I previewed “Maus” today for my ESL level five reading comprehension class as part of an exercise on figurative speech and inference. I hadn’t intended to, but one of those teachable moments presented itself, so I took 10 minutes or so out of class time to discuss weather or not they considered the book to be a form of literature. I parroted a few of the rhetorical questions Prof. Sample had asked us to get the discussion started.

The only student who knew anything about “Maus” was a young woman from Germany who said it was used in her public school system to teach the Holocaust. She had an interesting perspective: she found the depictions in the book to be much milder than looking at the photos found in many of the usual texts used in German schools. Maybe her reaction would have been different if Kyle Baker had done the illustrations.

The other students, mainly Asian, African and Middle Eastern, knew little about the subject, but they immediately identified the mice and cat analogy and discussed how, without using a single word, the author had set up a paradigm that everybody could understand. We didn’t have time to go over the text, but a number of students said that because of the amount of text in the book, “Maus” was literature. According to their way of thinking, text is a defining characteristic of literature. I wish I had had the time to give them a preview of “Nat Turner”; it would have been interesting to see if their ideas would change.

If I were to teach graphic novels as part of a literature survey course I would begin with a similar discussion of literature and have them compile a list of defining characteristics before introducing whatever text I was going to teach. The fact that they realized that text can stand in place of text would be key to a teaching strategy.

The minimal amount of text in a graphic novel makes them much harder to “read” than what many of us have come to know as literature. We grow up with words and use them to determine meaning. We are comfortable with words and have become lazy and dependent on our literal interpretations. At the same time, we have also become dismissive of illustrations/graphics/photographs; we don’t give them a lot of thought because we are constantly bombarded by them. I think one of the greatest pitfalls a new student to graphic novels could make would be to dismiss what they see without really trying to understand what is being represented.

With a novel like “Nat Turner”, the next step would be to have them create their own text by writing a narrative to accompany the illustrations. I would ask them to explain what they think is transpiring on certain pages. Another approach would be to have them create their own text, either through captions or dialog. Having them put what they see into words would be a valuable experience; students would need to really study the illustrations and not give just a first impression. This could be done orally was well; a version of “popcorn” reading, where each student selects a sequence of illustrations and explains what they think is being represented.

In my last post I questioned whether this book could be categorized as literature or not, and after reading my classmates’ blog posts, listening to the discussion last week, sitting in on Professor Sample’s lecture, and revisiting my own questions; I want to completely disregard what I previously wrote.  I realize this probably makes me appear to be a tad wishy-washy, but in my defense I wrote my blog last week with the ulterior motive of what my boyfriend likes to term “poking the bear.”  I felt the need for some reason, possibly because I’m an organizational freak who likes everything to fit neatly into compartments, to place the graphic novel in a category.  Because I wasn’t exactly sure how I would categorize it, I looked to my classmates for input.  I knew that there would be many strong proponents in class of teaching graphic novels, so I poked the bear by challenging its place in the literature classroom hoping to get some strong reactions.  And I did. 

With all of that said, I’ve decided that the label isn’t really what is important here.  What is important is a text’s ability to evoke a strong reaction from the reader.  I think that this emotional response could be harnessed to develop a very meaningful lesson for students.

So, how would a teacher harness those deep emotional responses?

One issue seemed to be brought up several times in class last week – the issue of Nat Turner as a heroic figure.  I wonder if Kyle Baker included that phrasing in his preface to spark controversy, because that is exactly what it did.   Using this as a jumping off point for class discussion and activity could be very fruitful because it evokes such strong opposition from people.  Staging a debate among students could be one way to explore this idea, although it may be difficult to find students willing to argue for Turner being considered a hero.  Reading Nat Turner alongside other texts from that era (several people mentioned this, I think) would be a good idea.  The students could compare Turner to figures such as Frederick Douglas and Harriet Beecher Stowe and decide which is more heroic.  Perhaps I’m hung up on this idea of hero because one of my favorite undergraduate classes was called Heroes in Literature.  We read several different novels and explored the idea of hero throughout the entire semester.  I wonder what our reactions would have been if we were required to read Nat Turner?  I’m sure even the silent ones in class would’ve felt compelled to chime in on that discussion.

