Los que ya me conocéis un poco sabéis de sobra que soy un firme defensor del uso educativo de los cómics, y si me seguís en mi otro blog, ya me habéis visto aplicarlo. El asunto es que hoy he escrito una reflexión sobre esto mismo (aunque también tocando otros aspectos) para la asignatura de "Exploring Children's Literature in English" (para la carrera de Magisterio), en la cual hemos tenido que trabajar a partir de este artículo: Matching books and readers: selecting literature for English learners. Aunque he escrito el texto en inglés, me apetece compartirlo con todos vosotros, así que aquí os lo dejo.
Some special picture books
The article we are handling has a lot of interesting recommendations, but there are two of them that has caught my attention especially: the use of picture books and the use of poetry. Of those two, I would like to focus on picture books on this entry, but first, there is an interesting statement I would also like to highlight.
The article posits clearly that "access to books has been shown to encourage more frequent reading" (Vardell et at., 2006, p. 734), and goes on: "Students in classrooms with libraries read 50% more than students in classrooms without them" (Vardell et at., 2006, p. 734). So if we are to accept the fact that we read more when we have an easier access to books, we should then accept that e-books and other electronic reading devices are tremendously useful to increase reading rates. With electronic reading, is easier to carry your book with you wherever you go and you have no time or distance limits to purchase a new book (or even to borrow it, as it is becoming more common for libraries to provide this service, even in Spain). Not to mention the fact that electronic books tend to be cheaper than printed books, and they always look like new, something that, believe it or not, has an important effect to appeal young readers -I can assure you this after working as a school librarian for four years-. But you don’t need to take my word on the benefits of e-books for reading rates: there is some research about it that proves my point. As a matter of fact, Rainie et al. conducted an inquiry for the Pew Internet and American Life Project on 2012 which showed that e-book users tend to read 37,5% more than non-e-book users: in a year, the average e-book reader would read 24 books in contrast to the 15 books of the non-e-book reader. So, though I’m not obviously against printed books (I love paper and the smell of a book just as much as anyone), we should consider electronic resources to promote reading among our students, much more if we take into account the savings this could mean for the classroom library (not only in money but also in space) and also some other functions that electronic reading offers like the built-in dictionary, which makes it easier for the student to check any unknown word.
OK, as a foreword I think this is more than enough, as my main goal in this entry was to talk about picture books. Vardell et al. (2006) give a great importance to the visual accessibility of the books and they strongly advocate to use illustrations in books, as "highly visual books help provide scaffolding as students begin by reading the pictures" (Vardell et at., 2006, p. 735) and so illustrations help readers to figure out the meaning of text. In this sense, I feel the article is more focused on beginner readers and kind of refers mainly to illustrated books for kids, and I can’t help to miss an essential reference when talking about picture books, one that can be really useful to promote reading among young readers, and especially among those closer to teen ages (we cannot forget Primary also comprises 6th grade students). I’m talking, of course, about comics and graphic novels.
Although poorly considered for a long time, assuming it as low literature (or not even literature at all), comics have proved themselves all the time. As Hosler and Boomer (2011) state, “educators have been using comics in the classroom for over 60 years” (Hosler and Boomer, 2011, paragraph 3), and they refer to research that suggests that the use of comics in the classroom increases students’ interest. Haines (2012) lists several benefits of comics in regard to reading and learning. Comics “engage readers who learn visually, and who are comfortable with visual media” (Haines, 2012, paragraph 5), something really essential in a world ruled right now by the power of the image. She also highlights that comics encourage to explore different genres and literary styles (something that Verdell et al. themselves underline as important) and open the mind to new ways of storytelling.
Another important fact Haines underscores is related to the common critic towards the low reading level of comics. She explains that, according to Jim Trelease, a read-aloud specialist, “to become proficient readers, people need to master a set of about 5,000 ‘rare words’ that appear infrequently in conversation” (Haines, 2012, paragraph 3), and it seems that these words appear 52 times per 1,000 words in the average adult novel, whereas in comic books, they appear 53 times per 1,000 (Hayes & Athens, 1988, quoted in Haines, 2012). Professor Katie Monnin and Josh Elder (Reading with Pictures - Teacher Guide, 2014) endorse this argument:
According to the University of Oregon Center on Teaching and Learning, “Comic books average 53.5 rare words per thousand, while children’s books average 30.9, adult books average 52.7, expert witness testimony averages 28.4, and the conversations of college graduates with friends average 17.3.” (Reading with Pictures - Teacher Guide, 2014, page 15).So I think it’s safe to say that reading comics really increases your vocabulary.
And we are not nearly finished with the reasons to use comics in the classroom. Going back to Verdell et al.’s article, they propose to use poems linked to something that is already going on. In my opinion, this is a good advice not only for poetry but for books in general. Therefore, if there is currently a huge trend of blockbusting superheroes films, why not use it to promote reading? All those films that children are rushing to watch are based on an infinite series of comics that could have any reader reading for the rest of his/her life (trust me on that: I’m a subscriber to Marvel Unlimited and I can assure you it is truly unlimited).
Besides, children already like comics, and when promoting reading, we should really take advantage of every little help. As Monnin and Elder explain (Reading with Pictures - Teacher Guide, 2014, p. 15), “when given a choice, kids —especially boys and reluctant readers— are increasingly gravitating toward the comic format over traditional text”. And, sincerely, I find it easy to believe. Right now I’m reading, among other things, the comic adaptation of Moby Dick from Marvel. I will just leave you here the first page of both the comic and the original version and you tell me which one you honestly think would result probably more appealing for a young reader.
Sure, the text is not the same and, obviously, you lose part of the narration. But if you get the student to read eagerly Moby Dick, to get to know the story it tells, to get to discuss with the rest of his/her partners the philosophy and values within this novel, isn’t it worthy to miss part of the text? Besides, after reading this comic, the student is more likely to, someday, revisit the original Melville's novel, simply, because if s/he enjoys the reading, s/he is more likely to read any other text in the future, as s/he gets to incorporate reading as a hobby.
There has been an important drop in children reading for fun (in a survey in 2010 in the States, only 51% of the children said to read for fun), and as the OECD posits, enjoy reading “is an important precondition for becoming an effective reader”(OECD, Education at a glance 2011: Highlights, 2011, p. 94), and readers who like it have a bigger chance of completing a complex reading task. So our goal should really be to breed hooked readers who resort to reading just as a leisure activity. And comics can lend us a big hand in that.
I firmly believe that reading comics leads to more reading overall, as I have experimented that fact in my own life: I have been a keen reader all my life, whereas my older sister didn’t really fall for reading until well into her twenties. My father has always been completely sure where the reason for that lies: as a kid, I was an avid comic reader, my sister wasn’t. And I keep reading comics, but I also jumped to read so many more things. In fact, Monnin and Elder refer to a study by Stephen Krashen where he showed that “kids who read more comic books, did more pleasure reading, liked to read more, and tended to read more books” (Monnin and Elder, Reading with Pictures - Teacher Guide, 2014, p. 15) supporting in this way the idea that comics promote heavier reading.
I really think I should finish this entry sooner than later, and I believe I have already made my point. So I will just conclude insisting on how comics can reach reluctant readers, as they are far less intimidating, they scaffold reading and they build on visual intelligence too (and not merely verbal). As teachers, we could also take advantage of comics for English as Second Language learning. So, yeah, comics are really a marvel.
