ABSTRACT

From my thesis: Comics in the Classroom as Literature and Educational Tools

This study is designed to investigate the use of comic books and graphic novels as educational literature, for student reading, for use in lesson plans, and as source material for educational topics. Considerable attention is paid to the history of the comic book, which has led to a reputation of being sub-literature and unsuitable for children. The validity of comics as reading material is investigated, including the surprising vocabulary rich nature of comics, the appeal to reluctant readers, and the numerous lessons comics address directly such as inference and onomatopoeia. Futhermore, comics address a growing need for a multimodal literacy that is not addressed with traditional texts. There is a growing number of graphic novels that address social issues through an unusual journalism that are of immediate use to the classroom as well. This report concludes that comics and graphic novels have an unwarranted reputation and are excellent tools for classroom use.