I will admit: I’ve been spending more time this week on my presentation than thinking about Nat Turner and graphic novels. However, in reading my classmates’ posts about teaching graphic novels, I’ve been inspired by their enthusiasm.

In answer to the specific question posed in class — How can we get students to slow down when reading graphic novels? — I have one answer that excites me most. I’m interested in McCloud’s concept of the gutter, as many of us are, and I think a great way to get students to move through what is basically a picture book at a slower pace is to ask them to fill in those gutters (in words). Choose a few scenes (/pages) and ask them to write the parts that are missing in between the frames. Then an interesting in-class activity might be to have some students share their “gutter text” — are they similar? are any wildly different? why might that be?

This would be a good way to show students that though graphic novels may seem too simple to some (and maybe less like literature), they actually leave themselves open to interpretation the same way a well-written story/novel/poem/play does. And isn’t this the crux of literature? An interpretable work of art that is specific, yet indirect; suggestive, yet subtle; and generally memorable? It seems to me that the guts of any literary work are often found in these “gutters.”

To bring things full circle, it might also be interesting to then show students some short stories, &c., with meaningful section breaks and talk about how we “fill in the gutters” in “regular” textual literature, too (as I think Susanna was saying). And I do not say this as though we should try to convince our students that graphic novels are Literature with a capital “L” — instead of fighting that battle, I think showing students the value in graphic novels, their intricacies and subtleties, would be far more more powerful and useful when introducing the genre.

Via the exercise I outlined above, students would also get real practice in quite literally rewriting a story, which we’ve learned this semester is a way of reading. Graphic novels seem to hold lots of teaching opportunities.

I’ve been thinking about how to teach graphic novels, and more specifically, about ways to get our students to slow down when they are reading Nat Turner. I know that I flew through the book the first time that I read it. I think that more inexperienced readers (like those in high school) may be particularly inclined to view Nat Turner as a “fun” book and to not take it as seriously as other books that they might read in class. These students will probably flip through the entire book very quickly, but they wouldn’t go back to reread it as a more advanced reader might.

Here are a few teaching strategies I’ve brainstormed:

• Assign one section to read at a time at home. Sections could be the four books, or preferably broken up into little vignettes within the books.
• Read the book entirely in class, as a class. This way, the teacher can control the reading pace.
• Have our students make a close textual interpretation of only one panel or one page.
• Read The Confessions of Nat Turner alongside Nat Turner.
• Have students create and add their own panel into the story and write about how this enhanced or changed the original narrative.
• I think it would be really helpful to teach sections of Understanding Comics alongside Nat Turner to legitimize graphic novels to students who are skeptical about them.

I was skeptical about graphic novels myself, until I studied a few for grad school. Now, I think that graphic novels are a great way to teach interpretation. I’m really drawn to McCloud’s concept of the “gutter”. The gutters are visual cues for interpretation and because of this, I think graphic novels could be a nice gateway into learning when and how to interpret all kinds of literature. It seems like we could first teach the gutter in a graphic novel, and then compare the gutter to stanzas or line breaks in poetry, and finally move into textual interpretation.

