正文
這種書籍圖書館裏麵有很多，我用來學英語收獲很大，當然都是一般的口語，學術英語是不行的。
Holy Comics, Batman! 10 Tips for Using Graphic Novels in the ESL Classroom
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Comics are not just for little kids anymore. In fact, today’s graphic novel can fill many useful roles in the modern ESL classroom. Their minimal text paired with interesting illustrations aid comprehension and give students who may not be able to read a novel the confidence that comes with useful language skills. With a little imagination, these illustrated series can become some of your most purposeful tools while getting your students excited about reading and writing!
Here are some ideas you can use today for integrating graphic novels in the ESL classroom.
Try These 10 Tips for Using Graphic Novels in Your ESL Classroom
1
Because graphic novels have less text and more illustrations than a traditional novel, they can be a ready resource for getting your ESL students interested in reading in English. There will be less lengthy description and more focus on plot and dialogue because the amount of text is so limited. Your students will feel a sense of accomplishment when they finish a complete book even if it has significantly less pros than a traditional novel with the same number of pages.
2
Another advantage to working with graphic novels is the comprehension clues in the illustrations. The pictures will aid in comprehension, and your students will be more comfortable inferring the meaning of new vocabulary words. They will run to the dictionary less often and take steps to true language acquisition.
3
Reading the dialogue in graphic novels is also a fun way to get in some pronunciation and intonation practice with your ESL students. Have your students read the dialogue between characters on one or a few pages. In addition, because so much action happens on each page, the dialogue in graphic novels may supply a rare opportunity to talk about stress and volume in natural English speech. Make sure your students are reading with passion when they practice the dialogue in class.
4
Graphic novels can also be a natural place to connect the native culture of your students with their English language studies. Many popular graphic novels are translations from other languages, and these original pieces are often very popular with young people in foreign cultures. If you can find English translations of graphic novels originally written in Japanese or Korean, your students may feel more comfortable with the material and the cultural implications of the story itself.
5
You can also find graphic novel interpretations of classic works of fiction that would otherwise be too difficult for your class to digest. Graphic novels are available for such classics as the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales, Frankenstein, Moby Dick and countless others. The material is even better for your class when the story is something familiar. That way the emphasis is on language use and comprehension rather than the story or plot. Of course, it never hurts to read something with action and drama!
6
Today, the subjects addressed by graphic novels are as broad as your imagination. Because of this, you can use graphic novels to supplement the content-based material you are covering in your class. For example, if you find yourself teaching about World War II in a history class, you may want to include the graphic novel Maus in your curriculum. Other theme units will coordinate with other graphic novels. If you need some direction, ask the clerk at your local comic book store for some advice but always preread the material before giving it to students.
7
Pages from a graphic novel can serve as a blank canvas for writing original dialogue as well. Select a story that is popular with your students or choose one that touches on content you are covering in your class. Then make copies of one or more pages with the dialogue whited out but the speech bubbles remaining. Either individually or in pairs, have your students write dialogue that fills each of the speech bubbles and is appropriate for the illustrations that are provided. You can have fun with your class by posting the completed dialogues and asking your students to vote for the one they think makes the best story. Then show them the original dialogue and have them compare what the author wrote with what they and their classmates wrote.
8
You can also leave the original dialogue in place and cut the frames apart from one another. Give pairs or small groups of students each a set of the frames and challenge them to use the information given there to sequence the panels. They will have to use the context of the language as well as the pictures to find the correct order of the panels.
9
If you are looking for a way to elicit more original material from your students, you can take photocopied pages from graphic novels, with or without their original dialogue, and give them to your students as story starters. Starting with the pictures and possibly the dialogue, have your students retell the story using paragraph form. They can write descriptions of what they see in the pictures and detail the action that is happening in the frames. Again, this activity helps focus more on language and less on content since the story is already provided.
10
You can take the inspiration a step further and have your students create their own villains and heroes modeled after the ones they read about in the graphic novels, or have them create nemesis to combat the characters already in print. Either way, your students will have to think of the strengths and weaknesses their hero or villain possesses and what his greatest desire is. They can then use those characters in their original fiction or graphic novel.
These are only some of the ways graphic novels can be used in the ESL classroom. The more familiar you become with that genre, the more uses you will find for them.
So the next time you are choosing a book from the shelf for your class reading project, pick up a graphic novel and see where your imagination will take you.
Comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels can be used in ESL and EFL classrooms to encourage students to read. They can also form the basis of several classroom activities that will engage students and generate discussion.
Second Language Acquisition, Reading, and Comics
In all theories of second language acquisition, input plays a role (though the role varies in importance in each of the different theories). One important form of input is reading. Reading can aid in vocabulary development, and “[…] Nagy, Herman, and Anderson (1985) argue that picking up word meanings by reading is 10 times faster than intensive vocabulary instruction” (Krashen, 1993, p. 15). Reading can also aid other skills, as “several studies confirm that those who read more in their second language also write better in that language (Salyer 1987; Janopoulos 1986; Kaplan and Palhinda 1981)” (Krashen, 1993, p. 7). Therefore, reading can and should play an important role in the second or foreign language classroom.
The most important factor in the development of reading skills is the amount of time a student actually spends reading (Cummins, 2003, p. 20). One of the ways that ESL/EFL teachers can increase the amount of time their students read is by using comics and graphic novels, which can be especially useful in second language classrooms. Not only can they provide language learners with contextualized comprehensible input, they can also engage the learner and lead him or her to explore more graphic novels or books, magazines, newspapers, and other reading materials.
Graphic novels and comics deal with spoken language differently than books do. Usually, comic book writers attempt to capture spoken language as it really occurs, complete with gaps, hesitations, and slang. In fact, “[...] comic strips [can be used] as a means to help students deal with ‘the ambiguity, vagueness and downright sloppiness of spoken English’” by introducing “language learners to ‘ellipsis, blends, nonwords, vague lexis, confirmation checks, contrastive stress, new topic signals, nonverbal language, mitigators, [and] routine/ritual phrases’” (Cary, 2004, p. 33). These are aspects of spoken language that English textbooks might not deal with or, if they do, only as an afterthought. Comics, on the other hand, put each of these into context and make them relevant to second language learners.
Comics, specifically comic strips, usually deal with humor. They can be useful for introducing language learners to the culture and humor of English-speakers. Cary (2004) responds to the question: “Do the jokes in lots of comics make them too difficult for […] beginning second language learners?” by stating that “If read alone, yes, even with a good bilingual dictionary at the ready.” He recommends “A teacher-facilitated discussion of a ‘buddy read,’ where beginners work with native speakers or more advanced L2 learners to get the jokes, [which] can turn a comic that would have been an impenetrable and frustrating read if processed alone into something understandable, funny, and meaningful” (Cary, 2004, p. 69). In this case, not only do comics lead to laughter, they also lead to productive and relevant discussions in the second language classroom.
