Does the use of
comics and graphic novels (hard copy/electronic versions) within the primary
literacy curriculum undermine the values of the classroom or do they offer
opportunities for learning?
Comics have attracted a lot of criticism for their literary opportunities.
Many believe that there is a need for censorship and in some cases complete
banning (Millard and Marsh, 2001). It is widely seen that if children choose to
read comics instead of ‘traditional’ literature they are “denying themselves
encounters with more ‘nourishing’ material” (Millard and Marsh, 2001:25).
Millard and Marsh (2001) state that in the majority of cases they are only used
within the classroom in wet playtimes.
However, there are many benefits for teaching literacy using
comics. They are engaging and give children motivation to read (Millard and
Marsh, 2001),they promote reading for
pleasure and could help teachers become more comfortable with using digital
literacy and popular culture in the classroom (Education Scotland: online). It
could be a gateway into children reading the ‘less engaging’ texts of the
traditional classroom.
However, it must be noted that many comics are aimed at an
older age-range than Primary, and therefore when being introduced into the
classroom, they need to be assessed by teachers for inappropriate content like violence,
swearing, adult content and sexualisation (Stafford, 2009).
Education Scotland (online) lists ways in which comics have
been used in their curriculum, for example; used to teach layout and structure
of story; moving from reading comics to writing them; and using them for debate
and tackling issues in Citizenship. Stafford (2009) also promotes the use of
comics, suggesting that they are indeed a challenging media to read themselves
and can be used with comprehension – they pictures being used to help with inferential,
deductive and evaluative questions.
Whilst on the second year placement in school, their current
topic was superheroes. Therefore a lot of their activities involved reading
comics, writing captions and speech bubbles. It was seen by teacher, pupils’
and parents as one of the best topics they did and that it created so many
literary opportunities as well as other curriculum opportunities like PSHE and
Citizenship.
Millard, E. & Marsh, J. (2001) Sending
Minnie the Minx Home: comics and reading choices Cambridge Journal of Education
31:1
Learning and Teaching Scotland:
Graphic Novels in the Curriculum http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/resources/g/graphicnovels
Stafford,
T. (2009) ‘Teaching comics’ in Duncan, D. (2009) Teaching Children’s
Literature: Making stories work in classrooms Abingdon: Routledge
Your findings are very similar to that of my own. The challenge of the senstive content that can sometimes appear in comics is one that at first challenged me especially when they are exposed to this material outside of school anyway. As you suggest teachers need to assess this, teachers will each know their class and what content is therefore appropriate.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting to hear the results of the teachers and parents attitude towards the super hero project . The cross curricular links with pshe is something I would use in the classroom as I had not thought about using comics within pshe.
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