One of the things that first struck me about our class discussion is the way graphic novels offer students a chance to really consider what constitutes literature.  In any class, I think it can be beneficial to discuss what literature is and also why we like it.  Nat Turner, or any graphic novel for that matter, offers a great introduction to that kind of higher-level thinking.  I loved the exercise Prof. Sample showed us with converting a Craigslist ad into a “poem,” and though most might scoff at the notion of that kind of art, isn’t that what much of modern art does?  I keep going back to what creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson spoke about in the film clip we watched in class, and I have to think that education is changing and so is the nature of literature, the form, the content, even the way we process literature.  That said, in order to keep up with the changes, teaching students to really consider what literature is might be just the ticket to teaching them to open up their mind and explore the literature that matters to them.  For some of them, this might be the writing of video games, screenwriting of popular movies, or for others, graphic novels.  I have a feeling that only so many of us really appreciate the literary classics, and that is okay.  Besides, “classic” is not a fixed definition, and neither is “literature.”

Besides opening students up to the idea of what literature constitutes, graphic novels present a new way to dissect a narrative, as well as a new way to create a narrative.  I often have students re-tell chapters they have read for homework in the form of comics– but why not begin to call these “graphic re-tellings”?  I actually am really interested in teaching students excerpts from McCloud’s book, especially in the extra time following the AP exam, as a way to analyze both literature and art, and this combination thereof.  That said, negotiating what we already do to incorporate the genre of graphic novels is another way to teach stories like Nat Turner.

Lastly, evocative stories like this one certainly allow students to consider what is age-appropriate and what isn’t.  Often, students feel sheltered by the topics in literature and when we teachers draw attention to the violence, the sex, the scandal that they might otherwise not catch, they certainly seem to perk up.  With texts like Nat Turner,  or at least excerpts of Nat Turner, we might be able to ask students what they think about the evolution of violence in pop culture and in literature in particular.  Students really benefit from any kind of higher-level discussion and one which interests them, particularly given the relevance of this particular topic (since violent is inherent in so many video games, TV shows, and movies that our students watch), that this kind of book would certainly feed into an interesting conversation on the purpose of violence in stories.  Likewise, by comparing this story to the textbook explantaions of Nat Turner’s rebellion, or even to war poems (like those Nikki is teaching this week!), we might push students to really consider when violence is acceptable and when it is over the top, and why they feel like that.

Lastly, I really like Susan’s idea about having students create their own mini-graphic novels.  What I envision my AP seniors doing after the AP exam (along with a research paper I’ve put off until then, so we’ll see if we get to this more fun stuff!) is reading excerpts from McCloud and creating their own fun and original graphic narratives.  I did something similar with my sophomores this year with folklore, both fairy tales and oral family stories, and the students really enjoyed the opportunity to be creative and get back to something they really enjoyed as children: storytelling.  The same could be true with what they might have once viewed as “comics” and would now hopefully come to see as a separate and perhaps more literary genre: graphic narratives.

I do have one question.  If it’s not a long story, do we call it a “graphic short story”?  Or a “graphic tale”?  Or the ghastly “graphic narrative”?  Is this where “comix” comes in handy?  I can see that it might put an end to this line of questioning.

I think Nat Turner definitely deserves re-reading, and that re-reading would be a great tool for students to fully comprehend the text. There are plenty of ways I think this graphic narrative or novel could be taught:

1) Present a difficulty-paper assignment that has students recognize why they have a difficult time reading the text (i.e. because of the genre, because of the historical context).

2) On a more creative note, have students write one to two sentences of text for what is going on in the parts like “Home” that rely only on images. Or conversely, have students draw their own images for what is going on for a portion of the text of Nat Turner’s confessions.

3) Similarly, you could have students attempt to create their own (shortened version) of a graphic narrative. To relate it to the text, you could have students create one regarding some injustice they felt they have experienced.

I first came across the graphic novel in reading Maus I and Maus II in my undergraduate Holocaust literature course. At the end of the course we had to do a project or research paper, and I decided to create a mini-graphic “novel” on the anti-Semitism I witnessed growing up in a predominantly Jewish town. This helped me better understand the benefits of telling a story through this medium.

4) Ask the students questions relating to the text that may require them to go back and re-read: who fed the baby to the shark? Why is the first image of someone reading in the dark? When the white man wants to kill one of the captured Africans on page 35, and there is a bubble indicating “$!,” what does that mean?

