
alternative text
 Generation of more interest
 Teaching of historical concepts –
Reliability, Empathy, Perspective
 Deepening of contextual
knowledge
 Self-directed learning
 21st Century Competencies –
Knowledge construction &
Collaboration

14. Other History-based Graphic Novels

15. Conclusion
Understanding Comics, Scott
McCloud
Area of focus
and interplay
Any artist creating any work in
any medium will always follow
these six steps whether they
realize it or not, and that their
order is innate.
All aspects of comics have the
potential for self-expression but
the more a creator learns to
command every aspect of their
art and to understand their
relationship to it, the more likely
they can focus on innermost
aspects.
An artist’s skill is fundamentally
related to the depth of their
understanding in relation to
these layers.
For Historical
Empathy
For Historical
Creativity
For Historical
Reliability

16.  Gravett, Paul. (2005).Graphic Novels: Stories to Change Your Life. New York: HarperCollins.
 Carrye Kay Syman, Carrye Kay & Weiner, Robert G. (2013). Graphic Novels and Comics in the Classroom.
Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc.
 Damico, J.S., Baildon, M., & Greenstone, D. “Examining How Historical Agency Works in Children’s
Literature,” Social Studies Research and Practice 5, no. 1 (2010), 1-12
 Eisner, W. (1996) Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative. Florida: Poorhouse Press
 Clark, J. Spencer Clark .(2013). Encounters with Historical Agency: The Value of Nonfiction Graphic Novels in
the Classroom. The History Teacher, 46 (4).
 Tatalovic, M. (Dec, 2009.) Science comics as tools for science education and communication: a brief,
exploratory study. Journal of Science Communications. 8 (4).
 Bickford III , John H. (2010). Complicating Students’ Historical Thinking through Primary Source Reinvention.
Social Studies Research and Practice, 5,2.
 La Paz, Susan De La Paz and Felton, Mark K. (2010). Reading and writing from multiple source documents in
history. Contemporary Educational Psychology 35 (2010) 174–19
 McCloud, S. (2000). Reinventing Comics. New York: Paradox Press.
 Websites
 http://www.madehow.com/Volume-6/Comic-Book.html/
http://www.scholastic.com/graphix/scholastic_bonediscussion.pdf
Selected readings