Reading: Graphic Novels and Pleasure Reading

The ability to read is one of the most important skills that students will learn while they are in school. This is a skill that they will rely on throughout their entire life, and if they do not master it, they will face a lot of difficulty. Teachers may use a variety of techniques to help the students learn how to read and understand what they are reading, but those techniques are meaningless if the students aren’t practicing reading.

So how do we as teachers make students practice reading? Can we force books into their hands and expect results? I think the majority of us understand that this is not effective at all, but sometimes it seems to be the only option with some students. There are so many students who don’t want to read, likely because they feel that they are not good at it and it’s too much hard work, then don’t practice reading in order to become good at it. It’s a vicious downward spiral of negativity.

As teachers, it’s our responsibility to break this cycle. We need to be aware of the ways that we are teaching our students how to read. Mary Beth Hurtz suggests that standardized testing is a hurdle that many teachers are placing in front of their students without realizing what they are doing. These standardized tests evaluate the third overall expectation of the curriculum, checking to see if the students can read fluently. These teachers are focusing so much on preparing their students for these tests, providing them with passages similar to those on the tests, that they are often wringing out any enjoyment from the act of reading. When the only examples that students are given of reading are boring passages that they are forced to read about topics that they really don’t care about, how can we blame them for not wanting to pick up a book?

Source: http://www.wiziq.com/teachblog/top-five-must-read-books-for-students/

So, we need to put away the practice passages and give our students some real books to read. Geoff Richman explains that we need to provide skill appropriate choices that covers a wide range of interests, from fantasy adventure to mystery to sports. So, if we place a whole bunch of novel from different genres in front of our students, we’ve solved the problem, right? Well… no. Even though a student may find a novel with a story that they’re sure that they will enjoy, and with language that they can understand, the size of the novel might be really intimidating for them. However, something with fewer words like a magazine or a graphic novel could be exactly what the student needs. There is a perception that these types of writing are a lesser form of writing, and that students may use them as a stepping stone but that they should still be striving towards the higher form of writing, the novel. I disagree.

Source: https://chasemagnett.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/comics-vs-graphic-novels-semantic-showdown/

Graphic novels may contain fewer words than a traditional novel, but they are still considered “novels”. Andrew Miller argues that graphic novels contain the same sorts of literary elements that traditional novels have, and that they build the same critical reading skills as traditional novels. In addition, teachers who value differentiated instruction will love graphic novels, especially since a lot of classic novels have a graphic novel adaptation. The teacher can assign either the graphic or traditional novel to students according to their skill level, and then still be able to have a class discussion on the same story.

 

Source: http://www.fenelonfalls.info/cartoon-anthologies-graphic-novels/

Graphic novels are great because they can get students interested in reading for pleasure. Teachers can also use them as an example of one type of literary text as opposed to an article in a magazine (first overall expectation of the curriculum). We can also contrast them with traditional novels to examine how the different stylistic elements affect how information and meaning is communicated (second overall expectation), use the pictures as cueing system to help students understand what is happening in the plot (third overall expectation), and afterwards ask the students to reflect on what parts of the graphic they found easy to understand, and which parts were confusing (fourth overall expectation). Every student should be given an opportunity to read graphic novels, including those who are skilled at reading traditional novels, since graphic novels are beneficial for everyone.  

                                

Media Studies: Video Games and Education

Retrieved from http://quotesgram.com/quotes-love-mind-games/

For a long time, many people saw video games as a frivolous activity that was a waste of time and that distracted young people from "more important things". Some people viewed video games so negatively that they even claimed that video games were rotting children's minds. I wonder how these people would react if they heard that there are several schools that allow students to play video games in the classroom. 

Tobias Staaby is a Norwegian high school teacher who uses games such as Skyrim, The Last of Us, and The Walking Dead to teach lessons about topics as varied as ethics and narrative structure. He demonstrates that video games can be just as good as, if not better, at teaching students to think critically about the world around them as novels. Unlike a novel, which typically presents a single perspective, video games have the ability to show multiple perspectives. Role playing games (RPGs) allow players to create their own characters and force them to make decisions during the game. These games have a high level of replay-ability that encourages players to make different characters who then make different decisions throughout the game. Video games can teach students about issues that they had never realized existed, as Staaby explains when he says that in The Walking Dead "[t]he choices that you make affect the outcome of the story, and since the game presents the students with ethical dilemmas they have never encountered before, it makes for much more meaningful and engaging discussions". The video below explains how video games are able to increase students' civic engagement by teaching them about an issue while also demonstrating what they can do to address the issue.



The vehicle of video games is not only beneficial for teaching about topics like ethics and politics, but is also a fantastic way to explore various types of media and teach media literacy. Teachers can show a portion of a game and ask students to identity the different forms of media that are present in the game. One game can contain written words, graphics, sounds, and spoken words all within the same scene. Students can also compare video games to movies and novels. They can do exercises such as making a chart of the similarities and differences between these various vehicles, noting which forms of media can be present in each vehicle. Terrell Heick explains that games can be useful for teaching concepts such as tone, using the example of comparing Limbo and Little Big Planet 2. Besides comparing the tone from two works that use the same type of media, teachers can further ask students to compare the tone from two works that use different types of media, like a novel and a video game. Similar to novels, many video games contain both story arcs and character development. Since video games contain both visual and auditory components, they can appeal to a wider range of learning preferences, making it easier for some students to identify the story arcs and understand how the characters change throughout the story. 

Here are some ideas of how to use video games to teach media literacy correlating to the Grade 8 specific expectations in the Ontario Curriculum for Language: 

• "1.4 explain why different audiences (e.g., with respect to gender, age, culture, race, income level) might have different responses to a variety of media texts" (147). Teacher prompt: "Why might this game appeal to certain ages and not others? Why might this game be inappropriate for people under a certain age?" 
• "1.5 demonstrate understanding that different media texts reflect different points of view and that some texts reflect multiple points of view" (148). Teacher prompt: "What are the various organizations that you encounter in the game, and how are they different from each other? Why do these two characters have different opinions on the main character's decision?" 
• "2.1 explain how individual elements of various media forms combine to create, reinforce, and/or enhance meaning" (148). Teacher prompt: "How do the visual details in the game affect the tone of the game? How does the soundtrack enhance the game? How would this game feel different if it had a different soundtrack? How would the game be different if it had characters from other media replace the main character?" 

Retrieved from: http://wallbasehq.com/111957-minions-in-video-games/