Comics: 21st Century Literature in the Classroom (6-12)
Instructor Ann Shultz
Course Number PRDV 72424
Comics in the classroom!? Absolutely! This is a hands-on course designed as a step-by-step approach for integrating comics into your classroom. From yesteryear’s lowly comic strip to recent Pulitzer Prize winners, the medium has risen to a new level of scope and craft, worthy of use in the classroom. Indeed, comics’ multiple elements of image, text, and panel design require complex decoding to discover narrative. You will read a variety of comics and graphic novels suitable for supporting cross-curricular instruction—biographical, non-fiction titles in science and math, historical, etc.
Questions we will consider include: What is a graphic novel? Why is reading comics more challenging than reading print texts? Can pictures tell a story? Are comics literature? What does it mean to be visually literate? How does the study of comics fit into the 21st century’s need for visual literacy? You will perform independent research and bring your discoveries to class. Throughout the semester, discussions and assignments will build a conceptual framework for compiling a comics resource library for your classroom.
Required Text: The Graphic Novel Classroom, Powerful Teaching and Learning with Images, Maureen Bakis. Corwin Publishing. 2012. Bankis Companion Website.
Graphic Novel Reading List:
(May be purchased or loaned from a library.)
Eisner, Will. The Contract with God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue (A Contract With God, A Life Force, Dropsie Avenue). New York: W. W. Norton, 2005. Print.
Hinds, Gareth. The Odyssey. Somerville: Candlewick, 2011. Print.
Takako, Shimura. Wandering Son, Book 1. Trans. Matt Thorn. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2011. Print.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History. New York: Pantheon, 1986. Print.
- - -. Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here my Troubles Began. New York: Pantheon, 1991. Print.
Stamaty, Mark Alan. Alia's Mission: Saving the Books of Iraq. New York: Random House Books for Young Readers, 2004. N. pag. Print.
Yang, Gene. American Born Chinese. New York: Square Fish, 2011. Print.
Location: Online
Framingham State University - 3 graduate credits
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