Learning, One Panel at a Time

The aforementioned article discussed the use of comic books in the classroom as a literacy tool. The Comic Book Project is an arts-based literacy and learning initiative started in 2001 by Dr. Michael Bitz, Ed.D of Manhattanville College. It's hosted by the Teachers College at Columbia University with materials published by Dark Horse Comics. The goal of the project is to help children improve their literacy skills by writing, designing, and publishing original comic books. Putting the children in the role of creators, the Comic Book Project engages children in the reading and writing process as children write and draw about their personal experiences and interests. The program's objectives are three-fold:

1. Academic Reinforcement: Children reinforce and improve their literacy skills through the arts by engaging in a fun, project-oriented, and creative process.

2. Social and Character Development: Children use the project as a pathway to personal understanding and cultural tolerance, which are illustrated by their own artistic creations and displayed in a variety of formats.

3. Community Building: Children spread positive messages to other children and adults in the community via the distribution of their work to community outlets such as schools, after-school programs, and community centers.

The program doesn't come without its fair share of doubters, however. Author and New York University education professor Diane Ravitch is one of them.

Comics most often use too-simple story lines and language. Students are not encouraged to think in complex ways about how language is used. Comic books are no more educational than watching children's favorite TV programs.

Every Picture Tells a Story

Shockingly, Professor Ravitch is missing the big picture here. When a person is reading a comic book, they are reading a layering of text that involves both the written word and pictures. The reader must interpret what the characters are saying in conjunction with their facial expressions to really get a feel for the story, forcing them to pick up inferences provided by the author and illustrator. In essence, the pictures tell the story along with the text. I wonder where I've heard all of this before? Oh yeah, in my undergraduate studies, when discussing why picture books are effective for emerging readers.

Bollocks!

What I don't need is research to tell me that using comic books in the classroom works or doesn't work (being that most research about education is disconnected from the classroom anyway). I am living, walking proof that it works. In elementary school, I was known as a "non-reader." It wasn't that I couldn't read, however; I just wasn't interested in what my teachers had to offer. If it weren't for comic books, I would not be a reader today. As a child, I would scour the newspaper for the daily strips and hide Superman and Captain America comic books in my book bag, praying that the evil nuns wouldn't take them away. When it came time for summer reading, Calvin and Hobbes provided me with a productive hour when it came time for my daily reading; I cleverly hid the anthologies under my mattress. Comic books provided me with a foundation of necessary skills to build upon, and turned me in to an efficient, successful student.

I still have my favorite strips that I read on a daily basis. And while I've grown out of comic books for the most part (I've graduated to graphic novels), they will always hold a place in my heart, because every school year I see a student in my class who was just like me and couldn't care less about Charlotte and her stupid web.