Blog #3 Graphic Novels

So, I was going to write my blog on You Gotta Be the Book; however, I found that the articles and The American Born Chinese had a lot more to offer for this week's blog.  To be honest, I was a little apprehensive when I read the syllabus and found that this week was going to revolve around graphic novels.  I have never been the one to read that kind of stuff and I use to think it was because I THOUGHT that genre was a little immature and kind of pointless.  However, looking back on what I have read I realize that that is not the case.  First of all, when I read The American Born Chinese I was a bit lost and could not keep up with three story lines. I still do not think that I fully get the point, but I do think that it was a great book.  It was not this pointless comic that had some basic story but had many storylines and fun characters that made the book interesting and I even ended up finishing it within an hour. 
      The American Born Chinese would be a great addition to any classroom.  It had some deep concepts involving God or a superior being and dealt with issues such as isolation and racism.  Wouldn't it be a great idea to read this graphic novel with Huckleberry Finn?  Both stories deal with similar issues and could be great parallels in a classroom.  What makes one book better then the other? Absolutely nothing.  Students would be way more willing to read something different like a graphic novel then to read the same stuff students have been reading for decades.  Racism is a serious issue but that does not mean the message has to be in a serious format.  The only problem I see with the graphic novel is the idea of character development.  As I states in my first blog, I love to find connections with characters and The American Born Chinese did not allow me to do that.  I have not read many graphic novels to make  a general assumption; however, I think character development is important.  Nonetheless, I felt that this graphic novel really opened my eyes to a new genre and I will definitely not shy away from them again.  I think they make nice supplements in a classroom and could really appeal to readers.  I was also shocked at how complex the plot actually was. I thought it would be very basic but it was actually harder then some classic literature that I have read.  It was really interesting to see how all the plots tied together at the end.  I feel like most students would definitely like this kind of book and could definitely think critically about it.  Plus, there are so many activities then can go with it.  One thing that I think would be fun to do would be to create yearbook entries for each character since school was the main setting.  It would be like a journal but with a picture to depict a character and an entry that kind of sums up the plot.
      Moreover, the article that we read "Using Graphic Novels, Anime, and the Internet in an Urban High School" put some things in to perspective.  I think that a lot of people think that there is no possible way that a graphic novel could be helpful in a classroom, but this article proved different.  I thought it was great to see the progress that the students made and to see how creative that they got.  These students seemed to come from all over the world in race, but they found a common ground when they were able to depict image pannels.  However, they each had their own input and emotions put with each picture.  They could think critically and create a story of their own.  My favorite scenario was Sanjit's story (Fisher, Frey 20).  His own history helped create a story and you could see that he found some similar ground within the pictures.  I also, liked the paint strip idea (Fisher, Frey 21).  It is important for students to use new vocabulary and I think this method works very well.  When I was in school we had vocabulary books that we needed to do every week.  It was boring, repetitive, and I rarely used those words.  This, however, is completely different.  Overall, this article really proved what graphic novels can do and how relatable they can be to students.  These students obviously improved and seemed to get a lot out of the projects and writing.  I think they even learned a little more about themselves.
      The last piece I wish to discuss is "The Conventions of Comics" that Dr. Mortimore posted for us to read.  I had no idea that there were so many parts to a comic and how it kind of has a language and set up of their own.  They have their own set of rules and takes time to create one.  I particularly was interested in the speech part (Mortimore 1).  I knew that different bubbles represented different communications, but I was never aware of which went with what. I think all teachers need to be more informed with this set up because they might become more open to using this genre in class. I Think this document really sums up what I think and what I want to say about graphic novels or comics. This week lesson really made me do a transformation. I was completely against graphic novels because I was ignorant to them. I now see how cool they can be and what they have to offer. I now understand what they can do to students and how helpful they are in the classroom. I also realized how complex they can be and how much goes in to the development of them. However, the most important thing I read was the article. It really moved me and I see graphic novels as the next big advancement in literature..and let's be honest..there needs to be an advanceme