On the other hand, not all comic books and graphic novels are light reading. Over the past several years, more and more graphic novels have appeared that address more serious topics, such as family relationships, war, coming of age, and current events. Several of these graphic novels have won major awards, such as the Pulitzer Prize, the Hugo award, and the World Fantasy Award. As they have matured, graphic novels have moved from the realm of children and can appeal to and be used with adult students.
Visual Literacy
Just as reading a book or magazine requires a certain set of skills, so does reading a comic book or graphic novel. Comic books and graphic novels call for “visual literacy,” where students need to learn to recognize certain symbols and decode their meaning, much in the same way they do while reading texts.
In the case of comics and graphic novels, elements of visual literacy include the visual symbols and shorthand that comics use to represent the physical world. For example, two or more wavy lines rising up from something indicate smoke. With flies added, they indicate a bad smell. Lines trailing after a person or a car indicate movement. Text bubbles change their form to indicate if a person is thinking, speaking, or shouting. Also, comic book artists sometimes use a dashed or dotted outline to show invisibility or Xs in place of eyes to represent death.
ESL/EFL students who have read comics in their native language will probably be better able to decode the visual symbols in comics. For example, “they know that large, non-bubbled text is typically a sound effect and that a string of nonsense symbols like #?”@?#*?! isn’t nonsense at all but an unprintable obscenity that could make a sailor blush” (Cary, 2004, p. 62). On the other hand, comics from different countries have developed their own visual code. Asian comics sometimes use different symbols than their North American and European counterparts. While students might be able to inductively discern the meanings of most symbols, teachers should be aware that some symbols could potentially cause confusion for their students.
How to Use Comics and Graphic Novels in the Classroom
These activities can be used as stand-alone activities, or they can be used to prepare students to read an entire graphic novel or comic book.
Activity 1: Understanding Visual Symbols
Before using comics in the ESL/EFL classroom, it is a good idea to prepare students to interpret the visual symbols they might encounter in the comics. Put students into pairs or small groups and ask them how they would represent, in pictures and without using any words, the following concepts: a bad small, a telephone ringing, shouting, thinking, a ghost, and heat. After the students finish, distribute examples of the above concepts from comics. The students can then discuss the differences between their ideas and the ones the comic writers used and which they prefer.
Activity 2: Reading Order in Comics
Comic strips follow an order, left to right, that mirrors how English is read. Certain graphic novels, however, do not always follow this same straightforward pattern. Maus, by Art Speigelman, and Palestine, by Joe Sacco, are two such graphic novels. Their authors often indicate a certain mood or state by not strictly following a left to right order. Students can look at excerpts of these two graphic novels (or similar ones) and discuss the order in which they should read the page, how they know to read it in that order, and why the authors chose to present their stories in such a manner.
Activity 3: Comic Jigsaw
This is a quick activity that can be used to put students into pairs for another activity, to introduce a topic, or to provoke a discussion on humor. First, find several one panel comics. Next, separate the text from the panel. This can be done by copying the text onto a different piece of paper and then blanking out the text from the comic. Finally, distribute these items to students, making sure that each student has either some text or a panel. Students will need to talk to each other and try to match their panel to text or their text to a panel. When students have found their match, they can sit down together.
Activity 4: Fill in the Text
This is an activity where students must generate text based on pictures. Choose a comic strip or a scene from a graphic novel or comic book, then cover the text in the speech bubbles and make photo copies. Distribute these copies to your students, and have them write text in the blank speech bubbles.
This activity can be used to encourage use of new vocabulary or expressions or as a continuation of a lesson (i.e., in a business English class, students can read and discuss Dilbert comics, then create their own). Students can work separately or in pairs to create their comics, then can have a competition to see who has created the funniest comic. Students who worked in pairs on comics that have two characters can even perform their comics in front of the class.
Activity 5: Creating Pictures
This activity is the opposite of the previous activity. Instead of creating text, students have to draw pictures to accompany text. The text can come from comics or can come from a book or even a poem. This activity is not only for younger learners, as it can force adults to examine the subtexts of speech and determine how to represent it pictorially.
Activity 6: Putting Panels in Order
In this activity, students are given comic strip panels that have been cut apart, and they must work together to put them in order. Students must use their knowledge of joke structure or conversation patterns to put the images in order.
Activity 7: Creating Comics
Particularly creative or open students can be given the task of creating their own comics. After completing other activities with comics or after reading and responding to comics, students can work together or individually to create their own comics on a given theme, either by drawing them or by cutting and pasting pictures from a magazine or newspaper.
Resources
Comic Strips are as close as the nearest newspaper; they can also be found on the internet at www.comics.com. Also on the internet are Archie comics with definitions and discussion questions geared towards ESL students (www.archiecomics.com/podcasts). McCloud has created an interactive comic which can be accessed at http://www.baciamistupido.com/html/index.asp?page=Carl, and Marvel comics can be accessed (for a monthly fee) at www.marvel.com.
There are several graphic novels that can be used with adult students. Friedrich’s Roadstrips is an anthology of short comics created by various artists in different parts of the United States. Nakazawa’s autobiographical Barefoot Gen series tells the story of life in Japan after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Sacco has written several journalistic graphic novels, including one on Palestine and several on Bosnia and Sarajevo. Satrapi’s Persepolis recounts her life growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Speigelman’s Maus is about his father’s experiences during the Holocaust. Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan examines the relationship between a father and son.
For additional ideas, Gravett’s Graphic Novels examines several graphic novels and comic books, dividing them by genre and providing short excerpts of some.
Bibliography
Cary, S. (2004). Going graphic: Comics at work in the multilingual classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Cummins, J. (2003). Reading and the bilingual student: Fact and friction. In Garcia, G. (Ed.). English learners: Reaching the highest level of English literacy (pp. 2-33). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Friedrich, P. (2005). Roadstrips: A graphic journey across America. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
Gravett, P. (2005). Graphic novels: Stories to change your life. New York: Collins Design.
Krashen, S. (1993). The power of reading: Insights from the research. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Inc.
McCloud, S., & Slavador, M. (2002). Carl. Retrieved April 15, 2006, from the World Wide Web: http://www.baciamistupido.com/html/index.asp?page=Carl
Nakazawa, K. (2004). Barefoot Gen (Project Gen, Trans.). San Francisco: Last Gasp.
Sacco, J. (1993). Palestine. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books.
Satrapi, M. (2003). Persepolis: The story of a childhood (L’Association, Trans.). New York: Pantheon Books.
Speigelman, A. (1986). Maus II: And here my troubles began. New York: Random House.
Spiegelman, A. (1980). Maus I: My father bleeds history. New York: Random House.
