Using Graphic Novels in Class

Suitable reading materials have always been a struggle between my son and I. He wants to read (and write) graphic novels; I love reading (and writing) traditional novels. If he's going to read, I'd argue, I'd like for him to read a proper novel, but my son, it seems, likes to have the visual showing him the action. Since I've delved into the concept of differentiated instruction, I've come to embrace the graphic novel as a teaching tool, as it appeals to the visual, literary, and quite possibly the kinesthetic learners.

Learning Targets
By the end of the period I will...

• use visual clues to understand texts
• make inferences when reading and analyzing texts

Agenda

1. Read Macbeth Act 1
2. Plot review

Success Criteria
Students complete the activity as described. Teacher records completion of activity. Students self-correct.

Materials Needed

• copies of plot summary (from Hogbin and Howson)
• scissors
• clear tape and/or glue sticks

Lesson Plan

From Hogbin and Howson

After reading Act 1, it is helpful to review the plot for the students. One way to do this to engage male learners may be in a comic strip format. The one I use for Act 1 is at CollaborativeLearning.org (Hogbin and Howson). Rather than check the students' work when they are done, I use a Bus Stop Center (Chapman and King 97-98) in which I place several completed activities on a desk at the front of the class. After students show me they have completed the activity, they may self-correct using my master copies. They are encouraged to correct their work if needed after they check it against the masters. Students may not remove solutions from the front of the class. The Bus Stop Center (also called a Correct Spot, Correction Zone, Blemish-Remover Zone, Survivor Checkpoint, etc.) is a handy tool to help students with the concept of gradual release of responsibility.

Another Example

from Hoshine

If you have access to a published graphic novel of the play you are teaching, you can use excerpts from the graphic novel as a review tool as well. My school has a class set of graphic novels of Macbeth (Hoshine). I photocopied Act 2 and settled on about 10 - 12 frames that represented key plot points in the act. I created a table containing a modern-day English summary of what was going on in the comic strip frame (i.e., "The stress of having to kill King Duncan is wearing on Macbeth. He sees an apparition of a bloody dagger, leading him down the corridor.") I white-out the text in the corresponding comic strip frame and require students to fill in the bubbles from the play. This forces students to spend time with the original text in order to find the key quotes that complete the comic strip. This time, rather than use a Bus Stop Center for correction, I place the solution on overhead acetates and review the solution with the students as a group the next day (though a correction centre would work just as well).

Works Cited
Chapman, Carolyn and Rita King. Differentiated Assessment Strategies: One Tool Doesn't Fit All. Corwin Press: Thousand Oaks.

Hogbin, Rosemary and Pat Howson. Macbeth - Close Look At Act I. Collaborative Learning Project. October 2009.<http://www.collaborativelearning.org/macbethcloselookact1.pdf>. 19 July 2010.

Hoshine, Ken (Illustrator). No Fear Shakepeare: Graphic Novels - Macbeth. Sparknotes: New York 2008.