A collection of Graphic Novels - focused on diversity, social justice, and current issues

I will preface this entry with a confession; I am a graphic novel junkie. As an artist and avid fiction reader these little gems are my multimedia aesthetic fix. They are full of beautiful images, sounds (in the form of *boom* and *pow*), and often have exciting action-filled plots played out by emotional and intricate characters. While some graphic novels can only be found on the Internet, I prefer, and in fact crave, the smell of ink, glue, and the feel of glossy pages flipping under my fingers. I discovered graphic novels in middle school and they called to my adolescent senses. I was not the only teenager partaking of this textual drug either. And today they are more popular and readily available than ever.

Students, especially those in middle and high school, have a desire and a need to talk about current issues surrounding politics, policy, human rights, and diversity. When we bring such topics into the classroom in a respectful and honest way student voices are validated, current issues are discussed, and motivation to engage with text and learning is increased. I stumbled upon a few graphic novels that cover current issues and could serve as paired text for history, social/political science, current issues, genre study, and/or a mentor text (among other things). These topics, presented in a highly accessible multimedia format, will capture just about any teen at any reading level but can be appropriate for younger students as well.  To provide some grounding for this social justice approach to literacy, I would recommend reading Critical Literacy and Writer's Workshop: Bringing Purpose and Passion to Student Writing by Lee Heffernan. This book offers philosophical insight, practical and applicable tips, and a glimpse of the success that this form of literacy can provide. It reads fast, being only 86 pages in total, and will give you valuable information for this approach.

Read on for an annotated bibliography of these graphic novels, along with some links to lesson plans, discussion questions, and author websites and biographies...

Multiple Literacies - Virtual Exploration "We're not in Kansas anymore"

I like to call these Virtual Field Trips. Sometimes I conduct a field trip by way of pictures, video, sound, and tactile exploration. This is what John Dewey would call creating an "experience" for the students. To read more about this in more understandable terms read this article by Kevin J. Pugh & Mark Girod.

I will mention also that for ESOL and ASD students visual support and scaffolding around linguistically or conceptually difficult subjects is essential. These virtual field trips offer that scaffolding and support.

There are multiple online resources for exploring challenging and abstract concepts. The digital world is a wondrous place, full of infinitely transecting and branching Yellow Brick Roads....

More Multiple Literacies resources... Rap, Baby!

One of the cohort in my bachelor's program used a graphing rap song to solidify graphing rules and concepts with her students as she worked with them on graphing. First she explicitly went through the lyrics with them and had them rap together once. Then, as they worked in groups or individually she has the song playing quietly in the background. There is a bit of rote memorization with this particular approach, but the brilliance is that students had a positive interaction with the material. The remembering was easy and therefore the reasons behind the concepts became the focus. She could say "remember when the song says ____? What they mean by that is ____________." The other approach to this could be to have students deconstruct the text (why does the song say that?). This last approach is inquiry based and is most successful.

Students who reside primarily in their right brain are governed by musicality (among other things artistic). Rap and rhythm tap into right-brain intelligence to strengthen comprehension. ESOL students often benefit from music and rhythm because it gives them a quickly retrieved association to attach learning to. below are some content rap resources to support classroom learning...

Multiple Literacies are So Cool! - Glogster and graphic novels.

Multiple Literacies = any way humans create and exchange meaning.

I have spent some significant time looking into various ways that students can interact with text online. The most exciting find is something called a Glog. It is an online interactive presentation poster (like the old tri-fold poster-board kind - only better). Go see a really nice example of this about astronomy. This is a fantastic way for students to present their learning for a research project, be it group or individual. Students can "gallery walk" other class presentations and get a personal "tour" of the site. This allows for presentation and talk around the learning, and we all know that the more we let ELL students talk the better they will be. On edu.glogster.com watch the video of Eileen Doherty's 4th grade class for an idea of how to use glogster in your classroom. Watch the video below for a how-to tutorial.