Ware, C. (2000). Jimmy Corrigan: The smartest kid on earth. New York: Pantheon Books.
The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XIV, No. 7, July 2008
http://iteslj.org/
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Derrick-UsingComics.html
Who Teaches the Watchmen?
When I was a kid, I had no interest in comics at all. Before we’d go on family vacations, mom would take us to a newsstand and suggest that we choose some comic books to read in the car, and though I did pick some out, they really didn’t capture my attention.
It wasn’t until college, when I audited a course called “Masters of Horror,” that I began a flirtation with the form. The professor, Pete Dumanis, showed us the story “Foul Play” from the old EC line (issue #19 of Haunt of Fear). One baseball player murdered another one, and his teammates took revenge for the crime. The final image, of the teammates using his body parts to play a macabre game of baseball, really hooked me. When I told mom about this story, she bought me the five volume reprints of the Tales from the Crypt, still one of my prized possessions.
However, while I loved reading (and rereading) those books, I still wasn’t a comic book fan. That happened at Purdue University, while I was working on my Ph.D. in English. A buddy of mine, the G-Man—yes, that’s what we called him—insisted that I read a comic book called Watchmen. I told G-Man that I didn’t like comics, but he asked me to trust him. Now, I didn’t really trust G, but since I was tired of studying for my departmental exam in rhetoric, I figured it would be a good diversion. This was around 1988 or 1989.
I opened up the book, and I never really put it down. Watchmen led me to The Dark Knight Returns and Gotham by Gaslight. From thence…well, my wife tells me that I need to do something with all these boxes of comic books. All things considered, though, she tolerates my jones with pretty good humor.
Like many addicts, I blame my Wednesday runs to the comic-book store on other folks—namely, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. The universe they created is, to use highly technical terminology, really cool. I was attracted to their idea that, if superheroes actually existed, they would be mentally unbalanced, like Rorschach, or fundamentally inhuman and remote, like Dr. Manhattan, a geeky fanboy like Dan Dreiberg, or a raging sociopath like the Comedian.
The atmosphere of Cold War paranoia had, and still has, resonance for me. I was in college for all of Ronald Reagan’s administration, and his stridently anti-Soviet line frightened me. His joke about outlawing Russia and sending the missiles flying, his Strategic Defense Initiative, all the things I feared in the real world were reflected in Watchmen. I have read the book every year, and sometimes twice a year, ever since the first time I “trusted” the G-Man. It tops my list of “desert island” books. You know the desert island game: If you were trapped on a desert island, what five records or books or girlfriends would you take, etc. Watchmen is number one of the five books I have to have on that island.
My love of this text finally compelled me to teach it to my senior British literature students for the first time this year. However, I’ve been building to this point slowly. For several years, I had been bringing comics into the classroom with my ninth graders. When I taught freshmen, I did a film unit, showing them how to analyze movies in terms of camera angle, editing, montage, soundtrack, and so on.
Although I showed a variety of films over the years, I began using Unbreakable and, later, Batman Begins. Since both of these movies concern the birth of the hero, I introduced the unit with comic-book origin stories: Superman, Batman, Spiderman, the Alan Scott and Hal Jordan Green Lanterns, the Jay Garrick Flash, and several others. We’d read them and then discuss what repetitions we see from character to character—for many of them, a death spurred them to become heroes.
Even Clark Kent became a hero only after his foster parents died. Thus, we saw that heroism is often rooted in personal tragedy. We also examined the oppositions between characters, particularly how they gained powers, if they had them at all, and their motivations for doing what they do. For example, we consider how Superman, being raised with the sense that he must use his powers for good, became a positive hero; how Batman, with his revenge motive, became a dark character; and how Spiderman’s sense of guilt for Uncle Ben’s death obliged him to do penance as a crime fighter.
So, for several years, that was the limit of my comic-book teaching, and I approached it as literary analysis. The culminating assignment of that unit was to create a superhero or supervillain and write that character’s origin story. Many students enjoyed the comic-book unit, others hated it, but for the most part, it fostered critical thinking and some imaginative writing.
My second step toward my Watchmen unit came last year. Five of us English teachers were charged with rewriting the whole Basic English curriculum, and I took responsibility for ninth grade. One marking period was designated for nonfiction, and I slipped in a subunit that included three graphic nonfiction texts: Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese, Art Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, and Andrew Helfer’s Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography. Ironically, this year I was switched from English 9 to English 11, so I cannot teach the unit I created, and those who do teach it have little experience with comics.
All that brings me to this year. Spurred on by the impending movie release, I conjured the guts to ask my department head for permission to teach Watchmen. After a quick pitch, referring to the emerging use of graphic novels in the classroom, a reference to high-interest reading, and a quick iteration of the vital themes in the text, she agreed with little effort on my part. Not wanting to push my luck, I asked for the money for one class set of 30 Watchmen books to be used for my three British Literature classes. That was a mistake. I should have asked for 90 copies. The greatest weakness with the unit thus far is that we need to spend large amounts of class time simply reading the book. I’ll rectify that error next year.
When I announced to my classes that we would read and discuss Watchmen this year, the enthusiasm of the response surprised me. It’s fair to say that some worked themselves into a frenzy. “Can we start Watchmen now?” students often asked me.
“Soon,” I’d respond. “We still have to finish The Canterbury Tales.”
“Ah, man, I can’t wait.” I never get that response when I say we’re reading Hamlet.
The faculty reaction has been very positive, as well. We are fortunate that at Williamsport Area High School, our colleagues will support anyone who tries to do something innovative for the benefit of the students. A couple teachers praised me for going out of my way to learn and teach something that the students will like, and I pursed my lips and folded my hand—all very pious and self-sacrificing—and replied that I’ll do anything for the kids. It was a load of garbage, of course. Teaching Watchmen is more for me than for them, truth to tell.
A few teachers were so interested, they asked to borrow the book. One of them has made Moore’s novel an optional replacement for Orwell’s 1984, as long as the students buy the book themselves, and she is ordering a class set of her own next year. She liked the book so much she began a Watchmen reading group with some of her students. Not bad for a woman who never cracked a comic before this year. All of the teachers who read the book were surprised by its depth.
But now to the meat of the matter. Because of the nudity, sex, and violence in the book, I offered my standard disclaimer that anyone who does not want to encounter the graphic material will be permitted to read an alternate text. None availed themselves of that opportunity, so we charged ahead with the unit.
Watchmen, being set in 1985, and its tone rooted in 1980s nuclear and anti-Soviet paranoia that gave rise to movies like War Games, Red Dawn, and The Day After, required some historical background. Therefore, our first activity leading to Watchmen was a short research project. We went to the library, and the students had a choice of topic, related to historical events or cultural trends related to aspects of the novel. They could investigate the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Manhattan Project, the Strategic Defense Initiative, Reagan’s Soviet policy, Bernard Goetz (as a flaky Rorschach analogue), and many other topics. They were to write a short paper on that topic, and I composed one for them on the Doomsday Clock.
