My Thoughts on... Graphic Novels in the Classroom

When I think about the use of graphic novels being used within the classroom, I think of the success that they have yielded and all of the different ways it can help student growth. Ever since I have wanted to be a teacher, I have always wanted to incorporate graphic novels in to my teaching. If we as teachers decide to take away graphic novels in grades as low as first, we begin to stifle creativity in students. If we based all our teaching off of simply words and eliminate pictures from the equation we basically stifle students minds from thinking of a story in any other creative way. The pictures in a story can oftentimes gives students a chance to grow from their initial thoughts on the book. It can provide s creative and new way of thinking about a character or scene in a novel. It can also help visual learners better grasp the ideas, themes, characters and more within a story. For those particular students, so much growth can happen and creativity can begin to flourish. As far as graphic novels go, to me it seems like there would be more pros than cons to keeping story telling with images alive. The more we can do as teachers to influence a classroom culture filled with creative outlets and one way to do that is with graphic novels. Personally, I had grown up in a time where they wanted us to get rid of "picture books" as soon as we possibly could in the classroom. My mom kept my imagination alive with graphic novels that she would read to me before bed ever night. For students that do not get the same opportunity as I did at home, their love for reading could easily disappear, especially for students that have trouble reading to begin with. Overall, graphic novels should be kept very much alive within the classroom to inspire imagination and creativity in the minds of students.

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