Strip Drawing or Comic Strip

Strip drawings are recommended for their story value in

adaptation of the classics. They are affective in instruction not
only because they are simple, clear and easy to read but
because they deal with materials that has been made personal.

Comics is a form of cartooning in which the same cast of

characters form a story in sequence of closely related
drawings, designed to entertain the readers. They are usually
enjoyed by elementary pupils as well as secondary students
because of their simplicity, attractiveness, color and relevant
plot. The uses of super heroes or fantasy themes add interest
to the learners. Thus the use of the comic strip in facilitating
instruction must be used to the maximum.

Values derived from the strip drawings

1. Increases interest in the subject

2. Individualizes and personalizes instruction for certain types
of pupils
3. Serves as a valuable practice in reading
4. Widens reading interest

Reasons for using comics strip

1. It is easy to read so it encourages reading

2. It builds vocabulary
3. It satisfies the collectors interest in acquiring copies
4. It provides excitement
5. It is inexpensive
6. It satisfies the childrens idea of art
Comics in the Classroom: Why Comics?
August 04, 2014 by Michelle Manno

Throughout the month of August, Teach.com and Reading With Pictures are
bringing you
Comics in the Classroom, a blog series about using comics in education, including
why graphic novels are complex texts as defined by the Common Core Standards,
how to use graphic texts to teach in the content areas, how and where to find the
best graphic texts, and more. We hope youll join us and bring the power of comics
to your classroom!

The following guest post is written by Tracy Edmunds, M.A., Curriculum Manger at
Reading With Pictures

It always strikes me as supremely odd that high culture venerates the written word
on the one hand, and the fine visual arts on the other. Yet somehow putting the two
together is dismissed as juvenilia. Why is that? Why cant these forms of art go
together like music and dance? Jonathan Hennessey, Author of The U.S.
Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation and The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic
Adaptation
When I was in school, kids would slip comics inside their textbooks to read on the
side. Comics were considered recreational reading at best, but usually adults saw
them as mind-numbing tripe. You certainly would never have seen one used in
instruction. Times have changed, and as comics and graphic novels become more
accepted as a legitimate form of art and literature, they are making their way into
classrooms. Many parents and teachers, however, still remember the stigma that
comics had when they were young and are asking, "Why should kids read comics?"

Emerging research shows that comics and graphic novels are motivating, support
struggling readers, enrich the skills of accomplished readers and are highly effective
at teaching sometimes dull or dry material in subject areas such as science and
social studies.

Josh Elder, founder and president of Reading With Pictures, sums up the strengths
of comics as educational tools with his Three Es of Comics.

Engagement: Comics impart meaning through the readers active

engagement with written language and juxtaposed sequential images.
Readers must actively make meaning from the interplay of text and images,
as well as by filling in the gaps between panels.

Efficiency: The comic format conveys large amounts of information in a short

time. This is especially effective for teaching content in the subject areas
(math, science, social studies, etc.).

Effectiveness: Processing text and images together leads to better recall and
transfer of learning. Neurological experiments have shown that we process
text and images in different areas of the brain: known as the Dual-Coding
Theory of Cognition. These experiments also indicate that pairing an image
with text leads to increased memory retention for both. With comics, students
not only learn the material faster, they learn it better.

Emergent, Beginning and Struggling Readers

Young children are just beginning to learn that

concrete objects can be represented in different
ways. For example, a dog is a furry animal that
wags its tail and barks. It can be represented by a
photograph of a dog, a stylized or "cartoon"
illustration of a dog, or letters forming the word
"dog." Most children begin to make this transition
from concrete to abstract through picture books,
with a single illustration on each page. Sequential
art (wordless comics) can take learning to the next
level, asking kids to follow a sequence of
illustrations that form a story.

Books like Owly, by Andy

Runton, provide an opportunity for young children to
look at the pictures in order and follow the story.
They love to verbalize the story, which reinforces
the concept that ink on a page can be translated
into ideas and words. In addition, the characters
communicate using symbols, providing another
opportunity for children to make the connection
between abstract images and language.

Before children are ready to read text, sequential art

can give them practice in making meaning from
material printed on a page, tracking left to right and
top to bottom, interpreting symbols, and following
the sequence of events in a story. Sequential art
provides plenty of opportunity for connecting a story
to children's own experiences, predicting what will
happen, inferring what happens between panels
and summarizing, just as you would do with a text
story. The advantage of sequential art is that
children don't need to be able to decode text to
learn and practice comprehension skills.

Once a child begins to decode text, the comic

format enables them to read much more complex
stories than is possible with traditional text and
illustration.

