Connecting Comics to Curriculum: Strategies for Grades 6-12

by Karen W. Gavigan, Mindy Tomasevich

Overview

Here is the essential guide for librarians and teachers who want to develop a quality, curriculum-based graphic novel collection—and use its power to engage and inform middle and high school students.

Connecting Comics to Curriculum: Strategies for Grades 6–12 provides an introduction to graphic novels and the research that supports their use in schools. The book examines best curriculum practices for using graphic novels with students in grades 6–12, showing teachers and school librarians how they can work together to incorporate these materials across the secondary curriculum.

Designed to be an essential guide to harnessing the power of graphic novels in schools, the book covers every aspect of graphic novel use in libraries and classrooms. It illuminates the criteria for selecting titles, explores collection development strategies, and suggests graphic novel tie-ins for subjects taught in secondary schools. One of the first books to provide in-depth lesson plans for teaching a variety of middle and high school standards with graphic novels, the guide offers suggestions for differentiating instruction and includes resource lists of recommended titles and websites.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781598847680
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/29/2011
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	180
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Karen W. Gavigan is assistant professor in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC.

Mindy Tomasevich is a media specialist and national board certified teacher at Mills Park Middle School, Cary, NC.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Comics and Curriculum: Getting Started with Graphic Novels
2 Criteria, Curriculum, and Conundrums
3 Here You Come to Save the Day: Building Your Graphic Novel Collection
4 Introducing Graphic Novels to Your Colleagues and Students
5 Manga 101
6 Superhero Graphic Novels: A Super Way to Lure Readers
7 Comics and Curriculum: Strategies and Lesson Plans
8 More Powerful Than a Locomotive: Teaching English Language Arts with Graphic Novels
9 The Write Stuff: Teaching Writing with Graphic Novels
10 Connecting with the Classics: Graphic Novel Adaptations
11 Legendary Resources: Traditional Literature in Graphic Novels
12 Biographies and Autobiographies: Memoirs, Manga, and More
13 Science-Based Graphic Novels in Schools: A Successful Experiment
14 Don't Know Much about History: Teaching Social Studies with Graphic Novels
15 Vote Yes!: Using Graphic Novels to Teach Political Science
16 Nonstandard Deviation: Math Plus Graphic Novels
17 Picture This: Teaching Fine Arts with Graphic Novels
18 Coming of Age with Comics: Social Issues in Graphic Novels
Appendix 1 A Suggested Core List of Graphic Novel Titles for Middle School Students
Appendix 2 A Suggested Core List of Graphic Novel Titles for High School Students
Index

Editorial Reviews

Both Gavigan and Tomasevich put their experience in education to good use in this book, which is both jam-packed with useful resources and presented in a casual, friendly tone. A lot of ground is covered, from simply getting started using comics to having the classroom create their own comic to using science-based graphic novels. . . . The book is most impressive in its coverage of lesson plans and suggested titles. The latter, in particular, is fun to look through. It gives an amazingly broad sense of how useful comics can be in the classroom, and how many genres are covered in this wide-reaching format.” —Graphic Novel Reporter

From the Publisher