As of this writing, we are only midway through the novel, since they have to do all the reading in class, which slows our discussions considerably. When I get additional books next year, that problem will be solved. At the moment, we are talking about differing concepts of justice amongst the characters. For Rorschach, a number of students have identified an Old Testament eye-for-an-eye aspect to his sense of justice, and they respond to his unwillingness to compromise his principles. He is by far my students’ favorite character. They also have recognized that Dr. Manhattan does not have a sense of justice at all. When I asked a student a couple of days ago why she thought that about Manhattan, she said, “Well, justice is for humans, and he isn’t human. He just doesn’t care.” In other words, my students are getting it.
We discuss other issues as well, such as the different motivations for characters to put on the costume. The students see the psychological damage of Rorschach, the simple love of violence for the Comedian, the parental pressure on Laurie, and the strange mix of adolescent idealism and sexual thrill of Dan Drieberg. They haven’t yet got a read on Adrian Veidt, and I want to keep them in the dark about him as long as possible.
They are also responding well to the artwork, noticing the visual echoes throughout the book: how the blood-streaked smiley face becomes a smear of dust on Nite Owl’s goggles, a drip of ketchup on a smiley face T-shirt, the Doomsday Clock itself, and many others. Students have pointed out how the “camera work” at the beginning of chapter one is echoed at the end of the same chapter—an extreme closeup of the smiley face button and then zooming out to the top of the skyline.
They’ve discovered visual connections on their first read that I never saw in my 20 years’ experience with the book. Although there are people who are obviously not excited about doing a comic book, it affects a much smaller percentage than any other text I have taught. Many of them have bought their own copies, they like the story so much. No one has ever done that with Beowulf, at least not my students.
I am excited for them to read the ending of the novel—some already have—because that is when we will really hit what to me is the most important theme: Does the end ever justify the means? If possible, this text, though rooted in the 1980s, is more important now than it was then. It is impossible now to look at the opening pages of chapter 12 and not think of the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
Adrian Veidt’s act of mass murder is an abomination, but it is an act that can potentially save the world (a possibility undercut by Moore and Gibbon’s very last panel). But if the murder of three million New Yorkers could save the world from almost certain destruction, would it be worth it? Could an act of terrorism ever be justifiable? And consider the moral compromise of all the other heroes, save for Rorschach, who will keep Veidt’s terrible secret.
By the end, Watchmen is a profoundly disturbing novel. I hope, as we get to the end, to open up the debate about the morality of this event. After all, isn’t a discussion of means and ends, as well as moral compromise, as universal and as important as Hamlet’s philosophical ramblings about death and revenge?
But we haven’t gotten there yet. I’m partway through my first teaching of this novel. I’ll let you know how things went when we’re done. Wish me luck.—John C. Weaver, English Teacher, Williamsport Area High School, Williamsport, PA
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I have all of no idea who you are. I do however hope that I get a teacher like you--Watchmen is such an amazing piece of work and it\'s awesome that someone would bring it into curriculum. Another \'disturbing\' graphic novel I enjoyed was From Hell.
Uhh... That\'s all I really have to say, I\'m not that articulate as an eighth grader.
Kaeli (not verified) at Sat, 05/02/2009 - 10:11
This is one of two graphic novels (the other is Understanding Comics) which I recommend to EVERYONE. I, too, read it at least once a year, but there is always something new to discover. (Until a recent bookgroup, I never considered the misogyny in the text.)
Have fun with Chapter Five! You may want to make a scroll by taping the pages together so that your students can visualize the fearful symmetry of the chapter.
Torsten Adair (not verified) at Sat, 03/14/2009 - 16:39
A terrific piece, John, and a terrific subject. I love that you have your students study up on the socio-political environment in which the original comic was born. I think a lot of people watching the movie now as their first introduction to the story don\'t fully get what Moore was responding to.
You might have them read up a bit on Thatcherism, as well. For the more ambitious, a terrific comparative reading project would be Watchmen and Jonathan Coe\'s brilliant and angry satire of Thatcher\'s Britain, The Winshaw Legacy, or, What a Carve Up!
Keep up the great work. I hope you\'ll update us with how things turned out at the end of your term...
Karen Green (not verified) at Sat, 03/14/2009 - 10:25
John,
Great work. It sounds like you have built some solid curriculum around Watchmen. I\'m experimenting this year in my classroom with my newly discovered love of graphic novels. I teach high school ESL (English as a Second Language) and have found some great success in the novels I\'ve taught so far this year with my advanced classes--American Born Chinese and Maus. I\'ve found that the form works especially well with English Language Learners because of the visual support, once they get used to the form....and it\'s really drawn in some of my struggling readers! I\'m thinking about writing my upcoming Master\'s thesis on using graphic novels in the ESL classroom...I\'m so glad there\'s a forum like this to see what others are doing out there!
Jess Holte (not verified) at Fri, 03/13/2009 - 09:16
Dear John,
I wish there were more teachers like you.
Awesome and inspiring is how I describe your contribution to your calling.
regards
Kenny
Kenny Chan (not verified) at Fri, 03/13/2009 - 00:31
John,
Thanks so much for sharing your experiences with this book! I taught it for the first time this past fall in a high school English elective on graphic novels. We focused on more of the formal aspects of the book as an example of storytelling in the comics medium, but you\'ve opened up new possibilities for me and my students.
Michael Hancock (not verified) at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 20:45
Fantastic work, John. I taught Jeff Smith\'s Bone at my junior high school in suburban Chicago, and though I was thrilled at the level of engagement and analysis, I long for the kinds of discussions that a work like Watchmen elicits. Solid work.
I\'m also interested in collaborating with any comics/literature scholars. I\'ve spoken at a few comics conferences at my Michigan State University (though won\'t be at the upcoming one), and am always looking for great ideas. eric dot federspiel at gmail dot com.
@James Bucky Carter I\'ve read your work as well. Impressive!
Eric Federspiel (not verified) at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 20:06
Ok, you have sold me, without meaning to. I am going to buy a copy, read it, and perhaps jump on your bandwagon. All of those big idea issues you mention are near and dear to my heart! Great posting John!
Angela L. (not verified) at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 14:20
Hi, John! Great work here. As a comics-and-literacy scholar and someone who has taught Watchmen to multiple college-level classes and is deeply interested in how one utilizes it pedagogically (indeed, I\'ve got an essay on how I have taught it with college-level students upcoming in an MLA publication), I would love to talk with you personally about this! Feel free to e-mail me at jbcarter2 at utep dot edu. It is very exciting to see someone teaching this text at the high school level.
