Questions to Ask Students about Graphic Novels
(Chun, 2009) (Wallace, 2001)
1. Why has this text been written?
2. What is the topic of this text?
3. Who is this text addressed to?
1. Why has this text been written?
2. What is the topic of this text?
3. Who is this text addressed to?
Graphic Novel Discussion and Activities
PRE-READING ACTIVITIES
PICTURE WALK: Asking students to complete a picture walk through a graphic novel, even at the high school level, can help students to activate their schema or prior knowledge.
PRE-READING DISCUSSION: Talking about the title, the cover, and the blurbs on the back of the book also help students to access prior knowledge.
ANTICIPATION GUIDE: Anticipation guides, especially for nonfiction graphic novels, help teachers to monitor their students’ prior knowledge.
ESTABLISH A PURPOSE FOR READING: After accessing prior knowledge, helping students to develop a purpose for reading (by using a graphic organizer such as a K-W-L Chart [Ogle, 1986, 1989] for nonfiction or information text) encourages students to stay focused and actively read.
PRE-TEACHING VOCABULARY: Graphic novels may feature difficult vocabulary words. Pre-teaching key
vocabulary words can help students be successful with reading.
DURING READING ACTIVITIES
READING JOURNALS: Asking students to complete reading journals while they read teaches them skills for note-taking. Reading journals could be composed in dialogue journal entry formats or could ask students to jot down answers to specific questions. Reading journals also help students prepare for discussions about the graphic novel by asking them to record key ideas, personal reflections, quotes, questions, or points for discussion.
SKETCH RESPONSES: Students can also sketch reactions to the book, helping them to practice interpreting the text or conveying ideas by creating images.
ANNOTATION: Annotating the graphic novel (point out key ideas or literary elements) helps students to engage the text actively. They can pose questions to the author in their annotations, helping them to question why the graphic novelist employed certain techniques or pointing out discrepancies in the text. Annotation, though typically done on the pages of the book itself, can also be accomplished with post-it notes.
QUESTIONING: By developing questions about the graphic novel as they are reading, students stay active in the reading process. These questions can be about character, plot, technique, etc. Students can also write down questions about ideas or concepts for which they need clarity. Asking students to compose three types of questions (literal [i.e., what happens], analytical [i.e., author technique], or global [i.e., connections to self, other books, or world events]) helps students to think about the novel more critically.
CONNECTING: Forming connections with characters, events, or scenarios while reading helps students to not only actively read the text, but to also critically respond to the text. Text-to-Self, Text-to-Text, and Text- to-World Connections can all be recorded in their reading journals.
POST-READING ACTIVITIES
CONFERENCING: In classrooms in which students practice Reader-Response (Rosenblatt, 1965), conferences can help teachers to monitor comprehension. After reading, a teacher can ask students to explain their response to the text as well as ask how he/she achieved that response and can intervene when students demonstrate difficulties with comprehension.
DISCUSSION: Asking students to discuss their responses to the text helps them to participate in communal discussion. By utilizing discussion groups, literature circles (Daniels, 1994), or Socratic seminars, teachers help students to negotiate meaning about a text. After working with a peer or small group, engaging students in whole class discussions helps the class to discuss the theme of a graphic novel, characters, plot, author technique, etc. Students can use their reading journals to ask ques- tions, discuss connections, or raise points for discussion.
COMPLETING GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS: Graphic organizers such as the Venn Diagram (for comparisons), a T-Chart (for cause-and-effect or problem-solution), the K-W-L chart (Ogle, 1986), or the Comprehension Windows Strategy [Bass & Woo, 2008] for nonfiction or informational text can help teachers monitor student under standing after reading.
CREATING: When students create based on what they read, they are not only demonstrating that they compre hend the text, they are also reflecting on their comprehension. Asking students to create stories from other characters’ points-of-view, especially as a graphic novel, can help students think about the process of writing. Utilizing the writing process and Writer’s Workshop helps students to learn the stages of writing and the process for publication, helping them to see that writing takes time. This will also help students respect how authors, especially graphic novelists, create books. These works could then become classroom books which can be used for reading lessons. As an example, students can use the genre of Rapunzel’s Revenge (a fractured fairy tale) to write their own graphic novel about a fractured fairy tale.
RETELLING AND ASSESSMENTS: Retellings of a completed chapter, story, or novel, even with a graphic novel, help teachers to moni tor student comprehension. Assessments such as tests and quizzes, if appropriately designed, can also help assess comprehension. Assessment of comprehension also occurs in conferences or discussions or by examining reading journals, annotations, or graphic organizers.
