Class, Please Open Your Comics: Essays on Teaching with Graphic Narratives

by Matthew L. Miller (Editor)

Overview

Comics and sequential art are increasingly in use in college classrooms. Multimodal, multimedia and often collaborative, the graphic narrative format has entered all kinds of subject areas and its potential as a teaching tool is still being realized.

This collection of new essays presents best practices for using comics in various educational settings, beginning with the basics.

Contributors explain the need for teachers to embrace graphic novels. Multimodal composition is demonstrated by the use of comics. Strategies are offered for teachers who have struggled with weak visual literacy skills among students.

Student-generated comics are discussed with several examples. The teaching of postmodern theories and practices through comics is covered. An appendix features assignment sheets so teachers can jump right in with proven exercises.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476619170
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	04/22/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	284
File size:	15 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Matthew L. Miller is an associate professor of English at the University of South Carolina Aiken. He has published articles on multicultural literature and comics in Ethnic Studies Review, The Comics Journal, and the International Journal of Comic Art, and lives in Graniteville, South Carolina.
Matthew L. Miller is an associate professor of English at the University of South Carolina Aiken. He has published articles on multicultural literature and comics in Ethnic Studies Review, The Comics Journal, and the International Journal of Comic Art, and lives in Graniteville, South Carolina.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction—Graphic Novel Pedagogy: Starting to Learn Together (Matthew L. Miller)
Section I. Getting Started: Advice for Beginners
Working on Understanding Comics: Introducing the Teacher to the Graphic Novel (Cecile de Rocher)
Comics as Literature, Comics as Culture: Teaching Graphic Fiction in the Undergraduate Classroom (Michael Buso)
Comics Make Great Prompts: Using Graphic Novels to Teach Writing in College Classrooms (Karen W. Gavigan)
Section II. Encountering Challenges: Graphic Novels in Various Settings
“Outside the Box”: Teaching Graphic Narrative in the Multicultural Community College (David Bahr)
Graphic Interventions: Introducing the Graphic Novel into the Classroom in a Small, Rural College Setting (Travis W. Johnson and Jeremy Reed)
(Religious) Fun Homes: Teaching the Lesbian Feminist Graphic Novel in a Catholic University (Scott A. Dimovitz)
Section III. Writing for Multimodality: Graphic Novels in Contemporary Composition
Multimodality 101: Graphic Narratives and Multimodal Composition (Andrew Bourelle)
Talismans: Using Comics to Teach Multimodal Writing (Aaron Kashtan)
More than Storyboards: Maintaining a Space for Graphic Novels in the Face of Film Adaptation (Jason Salinas)
Section IV. Reaching Beyond Limits: Complex Teaching Methods
Teaching Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home: The Construction of a Modernist Lesbian Graphic Novel (Julia Klimek)
Coming to Terms with the Past: Teaching German History with the Graphic Novel (Elizabeth Nijdam)
Defending the Graphic Novel: An Introduction to Literary Theory (Michael Demson)
Section V. Self-Reflexivity, Intertextuality and Other Scary Terms:
Postmodernism in Graphic Novels
Old Father, New Artificer: Teaching Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home as Postmodern Literature (Jeffrey Roessner and Eithne Amos)
Author/Character: Persepolis as a Gateway to Reading Metafictional Novels (Rhonda Knight)
Intertextual Journeys: Black Culture, Speculative Fiction and the Past as Text in Jeremy Love’s Bayou (Qiana Whitted)
Section VI. Looking Ahead: Graphic Novel Education for the Future
Doing Justice to the Graphic Novel: Comics as Curriculum in Young Adult Literature (Amanda M. Greenwell)
A Mission: Why Should 21st Century Secondary Language Arts Educators Teach Reading and Writing with Graphic Novels? (Katie Monnin)
Appendix: Best Practices Assignments
History Assignment (Karen W. Gavigan)
Panel-to-Panel Drawing Exercise (David Bahr)
(Auto)Biographical Short Story (Scott A. Dimovitz)
Memoir Assignment (Andrew Bourelle)
Comics Analysis (Aaron Kashtan)
Composing a Graphic Novel (Jason Salinas)
Podcast Assignment (Michael Demson)
Theoretical Application (Matthew L. Miller)
Exploring Adaptation in Historical Comics (Qiana Whitted)
Creative Assignment (Qiana Whitted)
Prompts for ­Close-Reading Graphic Narratives (Amanda M. Greenwell)
Teaching the Key Elements of Story (Katie Monnin)
About the Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

will be useful for teachers who would like to include graphic narratives in a course but are uncertain how to do it or those who are interested in using these texts more effectively in their classes...recommended”—Choice.

From the Publisher