Student+Perspective

**Student Perspective** A group of thirty two ninth graders at Hoover High School in San Diego (in the most densely populated and poorest community with over thirty different languages amongst the 2,200 students) were enrolled in a class for struggling readers and writers. The teachers emphasized the utilization of popular culture in order to enhance their literary acquisition and develop their writing skills.


 * The students had previously shown interest in reading manga and anime novels on their own.
 * The limited amount of text allows students to read and respond to complex messages with text that is better matched to their reading levels.
 * The teachers happened upon the works of Will Eisner and found that many of the novels included subject matter that was about urban life (ex. New York: The Big City and Hydrant) and could relate to the students. They also were relatively short and were in a style that differed from the manga and anime that they were already interested in. This aspect was very important because they “…did not want to co-opt something that belonged to the students…we chose to tap into their understanding of texts that rely as much on a visual vocabulary as a written one.” (Fisher, 2004)
 * Techniques used to engage and enhance the comprehension of the students while reading – Think-aloud strategies, visualization techniques, brainstorms of descriptive language/vocabulary.

In this activity the students were given only the first six of nine panels. The ending was not discussed; it was left up to the students to finish. The story was text-less so the students needed only to rely on their interpretation of the images. The students were asked to write out the story using what they had learned from the images. The following is an example of one of the students’ work. It is really amazing to see how deep these students can read into only the images. These students, who represent a marginalized group, which is often written off as unreachable, were to pick up on the subtle references to the “…lost promise of a better life in a new land.” (Fisher, 2004) In his first draft “Escaping Jamaica”, one student named Federico wrote: “The home of opportunity is what they call the US. As this Jamaican lady goes to get water from a fire hydrant she thinks, “I was better off at home.” Her neighborhood is destroyed and her house looks like it may colaps on her and her baby. She carries the water the stories up just to feed her son. “Come on baby,” she said, “food is almost ready.” As she feeds her son she looks at the photographs she took back home and said, “I thought this was the land of opportunities.” (Fisher, 2004) Another student, Sanjit whose family a week before writing this had been evicted from their home, entitled his story “Irony” “Life is miserable, isn’t it? Freedom and happiness…that’s what they promise in America, isn’t it? This is what I thought when I was living in the islands, but “boy” was I in for it. I think this is what they call poor in America. Who would have ever imagined that I have to go through such labor just to feed my son? Ha Ha. Looks like I can’t escape but at least my homeland bring some happiness into my life.” (Fisher, 2004)

The story that Yesenia, a student from Mexico, was entitled “A Depres Women” “On a regular day in a rusty town, this women came out from a house to get water. The woman looked very tier. She got the water and go up the stairs to her famished baby. The hallway looked all ruined and as she entered the room; the ravenous baby waiting for her. When the bottle was ready she sat down with the baby and looked at the mirror. Pictures of where she used to live were in her mind; she tought, “It would be better if I still lived in my island.” She felt depress because she couldn’t do anything to help herself of her starving baby.” (Fisher, 2004) Although there are spelling and syntax errors the students successfully show their ability to interpret the text, make inferences and convey multiple ideas within their short sentences. These examples show clearly the impact that material which the students can personally relate to have on their motivation and interest in the activity. They will also be more willing to cooperate and engage better with the material because of this. Another very important aspect to be aware of is that students will feel more inclined to work and pay attention to a lesson if they feel that the teacher is invested in them too. The utilization of graphic novels aids in this because to the students it appears that you, the teacher, are actually trying to connect to them via a medium that they are interested in and with material that they can truly relate to.

In these examples the students showed interest, enthusiasm and willingness to participate which in turn inspired the teacher to bring in more material that was similar to maintain their interest and engagement. Additionally, it is important to note that the teachers were not giving them whole graphic novels but rather a variety of graphic novel excerpts to use in the lessons. The use of graphic novels to help scaffold writing instruction allows students to work with their writing and extend their confidence because they were not overwhelmed by text and were able to create their own ideas based on the images that were in the graphic novels.