James Bucky Carter (not verified) at T
Holy Comics, Batman! 10 Tips for Using Graphic Novels in the ESL Classroom
by BUSYTEACHER_admin, 1520 views
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Comics are not just for little kids anymore. In fact, today’s graphic novel can fill many useful roles in the modern ESL classroom. Their minimal text paired with interesting illustrations aid comprehension and give students who may not be able to read a novel the confidence that comes with useful language skills. With a little imagination, these illustrated series can become some of your most purposeful tools while getting your students excited about reading and writing!
Here are some ideas you can use today for integrating graphic novels in the ESL classroom.
Try These 10 Tips for Using Graphic Novels in Your ESL Classroom
1
Because graphic novels have less text and more illustrations than a traditional novel, they can be a ready resource for getting your ESL students interested in reading in English. There will be less lengthy description and more focus on plot and dialogue because the amount of text is so limited. Your students will feel a sense of accomplishment when they finish a complete book even if it has significantly less pros than a traditional novel with the same number of pages.
2
Another advantage to working with graphic novels is the comprehension clues in the illustrations. The pictures will aid in comprehension, and your students will be more comfortable inferring the meaning of new vocabulary words. They will run to the dictionary less often and take steps to true language acquisition.
3
Reading the dialogue in graphic novels is also a fun way to get in some pronunciation and intonation practice with your ESL students. Have your students read the dialogue between characters on one or a few pages. In addition, because so much action happens on each page, the dialogue in graphic novels may supply a rare opportunity to talk about stress and volume in natural English speech. Make sure your students are reading with passion when they practice the dialogue in class.
4
Graphic novels can also be a natural place to connect the native culture of your students with their English language studies. Many popular graphic novels are translations from other languages, and these original pieces are often very popular with young people in foreign cultures. If you can find English translations of graphic novels originally written in Japanese or Korean, your students may feel more comfortable with the material and the cultural implications of the story itself.
5
You can also find graphic novel interpretations of classic works of fiction that would otherwise be too difficult for your class to digest. Graphic novels are available for such classics as the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales, Frankenstein, Moby Dick and countless others. The material is even better for your class when the story is something familiar. That way the emphasis is on language use and comprehension rather than the story or plot. Of course, it never hurts to read something with action and drama!
6
Today, the subjects addressed by graphic novels are as broad as your imagination. Because of this, you can use graphic novels to supplement the content-based material you are covering in your class. For example, if you find yourself teaching about World War II in a history class, you may want to include the graphic novel Maus in your curriculum. Other theme units will coordinate with other graphic novels. If you need some direction, ask the clerk at your local comic book store for some advice but always preread the material before giving it to students.
7
Pages from a graphic novel can serve as a blank canvas for writing original dialogue as well. Select a story that is popular with your students or choose one that touches on content you are covering in your class. Then make copies of one or more pages with the dialogue whited out but the speech bubbles remaining. Either individually or in pairs, have your students write dialogue that fills each of the speech bubbles and is appropriate for the illustrations that are provided. You can have fun with your class by posting the completed dialogues and asking your students to vote for the one they think makes the best story. Then show them the original dialogue and have them compare what the author wrote with what they and their classmates wrote.
8
You can also leave the original dialogue in place and cut the frames apart from one another. Give pairs or small groups of students each a set of the frames and challenge them to use the information given there to sequence the panels. They will have to use the context of the language as well as the pictures to find the correct order of the panels.
9
If you are looking for a way to elicit more original material from your students, you can take photocopied pages from graphic novels, with or without their original dialogue, and give them to your students as story starters. Starting with the pictures and possibly the dialogue, have your students retell the story using paragraph form. They can write descriptions of what they see in the pictures and detail the action that is happening in the frames. Again, this activity helps focus more on language and less on content since the story is already provided.
10
You can take the inspiration a step further and have your students create their own villains and heroes modeled after the ones they read about in the graphic novels, or have them create nemesis to combat the characters already in print. Either way, your students will have to think of the strengths and weaknesses their hero or villain possesses and what his greatest desire is. They can then use those characters in their original fiction or graphic novel.
These are only some of the ways graphic novels can be used in the ESL classroom. The more familiar you become with that genre, the more uses you will find for them.
So the next time you are choosing a book from the shelf for your class reading project, pick up a graphic novel and see where your imagination will take you.
Comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels can be used in ESL and EFL classrooms to encourage students to read. They can also form the basis of several classroom activities that will engage students and generate discussion.
Second Language Acquisition, Reading, and Comics
In all theories of second language acquisition, input plays a role (though the role varies in importance in each of the different theories). One important form of input is reading. Reading can aid in vocabulary development, and “[…] Nagy, Herman, and Anderson (1985) argue that picking up word meanings by reading is 10 times faster than intensive vocabulary instruction” (Krashen, 1993, p. 15). Reading can also aid other skills, as “several studies confirm that those who read more in their second language also write better in that language (Salyer 1987; Janopoulos 1986; Kaplan and Palhinda 1981)” (Krashen, 1993, p. 7). Therefore, reading can and should play an important role in the second or foreign language classroom.
The most important factor in the development of reading skills is the amount of time a student actually spends reading (Cummins, 2003, p. 20). One of the ways that ESL/EFL teachers can increase the amount of time their students read is by using comics and graphic novels, which can be especially useful in second language classrooms. Not only can they provide language learners with contextualized comprehensible input, they can also engage the learner and lead him or her to explore more graphic novels or books, magazines, newspapers, and other reading materials.
Graphic novels and comics deal with spoken language differently than books do. Usually, comic book writers attempt to capture spoken language as it really occurs, complete with gaps, hesitations, and slang. In fact, “[...] comic strips [can be used] as a means to help students deal with ‘the ambiguity, vagueness and downright sloppiness of spoken English’” by introducing “language learners to ‘ellipsis, blends, nonwords, vague lexis, confirmation checks, contrastive stress, new topic signals, nonverbal language, mitigators, [and] routine/ritual phrases’” (Cary, 2004, p. 33). These are aspects of spoken language that English textbooks might not deal with or, if they do, only as an afterthought. Comics, on the other hand, put each of these into context and make them relevant to second language learners.
Comics, specifically comic strips, usually deal with humor. They can be useful for introducing language learners to the culture and humor of English-speakers. Cary (2004) responds to the question: “Do the jokes in lots of comics make them too difficult for […] beginning second language learners?” by stating that “If read alone, yes, even with a good bilingual dictionary at the ready.” He recommends “A teacher-facilitated discussion of a ‘buddy read,’ where beginners work with native speakers or more advanced L2 learners to get the jokes, [which] can turn a comic that would have been an impenetrable and frustrating read if processed alone into something understandable, funny, and meaningful” (Cary, 2004, p. 69). In this case, not only do comics lead to laughter, they also lead to productive and relevant discussions in the second language classroom.
