Teaching Close Reading Skills With Graphic Novels
Date
2016-05
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The Common Core State Standards—a series of standards adopted by almost all 50 states—are currently changing the conversation about important skills needed in the English Language Arts high school classroom. To succeed, students need to read a text, and analyze the specific choices of language an author makes in order to create meaning. However, students are historically unsuccessful at literary interpretation, often unable to provide specific textual evidence to support their claims (Marshall, 2000). Researchers hypothesized that students struggle to see patterns in a work of pure-text, for this is an abstract concept. To make the concept of literary patterns more concrete, researchers taught nineteen 9th grade students to analyze patterns first in the visual form of short graphic novel passages, then in pure-text forms. Participants completed a pretest to evaluate their analytical skills before any instruction, and a posttest after the two 90-minute sessions. After instruction, students produced higher quality essays and provided more specific textual evidence to support their interpretations.
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Keywords
secondary english education, teaching, reading skills, graphic novels