* PLEASE NOTE: All of the above information is directly quoted from Brian Kelley's positional paper: Sequential Art, Graphic Novels, and Comics: A Position Paper , a paper co-sponsored by the New Jersey Reading Association, state affiliate of the Inter- national Reading Association And Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Graphic Novels Special Interest Group of the International Reading Association. Retrieved November 23, 2012 from www.sanejournal.net/article/download/7252/5152
PICTURE WALK: Asking students to complete a picture walk through a graphic novel, even at the high school level, can help students to activate their schema or prior knowledge.
PRE-READING DISCUSSION: Talking about the title, the cover, and the blurbs on the back of the book also help students to access prior knowledge.
ANTICIPATION GUIDE: Anticipation guides, especially for nonfiction graphic novels, help teachers to monitor their students’ prior knowledge.
ESTABLISH A PURPOSE FOR READING: After accessing prior knowledge, helping students to develop a purpose for reading (by using a graphic organizer such as a K-W-L Chart [Ogle, 1986, 1989] for nonfiction or information text) encourages students to stay focused and actively read.
PRE-TEACHING VOCABULARY: Graphic novels may feature difficult vocabulary words. Pre-teaching key
vocabulary words can help students be successful with reading.
DURING READING ACTIVITIES
READING JOURNALS: Asking students to complete reading journals while they read teaches them skills for note-taking. Reading journals could be composed in dialogue journal entry formats or could ask students to jot down answers to specific questions. Reading journals also help students prepare for discussions about the graphic novel by asking them to record key ideas, personal reflections, quotes, questions, or points for discussion.
SKETCH RESPONSES: Students can also sketch reactions to the book, helping them to practice interpreting the text or conveying ideas by creating images.
ANNOTATION: Annotating the graphic novel (point out key ideas or literary elements) helps students to engage the text actively. They can pose questions to the author in their annotations, helping them to question why the graphic novelist employed certain techniques or pointing out discrepancies in the text. Annotation, though typically done on the pages of the book itself, can also be accomplished with post-it notes.
QUESTIONING: By developing questions about the graphic novel as they are reading, students stay active in the reading process. These questions can be about character, plot, technique, etc. Students can also write down questions about ideas or concepts for which they need clarity. Asking students to compose three types of questions (literal [i.e., what happens], analytical [i.e., author technique], or global [i.e., connections to self, other books, or world events]) helps students to think about the novel more critically.
CONNECTING: Forming connections with characters, events, or scenarios while reading helps students to not only actively read the text, but to also critically respond to the text. Text-to-Self, Text-to-Text, and Text- to-World Connections can all be recorded in their reading journals.
POST-READING ACTIVITIES
CONFERENCING: In classrooms in which students practice Reader-Response (Rosenblatt, 1965), conferences can help teachers to monitor comprehension. After reading, a teacher can ask students to explain their response to the text as well as ask how he/she achieved that response and can intervene when students demonstrate difficulties with comprehension.
DISCUSSION: Asking students to discuss their responses to the text helps them to participate in communal discussion. By utilizing discussion groups, literature circles (Daniels, 1994), or Socratic seminars, teachers help students to negotiate meaning about a text. After working with a peer or small group, engaging students in whole class discussions helps the class to discuss the theme of a graphic novel, characters, plot, author technique, etc. Students can use their reading journals to ask ques- tions, discuss connections, or raise points for discussion.
COMPLETING GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS: Graphic organizers such as the Venn Diagram (for comparisons), a T-Chart (for cause-and-effect or problem-solution), the K-W-L chart (Ogle, 1986), or the Comprehension Windows Strategy [Bass & Woo, 2008] for nonfiction or informational text can help teachers monitor student under standing after reading.
CREATING: When students create based on what they read, they are not only demonstrating that they compre hend the text, they are also reflecting on their comprehension. Asking students to create stories from other characters’ points-of-view, especially as a graphic novel, can help students think about the process of writing. Utilizing the writing process and Writer’s Workshop helps students to learn the stages of writing and the process for publication, helping them to see that writing takes time. This will also help students respect how authors, especially graphic novelists, create books. These works could then become classroom books which can be used for reading lessons. As an example, students can use the genre of Rapunzel’s Revenge (a fractured fairy tale) to write their own graphic novel about a fractured fairy tale.
RETELLING AND ASSESSMENTS: Retellings of a completed chapter, story, or novel, even with a graphic novel, help teachers to moni tor student comprehension. Assessments such as tests and quizzes, if appropriately designed, can also help assess comprehension. Assessment of comprehension also occurs in conferences or discussions or by examining reading journals, annotations, or graphic organizers.
* PLEASE NOTE: All of the above information is directly quoted from Brian Kelley's positional paper: Sequential Art, Graphic Novels, and Comics: A Position Paper , a paper co-sponsored by the New Jersey Reading Association, state affiliate of the Inter- national Reading Association And Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Graphic Novels Special Interest Group of the International Reading Association. Retrieved November 23, 2012 from www.sanejournal.net/article/download/7252/5152