On the other hand, not all comic books and graphic novels are light reading. Over the past several years, more and more graphic novels have appeared that address more serious topics, such as family relationships, war, coming of age, and current events. Several of these graphic novels have won major awards, such as the Pulitzer Prize, the Hugo award, and the World Fantasy Award. As they have matured, graphic novels have moved from the realm of children and can appeal to and be used with adult students.
Visual Literacy
Just as reading a book or magazine requires a certain set of skills, so does reading a comic book or graphic novel. Comic books and graphic novels call for “visual literacy,” where students need to learn to recognize certain symbols and decode their meaning, much in the same way they do while reading texts.
In the case of comics and graphic novels, elements of visual literacy include the visual symbols and shorthand that comics use to represent the physical world. For example, two or more wavy lines rising up from something indicate smoke. With flies added, they indicate a bad smell. Lines trailing after a person or a car indicate movement. Text bubbles change their form to indicate if a person is thinking, speaking, or shouting. Also, comic book artists sometimes use a dashed or dotted outline to show invisibility or Xs in place of eyes to represent death.
ESL/EFL students who have read comics in their native language will probably be better able to decode the visual symbols in comics. For example, “they know that large, non-bubbled text is typically a sound effect and that a string of nonsense symbols like #?”@?#*?! isn’t nonsense at all but an unprintable obscenity that could make a sailor blush” (Cary, 2004, p. 62). On the other hand, comics from different countries have developed their own visual code. Asian comics sometimes use different symbols than their North American and European counterparts. While students might be able to inductively discern the meanings of most symbols, teachers should be aware that some symbols could potentially cause confusion for their students.
How to Use Comics and Graphic Novels in the Classroom
These activities can be used as stand-alone activities, or they can be used to prepare students to read an entire graphic novel or comic book.
Activity 1: Understanding Visual Symbols
Before using comics in the ESL/EFL classroom, it is a good idea to prepare students to interpret the visual symbols they might encounter in the comics. Put students into pairs or small groups and ask them how they would represent, in pictures and without using any words, the following concepts: a bad small, a telephone ringing, shouting, thinking, a ghost, and heat. After the students finish, distribute examples of the above concepts from comics. The students can then discuss the differences between their ideas and the ones the comic writers used and which they prefer.
Activity 2: Reading Order in Comics
Comic strips follow an order, left to right, that mirrors how English is read. Certain graphic novels, however, do not always follow this same straightforward pattern. Maus, by Art Speigelman, and Palestine, by Joe Sacco, are two such graphic novels. Their authors often indicate a certain mood or state by not strictly following a left to right order. Students can look at excerpts of these two graphic novels (or similar ones) and discuss the order in which they should read the page, how they know to read it in that order, and why the authors chose to present their stories in such a manner.
Activity 3: Comic Jigsaw
This is a quick activity that can be used to put students into pairs for another activity, to introduce a topic, or to provoke a discussion on humor. First, find several one panel comics. Next, separate the text from the panel. This can be done by copying the text onto a different piece of paper and then blanking out the text from the comic. Finally, distribute these items to students, making sure that each student has either some text or a panel. Students will need to talk to each other and try to match their panel to text or their text to a panel. When students have found their match, they can sit down together.
Activity 4: Fill in the Text
This is an activity where students must generate text based on pictures. Choose a comic strip or a scene from a graphic novel or comic book, then cover the text in the speech bubbles and make photo copies. Distribute these copies to your students, and have them write text in the blank speech bubbles.
This activity can be used to encourage use of new vocabulary or expressions or as a continuation of a lesson (i.e., in a business English class, students can read and discuss Dilbert comics, then create their own). Students can work separately or in pairs to create their comics, then can have a competition to see who has created the funniest comic. Students who worked in pairs on comics that have two characters can even perform their comics in front of the class.
Activity 5: Creating Pictures
This activity is the opposite of the previous activity. Instead of creating text, students have to draw pictures to accompany text. The text can come from comics or can come from a book or even a poem. This activity is not only for younger learners, as it can force adults to examine the subtexts of speech and determine how to represent it pictorially.
Activity 6: Putting Panels in Order
In this activity, students are given comic strip panels that have been cut apart, and they must work together to put them in order. Students must use their knowledge of joke structure or conversation patterns to put the images in order.
Activity 7: Creating Comics
Particularly creative or open students can be given the task of creating their own comics. After completing other activities with comics or after reading and responding to comics, students can work together or individually to create their own comics on a given theme, either by drawing them or by cutting and pasting pictures from a magazine or newspaper.
Resources
Comic Strips are as close as the nearest newspaper; they can also be found on the internet at www.comics.com. Also on the internet are Archie comics with definitions and discussion questions geared towards ESL students (www.archiecomics.com/podcasts). McCloud has created an interactive comic which can be accessed at http://www.baciamistupido.com/html/index.asp?page=Carl, and Marvel comics can be accessed (for a monthly fee) at www.marvel.com.
There are several graphic novels that can be used with adult students. Friedrich’s Roadstrips is an anthology of short comics created by various artists in different parts of the United States. Nakazawa’s autobiographical Barefoot Gen series tells the story of life in Japan after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Sacco has written several journalistic graphic novels, including one on Palestine and several on Bosnia and Sarajevo. Satrapi’s Persepolis recounts her life growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Speigelman’s Maus is about his father’s experiences during the Holocaust. Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan examines the relationship between a father and son.
For additional ideas, Gravett’s Graphic Novels examines several graphic novels and comic books, dividing them by genre and providing short excerpts of some.
Bibliography
Cary, S. (2004). Going graphic: Comics at work in the multilingual classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Cummins, J. (2003). Reading and the bilingual student: Fact and friction. In Garcia, G. (Ed.). English learners: Reaching the highest level of English literacy (pp. 2-33). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Friedrich, P. (2005). Roadstrips: A graphic journey across America. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
Gravett, P. (2005). Graphic novels: Stories to change your life. New York: Collins Design.
Krashen, S. (1993). The power of reading: Insights from the research. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Inc.
McCloud, S., & Slavador, M. (2002). Carl. Retrieved April 15, 2006, from the World Wide Web: http://www.baciamistupido.com/html/index.asp?page=Carl
Nakazawa, K. (2004). Barefoot Gen (Project Gen, Trans.). San Francisco: Last Gasp.
Sacco, J. (1993). Palestine. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books.
Satrapi, M. (2003). Persepolis: The story of a childhood (L’Association, Trans.). New York: Pantheon Books.
Speigelman, A. (1986). Maus II: And here my troubles began. New York: Random House.
Spiegelman, A. (1980). Maus I: My father bleeds history. New York: Random House.
