Teaching+Graphic+Novels

**Teaching Graphic Novels**

There are a variety of graphic novels currently available that span across every genre and can appeal to all students. It is up to us as the teachers to decipher the good from the bad and the quality from the fluff. A few of the most well respected and highly regarged graphic novels that are currently available are listed below. Graphic novels are being used in the classroom in a variety of ways; from using the whole novel to just choosing excerpts. While some teachers choose to focus on how the images work with text, others utilize the images on their own to have the students infer about what is happening based on their analysis of those images.Additionally, they are being used cross-curricular, which i think is a brilliant idea especially considering the amount and variety of quality historical graphic novels now being published. Using them across content areas also helps to add validity to the format of graphic novels. They are seen with new perspective and as something more than a "fun-read".

Included below are a few lesson plans that I came across. I tweaked them here and there to cater them to what i might actually do if i used them in the classroom. I was amazed at how many really wonderful lesson plans i found and at the inclusion of lessons that used graphic novels as a cross-curricular endeavor.


 * Lesson Plans **


 * Basic Lesson Plan for Teaching Graphic Novels **

Though they are extremely important, the images within graphic novels are not the only aspect that can be analyzed and examined when studying a graphic novel in the classroom. Although graphic novels are very different in format to most traditional novels, they inlcude many of the same theme, literaty elements and depth of charaterization that those novel convey. Graphic novels can be used to study and develop the student's understanding of the same elements they would in any other text. The graphic novels listed below are three examples of quality literature in a graphic novel format. They have interesting and stimulating plots that focus on diverse cultures and a variety of different issues that are both personal and global.

These lesson plans represent a combination of lessons that i found online but also tweaked to suit my own opinions and ideas for what should be included in the lessons. They are meant to serve as jumping off point for creating my own lessons on these grahic novels.
 * Lesson Plans for Maus**
 * Lesson Plans for American Born Chinese**
 * Lesson Plans for Persepolis**

**Maus: A Survivor's Tale** by Art Spiegelman Winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize

**American Born Chinese** by Gene Luen Yang Winner of the Michael L. Printz award in 2007 for best young adult book of the year.

**Persepolis** by Marjane Satrapi Film adaptation was nominated for an academy award in 2007 Winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival