Visual Project HW

• Connecting Comics to Curriculum: Strategies for Grades 6-12 by Karen W Gavigan and Mindy Tomasevich

I chose this text at our library trip to replace it with the one I already had because this text could be paired with a comic and/or graphic novel of any choice. This text shows you an easy and effective way to teach your secondary students about graphic novels, how to write one and how to apply it to your classroom. 

1. In chapter one, it shows the elements of why a student might pick a graphic novel over a regular novel. Those being ‘speech bubbles’ ‘captions’ ‘thought bubbles’ ‘panels’ and ‘sound effects’. 

    2. In chapter two, the text taught me how to pick said graphic novel based on school criteria, the look of it and the content of it. For a fiction graphic novel you want to look for writing style, is it easy to follow, can the students understand what is going on? Also, based on the cover and the pictures is it school appropriate and will the students like the books based on the cover. Toss out: Don't judge a book by its cover. Nonfiction is the same but with added features like does, it has a table of context, glossary, and index.

     3. Chapter four and my personal favorite is teaching me how to use graphic novels in said class. Here's an example:

• Genre Sort: Purpose: this activity introduces students to graphic novels in a variety of genres. What we need and what we need to do: One table of 5-10 students. On each table, place several novels that have different genres. Provides the groups with markers and poster that are flip charts. Have the students try to identify the genres of all the books.