Ware, C. (2000). Jimmy Corrigan: The smartest kid on earth. New York: Pantheon Books.
The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XIV, No. 7, July 2008
http://iteslj.org/
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Derrick-UsingComics.html
Who Teaches the Watchmen?
When I was a kid, I had no interest in comics at all. Before we’d go on family vacations, mom would take us to a newsstand and suggest that we choose some comic books to read in the car, and though I did pick some out, they really didn’t capture my attention.
It wasn’t until college, when I audited a course called “Masters of Horror,” that I began a flirtation with the form. The professor, Pete Dumanis, showed us the story “Foul Play” from the old EC line (issue #19 of Haunt of Fear). One baseball player murdered another one, and his teammates took revenge for the crime. The final image, of the teammates using his body parts to play a macabre game of baseball, really hooked me. When I told mom about this story, she bought me the five volume reprints of the Tales from the Crypt, still one of my prized possessions.
However, while I loved reading (and rereading) those books, I still wasn’t a comic book fan. That happened at Purdue University, while I was working on my Ph.D. in English. A buddy of mine, the G-Man—yes, that’s what we called him—insisted that I read a comic book called Watchmen. I told G-Man that I didn’t like comics, but he asked me to trust him. Now, I didn’t really trust G, but since I was tired of studying for my departmental exam in rhetoric, I figured it would be a good diversion. This was around 1988 or 1989.
I opened up the book, and I never really put it down. Watchmen led me to The Dark Knight Returns and Gotham by Gaslight. From thence…well, my wife tells me that I need to do something with all these boxes of comic books. All things considered, though, she tolerates my jones with pretty good humor.
Like many addicts, I blame my Wednesday runs to the comic-book store on other folks—namely, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. The universe they created is, to use highly technical terminology, really cool. I was attracted to their idea that, if superheroes actually existed, they would be mentally unbalanced, like Rorschach, or fundamentally inhuman and remote, like Dr. Manhattan, a geeky fanboy like Dan Dreiberg, or a raging sociopath like the Comedian.
The atmosphere of Cold War paranoia had, and still has, resonance for me. I was in college for all of Ronald Reagan’s administration, and his stridently anti-Soviet line frightened me. His joke about outlawing Russia and sending the missiles flying, his Strategic Defense Initiative, all the things I feared in the real world were reflected in Watchmen. I have read the book every year, and sometimes twice a year, ever since the first time I “trusted” the G-Man. It tops my list of “desert island” books. You know the desert island game: If you were trapped on a desert island, what five records or books or girlfriends would you take, etc. Watchmen is number one of the five books I have to have on that island.
My love of this text finally compelled me to teach it to my senior British literature students for the first time this year. However, I’ve been building to this point slowly. For several years, I had been bringing comics into the classroom with my ninth graders. When I taught freshmen, I did a film unit, showing them how to analyze movies in terms of camera angle, editing, montage, soundtrack, and so on.
Although I showed a variety of films over the years, I began using Unbreakable and, later, Batman Begins. Since both of these movies concern the birth of the hero, I introduced the unit with comic-book origin stories: Superman, Batman, Spiderman, the Alan Scott and Hal Jordan Green Lanterns, the Jay Garrick Flash, and several others. We’d read them and then discuss what repetitions we see from character to character—for many of them, a death spurred them to become heroes.
Even Clark Kent became a hero only after his foster parents died. Thus, we saw that heroism is often rooted in personal tragedy. We also examined the oppositions between characters, particularly how they gained powers, if they had them at all, and their motivations for doing what they do. For example, we consider how Superman, being raised with the sense that he must use his powers for good, became a positive hero; how Batman, with his revenge motive, became a dark character; and how Spiderman’s sense of guilt for Uncle Ben’s death obliged him to do penance as a crime fighter.
So, for several years, that was the limit of my comic-book teaching, and I approached it as literary analysis. The culminating assignment of that unit was to create a superhero or supervillain and write that character’s origin story. Many students enjoyed the comic-book unit, others hated it, but for the most part, it fostered critical thinking and some imaginative writing.
My second step toward my Watchmen unit came last year. Five of us English teachers were charged with rewriting the whole Basic English curriculum, and I took responsibility for ninth grade. One marking period was designated for nonfiction, and I slipped in a subunit that included three graphic nonfiction texts: Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese, Art Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, and Andrew Helfer’s Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography. Ironically, this year I was switched from English 9 to English 11, so I cannot teach the unit I created, and those who do teach it have little experience with comics.
All that brings me to this year. Spurred on by the impending movie release, I conjured the guts to ask my department head for permission to teach Watchmen. After a quick pitch, referring to the emerging use of graphic novels in the classroom, a reference to high-interest reading, and a quick iteration of the vital themes in the text, she agreed with little effort on my part. Not wanting to push my luck, I asked for the money for one class set of 30 Watchmen books to be used for my three British Literature classes. That was a mistake. I should have asked for 90 copies. The greatest weakness with the unit thus far is that we need to spend large amounts of class time simply reading the book. I’ll rectify that error next year.
When I announced to my classes that we would read and discuss Watchmen this year, the enthusiasm of the response surprised me. It’s fair to say that some worked themselves into a frenzy. “Can we start Watchmen now?” students often asked me.
“Soon,” I’d respond. “We still have to finish The Canterbury Tales.”
“Ah, man, I can’t wait.” I never get that response when I say we’re reading Hamlet.
The faculty reaction has been very positive, as well. We are fortunate that at Williamsport Area High School, our colleagues will support anyone who tries to do something innovative for the benefit of the students. A couple teachers praised me for going out of my way to learn and teach something that the students will like, and I pursed my lips and folded my hand—all very pious and self-sacrificing—and replied that I’ll do anything for the kids. It was a load of garbage, of course. Teaching Watchmen is more for me than for them, truth to tell.
A few teachers were so interested, they asked to borrow the book. One of them has made Moore’s novel an optional replacement for Orwell’s 1984, as long as the students buy the book themselves, and she is ordering a class set of her own next year. She liked the book so much she began a Watchmen reading group with some of her students. Not bad for a woman who never cracked a comic before this year. All of the teachers who read the book were surprised by its depth.
But now to the meat of the matter. Because of the nudity, sex, and violence in the book, I offered my standard disclaimer that anyone who does not want to encounter the graphic material will be permitted to read an alternate text. None availed themselves of that opportunity, so we charged ahead with the unit.
Watchmen, being set in 1985, and its tone rooted in 1980s nuclear and anti-Soviet paranoia that gave rise to movies like War Games, Red Dawn, and The Day After, required some historical background. Therefore, our first activity leading to Watchmen was a short research project. We went to the library, and the students had a choice of topic, related to historical events or cultural trends related to aspects of the novel. They could investigate the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Manhattan Project, the Strategic Defense Initiative, Reagan’s Soviet policy, Bernard Goetz (as a flaky Rorschach analogue), and many other topics. They were to write a short paper on that topic, and I composed one for them on the Doomsday Clock.
