A New Way to Get EXCITED About Reading

One thing I highly enjoyed in the article Using Graphic Texts in Secondary Classrooms: A Tale of Endurance by Mary Rice is that it focuses primarily on secondary education which is what grade I want to pursue as a teacher.  So I was really pleased that this article focused on multimedia uses in upper level classrooms.  Graphic novels are something that you have to read slowly and really focus on what you are reading in order to fully grasp what is going on.  I think this is a great idea to use in a classroom, it gives students the time to slow down, take there time, and really get the chance to fully comprehend the story without having to be rushed.  Although graphic novels are something new to me, I am willing to try to incorporate them into my classroom one day and I know I will have to spend my own time studying them and fully grasping the concept of graphic novels.  As Mary described it "I knew I was going to have to put just as much or more effort to use them in class," which means as a teacher in order for you to use them in your classroom, you have to have a full understanding in order to teach it to your students properly so they can get as much out of it as possible (Rice 38).  I also really liked how Rice mentioned that graphic novels or comics were recommended for "slow-learners" (Rice 38).  So graphic novels not only help express students creativity which we all know is something that I like to focus on, it also helps students who read at a slower pace.  Graphic novels seem to be beneficial in many ways,  and "teachers have been heavily advised to teach using graphic texts," which I think they should (Rice 38).  I think it is important as a teacher to open up students to as many multimedia tools as you can, it gives them a chance to be able to work with new material and use it later on in life.  Something I would do as teacher with using graphic novels is have the students pick their favorite graphic novel and then create their own putting themselves into the novel, and by doing this the students not only will learn how relate the words with graphics, it gives them a chance to express themselves through pictures, a different media.  Using graphic novels in a classroom gives the students a chance to experience something new and experience a new way of learning and expressing themselves.  I think students should be able to get excited about reading, and I think using graphic novels in the classroom is a great way to do that.   

Image Retrieved from:  http://www.ntlibrary.org/2012/04/graphic-novel-collection/grahpic-2/