5) Do a pre-writing or post-writing exercise about a “motive” for Nat Turner. In his confessions, he explains a lot about what happens (and as we learned in Prof Sample’s lectures, this may be exaggerated based on Thomas R. Gray’s own motive for financial gain) but not a lot about why.

6) Have students research the historical period or pre-write about what they know about slavery. I think having the background knowledge of Nat Turner’s confessions is relevant.

7) Introduce or discuss other texts that might be related, such as “The Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall or “Going to Meet the Man” by James Baldwin, etc.

Thinking about how we can get students to slow down while reading Nat Turner, I tried returning to the same methods we’ve reviewed this semester for use with traditional literature. Why not?

How about asking students to pick a “most important frame?” in the tradition of Blau’s “most important line” exercise? This would not only push students to carefully review the panels, but also encourage them to try to distill the point of the story (and what is that point, by the way?) down to one pivotal moment. This might be even more important for a graphic novel, since it tends to feel like the part you’ve read is done with and the part you haven’t read is about to happen. Using this lesson would help the class to focus on the novel as a whole.

Or who says that graphic novels have to be restricted to graphic exercises? Why not have the students “write” a chapter or section of the book, using words they feel convey the story in a style that fits the illustrations? It could be really interesting to see what moods and genres they’d tap into. This exercise would also drive home the idea that a graphic novel is not so different from traditional novels they’ve read.

Lastly, how about having a character from the novel write his or her version of a section of the book – from another point of view? Or write a letter to Nat Turner about what he or she thinks about his rebellion? The challenge here would be finding a character who didn’t fall massively on one side of the rebellion or the other (black or white) as the lines of loyalty would certainly be drawn pretty distinctly. Or here’s an idea – how about a letter from a modern civil rights leader (such as Rosa Parks) to Nat Turner? That might generate some interesting discussion.

Once you open up activities to the rich array of opportunities we use for the written word, the possibilities become nearly endless!

After listening to the class discussion and considering my own impression of Nat Turner, it struck me that the most important thing to focus on when teaching graphic novels would be rereading. This has proven true for a variety of literature so far and I can see a clear necessity for using this skill with graphic novels as well— as many in class expressed, it can be too easy to flip through a graphic novel without lingering on the images.

What seems the most obvious technique would be to have students add text to silent panels, then have students compare what they “heard” in the silent panels. Students could also compare them to the original and reflect in writing which they prefer, a student version or the original. This would generate rereading opportunities as well as open a window for discussing what the advantages and limitations are of illustrations as text.

Another way of generating rereading would be to have students select a series of 10 panels from throughout a novel that they feel best summarizes the story. This activity would also give me as the instructor a gauge for how well my students are understanding the content. Students could also be asked to rearrange the panels or select based on a chosen theme, character, or plot line, then reflect on the new impression this gave them either aloud or in writing.

Class discussions on some of the “grammar” of graphic novels would also be useful. My sense is that most students would intuitively understand how to read them, but I think it would be interesting to discuss what impression the longer vs. shorter panels or certain lines/backgrounds gave to certain scenes. Having the students engage in this grammar by drawing a panel with changes could also be a way to engage students in rereading and examining how pictures can function as a text.

After I finished writing the above I realized I was considering how the average student would learn to read and comprehend a graphic novel— I wasn’t considering what my English language learners or students with disabilities would need. For English language learners I think that graphic novels could be an advantage because of the illustrations, but they could also be more difficult if students are from a culture that does not share the same visual grammar. For students who have difficulty reading body language or focusing/tracking, the visual aspect of a graphic novel may also present challenges. I think both groups of students would be best assisted if they had a reading partner or the instructor described the illustrations to them and work with the student to interpret them.

I think graphic novels could be a real advantage in the English classroom—they make for quick and enticing reads, leaving more time to invest in writing about and discussing the literature.