Saturday, September 10, 2011

TEACHING GRAPHIC NOVELS: PRACTICAL STRATEGIES FOR THE SECONDARY ELA CLASSROOM




By Chris Wilson
Editor-in-Geek


KA-BLAMO

Dr. Katie Monnin’s TEACHING GRAPHIC NOVELS is a superhero among textbooks for middle and high school teachers. Pedagogy, philosophy, research, practical strategies, lesson plans, graphic organizers, and most importantly a down-and-dirty explanation of the elements of comic literature are crammed into a 236 page, easy-to-read guide. You don’t have to read every page to get what you need to begin.

Monnin does what is necessary for practicing teachers: Tell us what we need to know quickly, give us reproducible tools to make it work effectively, attach it to national standards, organize the information well, and keep it simple.

Any ELA teacher who wants to introduce comics but is scared to death to do it need only grab Monnin’s text. By the end of the month, you will be ready to introduce your first graphic novel into your classroom. It’s that simple. Looking to teach middle school kids? Turn to that chapter. High school? There’s a chapter for that. Fiction, nonfiction, English Language Learners, media literacy –– it’s all there with explanations, graphic organizers and suggested titles.

If I were to recommend a single comic how-to textbook for secondary teachers to begin with, TEACHING GRAPHIC NOVELS would be it, hands down.


OTHER INFORMATION
Author: Katie Monnin
Genre: Textbook
Pages: 236
ISBN-13: 978-1-934338-40-7


CHRIS’ RECOMMENDATION:
Highly Recommended

2 comments:

Liam said...

Hi Chris, I follow your blog but but I've never commented on it before. I really appreciate what you do here. I used your reviews to help my school select graphic novels for the library. Have you read Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" and "Making Comics"? I am asking because I own both and now am looking at the text you just recommended.

✪ Liam ✪
Twist of Liam

Mr. Wilson said...

Liam: "Understanding Comics" is wonderful and gives the reader a look at the art of comics. It is a must. If you search our blog, you will find a review of it by Ellen Ma, our post-secondary reviewer.