Category: Teacher resource

I got a few emails over the week asking for more info about Graphic Novels for boys. I have this handout (linked below) I made to use at a presentation way back in 2007. A lot has changed since then in the way media is consumed. I read more comics now than I did but I read them via my iPod, tablet or phone which has made them more affordable, more accessible and for the young person new to graphics novels, easier to comprehend via the new technologies of guided viewing.

A difficult aspect of introducing panel based stories (even more confusing with some Manga style comics as they read back to front) is young people who’ve never read one have difficulty with the order of reading. Which panel do I look at first and within that panel what order do I read the dialogue? Guided view is used in my favourite comic reading App, Comixology. This app is on IOS, Android and Chrome and will do all the hard work for the reader by scrolling and panning to consecutive panels and even into text where it needs to. At the moment my 6 year old son and I are reading Bone via  a mix of my old copy and the new e-version in colour on my Nexus 7.

I started the literacy program at my previous school when I asked for some money to buy a box of comic books for my roll call group and it went from there. It was an interesting learning exercise but be aware, comics ain’t what you may think they are. Comics can be dark and they can be brutal. Topics they cover are not always suitable for schools or children, however, for a reluctant reader especially boys, a little gore or dark humour can be the spark of engagement for a lifelong appreciation of reading, mine being Judge Dredd and the 2000 A.D weekly comic back in the 80’s.

Keep an eye out for graphic novels from literary classics such as Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, Philip K. Dicks Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Blade Runner), Stephen Kings Dark Tower and even Jane Austen and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Graphic novel selection