Graphic Novels in the Classroom

     I personally do not have any experience with graphic novels in the classroom, and I think that is a shame. I believe it would have helped me during my middle and high school years to understand the more complex text and it would have given me another route to digest the information that the teacher was trying to get me to remember. Also, illustrations coupled with words help the reader gain more understanding and builds that connection to being a good reader. An article I read online from weareteachers.com (which is a great resource for the aspiring teachers that we are) "Graphic Novels Should Play a Bigger Part in Your Classroom. Here’s Why." by Lindsay Barrett lists three major reasons why they help in the classroom. A point that Barrett brought up that I did not think about was the application to ELL students. The illustrations help with word recognition and the action in the comic itself helps with building vocabulary, since the actions are taking place right on the page. Aside from ELL's, regular students can also benefit from graphic novels. In the more complex text that we start getting into at the secondary level, it is important to not stop teaching reading. Graphic novels are a good stepping stone into complex text, since it helps the reader visualize what is happening without the added stress of making sense of the words. This will aid them to become better readers when the transition to novels is made, since the students now know how to decipher the complex text and make sense of the action happening in the story. This then aids the teacher by making it easier to get to the content and discussion of the text, instead of getting a bunch of "I don't know what's happening".  As for my future classroom, I would love to incorporate graphic novels as a stepping stone or part of an extended workshop type deal with teaching readers how to comprehend complex texts.