So I'm doing a grade 11 unit on comic books...

Zeek

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I'm not really sure where this belongs, so I'll post it here; a mod can move it if it fits better elsewhere. Anyways.

I though you guys might like to know/find it cool that I've started a unit that uses graphic novels in a grade 11 English classroom. I'm on a teaching internship, and my cooperating teacher (i.e. the one usually in charge of this class) thought using them was a great idea. I've designed their use around writing formal literary essays; basically, they've all chosen a graphic novel, and will be writing a short essay on character development using lessons on comic book storytelling techniques and essay structure/methods that will be given to them between now and Christmas. It's pretty open-ended; we had a selection of about 27 varied graphic novels available for them to sign out of the class (though they are more than welcome to use their own, as a few are), and while Spider-man: Blue and Whedon's Astonishing X-men have about 3 students reading them each, everybody else has something different. We just did the first formal lesson today, on some brief comic book history and a "how to read" primer, which went great. I'll keep you guys updated on how it goes over the next 5 weeks or so!
 
That's cool. Congrats.

Are the books supplied or do students have to buy them themselves?
 
I'm not really sure where this belongs, so I'll post it here; a mod can move it if it fits better elsewhere. Anyways.

I though you guys might like to know/find it cool that I've started a unit that uses graphic novels in a grade 11 English classroom. I'm on a teaching internship, and my cooperating teacher (i.e. the one usually in charge of this class) thought using them was a great idea. I've designed their use around writing formal literary essays; basically, they've all chosen a graphic novel, and will be writing a short essay on character development using lessons on comic book storytelling techniques and essay structure/methods that will be given to them between now and Christmas. It's pretty open-ended; we had a selection of about 27 varied graphic novels available for them to sign out of the class (though they are more than welcome to use their own, as a few are), and while Spider-man: Blue and Whedon's Astonishing X-men have about 3 students reading them each, everybody else has something different. We just did the first formal lesson today, on some brief comic book history and a "how to read" primer, which went great. I'll keep you guys updated on how it goes over the next 5 weeks or so!

That's cool.

I love it! We're taking over!

it will never happen.

1. Your Canadian.

2. You consider Celine Dion and Justin Bieber national treasures.

3. You say "a" a lot.

4. Your Canadian.
 
sense of decency. We're degenerates here in the states. He'll never win.

:lol:

E said:
Are the books supplied or do students have to buy them themselves?

We supplied a selection of 27 books of varying authors, styles, complexity, nationalities, and genres. I'll find the whole list in the morning, but they came from a combination of my collection, the school library, and the collection of the class' actual teacher. Students are also welcome to find a graphic novel themselves, as long as they clear it with me first (classroom appropriate, and all that), and several have opted to do this. I'm a little disappointed that some of the options weren't selected, but the whole point is for them to read what appeals to them most, so that's more important to me.

I did a lesson today on the history of sequential art and graphic novels in other cultures, and they LOVED it...which is fantastic, because I was being observed and graded for that class today. I'm glad I did the lesson on how to read comics yesterday, because it seems to have helped a lot of people, though some still have the odd question about what order to read certain word bubbles in.

I think if I ever use this in the future, I'll have less cape books, though. Most seem to be doing fine, but a few are getting understandably tripped up by continuity references. I know enough about what we have to give them a quick primer as the need arises, but still.
 
it will never happen.

1. Your Canadian.

2. You consider Celine Dion and Justin Bieber national treasures.

3. You say "a" a lot.

4. Your Canadian.

Watcher, have I ever told you that you're my favourite?

Sincerely,
Your Canadian

We supplied a selection of 27 books of varying authors, styles, complexity, nationalities, and genres. I'll find the whole list in the morning, but they came from a combination of my collection, the school library, and the collection of the class' actual teacher. Students are also welcome to find a graphic novel themselves, as long as they clear it with me first (classroom appropriate, and all that), and several have opted to do this. I'm a little disappointed that some of the options weren't selected, but the whole point is for them to read what appeals to them most, so that's more important to me.

I did a lesson today on the history of sequential art and graphic novels in other cultures, and they LOVED it...which is fantastic, because I was being observed and graded for that class today. I'm glad I did the lesson on how to read comics yesterday, because it seems to have helped a lot of people, though some still have the odd question about what order to read certain word bubbles in.

I think if I ever use this in the future, I'll have less cape books, though. Most seem to be doing fine, but a few are getting understandably tripped up by continuity references. I know enough about what we have to give them a quick primer as the need arises, but still.

That's really really cool.

OOOOOOHHHHH I totally thought you were in grade 11, I was about to ask how you convinced your teacher to let you do this. You're a teaching intern. That makes a whole lot more sense!
 
We supplied a selection of 27 books of varying authors, styles, complexity, nationalities, and genres. I'll find the whole list in the morning, but they came from a combination of my collection, the school library, and the collection of the class' actual teacher. Students are also welcome to find a graphic novel themselves, as long as they clear it with me first (classroom appropriate, and all that), and several have opted to do this. I'm a little disappointed that some of the options weren't selected, but the whole point is for them to read what appeals to them most, so that's more important to me.

I'm curious as to the standards they have to meet as far as decency goes. Most modern comics have even small things that I can definitely see certain types of parents having problems with. Astonishing X-Men in particular, since you mentioned it was being used, has a few sexually suggestive themes. Now *I* know they aren't a big deal, and yeah, there are definitely worse out there, but like I said I know there are certain parents who would be upset if they saw their kid reading that, even if s/he were in 11th grade.

Again, I'm not judging so don't misunderstand. I'm only curious as to how you determine what is allowed.
 
We read books with sexual content in high school. Slaughter House 5 comes to mind. Even in grade 8 we watched the old movie of Romeo & Juliette and that had nudity in it.

My parents were strict about that stuff and occasionally asked my teachers to find a less objectionable book for me to read, and the teachers always were pretty okay with it.

I would think the teachers do their best to keep the material age appropriate and then deal with any issues on a case-by-case basis.
 
Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Honestly, the texts we used emerged from conversations with the actual teacher. This is a teacher who was perfectly fine with showing Shakespeare In Love to the class, complete with (the admittedly non-explicit) sex scenes, and she said we just kind of had to ballpark it. Some violence, some suggestive content content was fine. Some blood.

I actually, after extensive conversation with the student in question, let one do Watchmen. It was from her dad's collection, so her parents won't be an issue, at least. She also was interested in doing Spawn, but I encouraged her to stick with Watchmen as it was one of her favourite works and I wasn't going to debate its quality (especially considering that the essay concerns character development). I made my concerns on its content clear; we'll see how this plays out when we do the Thursday group lit circles. They're a great bunch though. I doubt there will be problems, at this point.
 
That's good. I've never believed in sheltering kids, and if you can have some input as to how they become aware of those kinds of topics it's always better than letting them learn from someone else.

In other words, I'm glad that no one is tying your hands with this and the parents are being cool.
 

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