Imagine what this page from Spiralbound, by Aaron

Renier, would look like as text:
It would take many pages of text to convey all the
information in the last panel alone! With comics and
graphic novels, beginning readers can enjoy more
emotion, action and detail than in a typical "See
Jane Run" story. When kids read enjoyable,
complex and compelling stories, they are motivated
to read more, so graphic novels can be great
steppingstones to longer text works. This is also an
advantage when encouraging struggling or reluctant
readers or English learners. They can enjoy great
stories and practice high-level reading
comprehension skills, even at a lower text reading
level.

But perhaps the most important reason that kids

should read comics and graphic novels is because
they want to. Many young readers, when confronted
with solid pages of text, become intimidated and
overwhelmed and just give up. Give the same
reluctant reader a literary graphic novel like Bone by
Jeff Smith or a historical work like Nathan Hales
Hazardous Tales and they dive in eagerly, devouring
every page. With many struggling readers,
motivation is the key, and comics are motivating.
Accomplished Readers

Because graphic novels require readers to actively

decode and comprehend both text and images and
the interplay between them, students must use
higher-level thinking skills such as inference and
synthesis. The narrative structures that authors can
create using both text and image are often different
from and sometimes more complex than text alone,
and while reading graphic texts, students must
analyze and synthesize structures both within a
page and often as a pattern throughout the book.
The graphic medium also provides for novel uses of
metaphor, symbolism, puns, irony and point of view.

Take for example this page from Shannon and Dean

Hale's Rapunzels Revenge. The creators have
used a unique parallel visual structure, in
combination with differing color palettes, to show
the main characters memories and relate the past
to the present.
In this single panel from The Secret Science
Alliance and the Copycat Crook, Eleanor Davis
challenges the reader to keep up with the
characters as they try to figure out the timing of their
next move. Neither of these complicated narrative
structures would be possible with text alone.

Graphic texts are complex, effective teaching tools

because they require readers not only to passively
receive information, but to interact with both text
and images to construct meaning, and that is the
key to the magic. Words and pictures work together!
The Benefits of Comics in
Education
Comics are beneficial to learning in the
classroom and not just a fun art-enrichment
activity.

Reading
Comics provide narrative experiences for
students just beginning to read and for students
acquiring a new language. Students follow story
beginnings and endings, plot, characters, time
and setting, sequencing without needing
sophisticated word decoding skills. Images
support the text and give students significant
contextual clues to word meaning. Comics act
as a scaffold to student understanding.
Adjectives by Warrensburg

As Stephen Cary, a second language learner

specialist and author of Going Graphic: Comics
at Work in the Multilingual Classroom, says:
Comics provide authentic language learning
opportunities for all students. The dramatically
reduced text of many comics make them
manageable and language profitable for even
beginning level readers.

Also according to Cary, comics motivate

reluctant readers. They engage students in a
literary format which is their own. Comics speak
to students in a way they understand and
identify with. Even after students learn to be
strong readers comics give students the
opportunity to read material which combines
images with text to express satire, symbolism,
point of view, drama, puns and humor in ways
not possible with text alone.

I wrote about sharks. Sean

Writing
Many students read fluently, but find it difficult to
write. They complain that they dont know what
to write. They have ideas, but they lack the
written language skills to create a beginning,
follow a sequence of ideas and then draw their
writing to a logical conclusion.
Students frequently ask if they may draw a
picture when theyre writing. They are reaching
for images to support their language ideas.
Allowed to use words and images they will
resolve problems of storytelling which they
would not otherwise experience using words
alone. Like reading, comics provide a
scaffolding so that students experience success
in their writing. Students transfer specific
elements directly into text-only writing. For
example, students learn that whatever text
found in a word balloon is put inside quotes in
their text-only writing.

Using Comic Life students have a new

publishing medium. Comic Life documents can
be printed, emailed to parents or posted as a
website very easily.
Key benefits of using comics
in education

Earths movements by Rene

A great visual Representation of

Knowledge
Presents what is essential
Easier to remember a visual graphic
containing key information
Engaging through thinking, creating
and writing.
Perfect avenue for writing dialogue
Incites students with low interest in
writing
 Helps organization through storytelling
and storyboarding
Using visual images convey meaning
to a story or topic
Develops creative and higher level
thought processes
Develops composition techniques
through visual-verbal connections
Enriches reading, writing, and thinking
Serves as and assessment and
evaluation tool
Sequencing promotes understanding

The key benefits for students using Comics,

summarised by Marilee Sarlitto (Technology
Director, Kildeer School), found in Creating
Comics: Visual and Verbal Thinking in the
Ultimate Show and Tell (PDF) by Janette
Combs, College of William and Mary, July 17,
2003.