As of this writing, we are only midway through the novel, since they have to do all the reading in class, which slows our discussions considerably. When I get additional books next year, that problem will be solved. At the moment, we are talking about differing concepts of justice amongst the characters. For Rorschach, a number of students have identified an Old Testament eye-for-an-eye aspect to his sense of justice, and they respond to his unwillingness to compromise his principles. He is by far my students’ favorite character. They also have recognized that Dr. Manhattan does not have a sense of justice at all. When I asked a student a couple of days ago why she thought that about Manhattan, she said, “Well, justice is for humans, and he isn’t human. He just doesn’t care.” In other words, my students are getting it.
We discuss other issues as well, such as the different motivations for characters to put on the costume. The students see the psychological damage of Rorschach, the simple love of violence for the Comedian, the parental pressure on Laurie, and the strange mix of adolescent idealism and sexual thrill of Dan Drieberg. They haven’t yet got a read on Adrian Veidt, and I want to keep them in the dark about him as long as possible.
They are also responding well to the artwork, noticing the visual echoes throughout the book: how the blood-streaked smiley face becomes a smear of dust on Nite Owl’s goggles, a drip of ketchup on a smiley face T-shirt, the Doomsday Clock itself, and many others. Students have pointed out how the “camera work” at the beginning of chapter one is echoed at the end of the same chapter—an extreme closeup of the smiley face button and then zooming out to the top of the skyline.
They’ve discovered visual connections on their first read that I never saw in my 20 years’ experience with the book. Although there are people who are obviously not excited about doing a comic book, it affects a much smaller percentage than any other text I have taught. Many of them have bought their own copies, they like the story so much. No one has ever done that with Beowulf, at least not my students.
I am excited for them to read the ending of the novel—some already have—because that is when we will really hit what to me is the most important theme: Does the end ever justify the means? If possible, this text, though rooted in the 1980s, is more important now than it was then. It is impossible now to look at the opening pages of chapter 12 and not think of the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
Adrian Veidt’s act of mass murder is an abomination, but it is an act that can potentially save the world (a possibility undercut by Moore and Gibbon’s very last panel). But if the murder of three million New Yorkers could save the world from almost certain destruction, would it be worth it? Could an act of terrorism ever be justifiable? And consider the moral compromise of all the other heroes, save for Rorschach, who will keep Veidt’s terrible secret.
By the end, Watchmen is a profoundly disturbing novel. I hope, as we get to the end, to open up the debate about the morality of this event. After all, isn’t a discussion of means and ends, as well as moral compromise, as universal and as important as Hamlet’s philosophical ramblings about death and revenge?
But we haven’t gotten there yet. I’m partway through my first teaching of this novel. I’ll let you know how things went when we’re done. Wish me luck.—John C. Weaver, English Teacher, Williamsport Area High School, Williamsport, PA
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I have all of no idea who you are. I do however hope that I get a teacher like you--Watchmen is such an amazing piece of work and it\'s awesome that someone would bring it into curriculum. Another \'disturbing\' graphic novel I enjoyed was From Hell.
Uhh... That\'s all I really have to say, I\'m not that articulate as an eighth grader.
Kaeli (not verified) at Sat, 05/02/2009 - 10:11
This is one of two graphic novels (the other is Understanding Comics) which I recommend to EVERYONE. I, too, read it at least once a year, but there is always something new to discover. (Until a recent bookgroup, I never considered the misogyny in the text.)
Have fun with Chapter Five! You may want to make a scroll by taping the pages together so that your students can visualize the fearful symmetry of the chapter.
Torsten Adair (not verified) at Sat, 03/14/2009 - 16:39
A terrific piece, John, and a terrific subject. I love that you have your students study up on the socio-political environment in which the original comic was born. I think a lot of people watching the movie now as their first introduction to the story don\'t fully get what Moore was responding to.
You might have them read up a bit on Thatcherism, as well. For the more ambitious, a terrific comparative reading project would be Watchmen and Jonathan Coe\'s brilliant and angry satire of Thatcher\'s Britain, The Winshaw Legacy, or, What a Carve Up!
Keep up the great work. I hope you\'ll update us with how things turned out at the end of your term...
Karen Green (not verified) at Sat, 03/14/2009 - 10:25
John,
Great work. It sounds like you have built some solid curriculum around Watchmen. I\'m experimenting this year in my classroom with my newly discovered love of graphic novels. I teach high school ESL (English as a Second Language) and have found some great success in the novels I\'ve taught so far this year with my advanced classes--American Born Chinese and Maus. I\'ve found that the form works especially well with English Language Learners because of the visual support, once they get used to the form....and it\'s really drawn in some of my struggling readers! I\'m thinking about writing my upcoming Master\'s thesis on using graphic novels in the ESL classroom...I\'m so glad there\'s a forum like this to see what others are doing out there!
Jess Holte (not verified) at Fri, 03/13/2009 - 09:16
Dear John,
I wish there were more teachers like you.
Awesome and inspiring is how I describe your contribution to your calling.
regards
Kenny
Kenny Chan (not verified) at Fri, 03/13/2009 - 00:31
John,
Thanks so much for sharing your experiences with this book! I taught it for the first time this past fall in a high school English elective on graphic novels. We focused on more of the formal aspects of the book as an example of storytelling in the comics medium, but you\'ve opened up new possibilities for me and my students.
Michael Hancock (not verified) at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 20:45
Fantastic work, John. I taught Jeff Smith\'s Bone at my junior high school in suburban Chicago, and though I was thrilled at the level of engagement and analysis, I long for the kinds of discussions that a work like Watchmen elicits. Solid work.
I\'m also interested in collaborating with any comics/literature scholars. I\'ve spoken at a few comics conferences at my Michigan State University (though won\'t be at the upcoming one), and am always looking for great ideas. eric dot federspiel at gmail dot com.
@James Bucky Carter I\'ve read your work as well. Impressive!
Eric Federspiel (not verified) at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 20:06
Ok, you have sold me, without meaning to. I am going to buy a copy, read it, and perhaps jump on your bandwagon. All of those big idea issues you mention are near and dear to my heart! Great posting John!
Angela L. (not verified) at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 14:20
Hi, John! Great work here. As a comics-and-literacy scholar and someone who has taught Watchmen to multiple college-level classes and is deeply interested in how one utilizes it pedagogically (indeed, I\'ve got an essay on how I have taught it with college-level students upcoming in an MLA publication), I would love to talk with you personally about this! Feel free to e-mail me at jbcarter2 at utep dot edu. It is very exciting to see someone teaching this text at the high school level.
James Bucky Carter (not verified) at T
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