READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my committee: my chair, Dr. Vincent Bates, who was encouraging, endlessly patient, and held me accountable when I needed it most; Dr. Mychelle Smith, who graciously agreed to be on my committee even though she had moved and made my paper clearer and more precise; and Maria Georgiou, who shared her experience and enthusiasm for graphic novels and maintained my committee’s overwhelming radness. My parents have always my biggest cheerleaders and I am grateful for their support and my mother’s knowledge of academic writing. Without Gwyn Allred most of my sentences would be a tangled mess of clauses and endless commas, and Andrea Mancilla and the other tutors at the Writing Center were always available to bounce ideas off or make sense of a paragraph when needed. I never would have been as passionate about comics without the following: my brother who let me read his Rogue and Gambit comics when I was young; Nick for sharing his love of comics and building a community around me; Amanda, who taught me that art can transform words; Mike and Jess for always having something new I have to read, and Ralph at Alternate Reality Comics for pushing me toward titles I could have never found on my own and creating a safe space. Without Dr. Amanda Pasinski I would be a knarled bristlecone pine standing alone against the onslaught of mountain winds, and without whose guidance my dog would be first on this list. I apologize for nothing. Emily Katseanes talked up grad school and teaching so much I was actually willing to give it a chance when the opportunity came. And finally, thank you to Jo, the bestest boi. READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 3 Table of Contents NATURE OF THE PROBLEM...................................................................................................7 Literature Review....................................................................................................................8 Background of Graphic Novels .........................................................................................9 A brief history of graphic novels ..................................................................................9 Rise to prominence .......................................................................................................10 Pedagogical Potential.........................................................................................................11 Motivation.....................................................................................................................11 Comprehension .............................................................................................................14 Inferential thinking........................................................................................................20 Multimodality ...............................................................................................................22 Intertextuality...........................................................................................................23 Visual literacy ..........................................................................................................25 Media literacy ..........................................................................................................26 Diversity.......................................................................................................................27 In narratives .............................................................................................................27 In representation.......................................................................................................30 In accessibility .........................................................................................................32 Resistance Against Graphic Novels...................................................................................32 Cultural perceptions ......................................................................................................33 Teacher perceptions .....................................................................................................34 Student perceptions.......................................................................................................34 Lack of familiarity by educators ...................................................................................35 READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 4 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................37 PURPOSE...................................................................................................................................38 METHODS .................................................................................................................................39 PROJECT....................................................................................................................................40 DISCUSSION.............................................................................................................................41 Limitations and Opportunities ................................................................................................46 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................50 APPENDICES .............................................................................................................................58 Appendix A: Annotated Graphic Narrative ............................................................................58 READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 5 List of Figures Figure 1. Panels from Antigone depicting contemporary images` associated with the theme of the lines from original play by Sophocles, including the Tiananmen Square protests, the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, and the Kent State shootings (Hopkins & Kurzanski, 2006, p. 2)…………………………………..19 Figure 2. Explanation of inference, also called closure, in Understanding Comics (McCloud, 1993, p. 67)……………………………………………………………………………21 READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 6 Abstract Graphic novels have the potential to support motivation, comprehension, and inferential thinking for adolescent readers, and their use can help encourage multimodality, visual and media literacy, and diversity in the classroom. The problem is that teachers do not take them seriously or are not familiar with them in the first place. This thesis makes a case for using graphic novels in middle school English language arts and provides a resource for educating teachers who are novice readers of graphic novels. It describes the process of creating the tool, a graphic narrative aligned to subject core standards annotated to show both standards alignment and intertextual reading. It also summarizes lessons learned by the author in creating the tool. It recommends future creation of a more distributable tool which can be used in the advocacy of classroom graphic novel use as well as further research into the efficacy and improvement of such a tool. Key words: graphic novel, comics, media literacy, multimodality, intertextuality READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 7 NATURE OF THE PROBLEM The prominence of graphic novels has risen in the United States in the last 30 years. In addition to an increase in numbers, graphic novels have become more mainstream, not only as an aspect of popular culture (Inge, 1990), but also winning awards in non-graphic novel categories (Serchay, n.d.). In libraries across the country graphic novels are regularly acquired. An unofficial survey on a librarian blog showed over 60% of libraries had adult graphic novel collections and over 80% had graphic novel collections for either children, young adult readers, or both. Librarians across the country reported that, comparatively speaking, graphic novels had higher circulation numbers than other parts of the collection (MacDonald, 2013). In education, librarians have been some of the major advocates for inclusion of more graphic titles as they see the benefits and popularity with students. Graphic novels have a large potential in the classroom. According to school librarians (Brenner, 2009; Griffith, 2010; MacDonald, 2013), students love them and ask for them, and in the classroom students flock to the opportunity to read them (Brozo & Mayville, 2012). Two reading preference surveys of adolescents support some preference of graphic novels over other categories of texts except novels and magazines (Hughes-Hassell & Rodge, 2007; Nippold, Duthie, & Larsen, 2005). Graphic novels can support reading comprehension (Cook, 2017; Mallia, 2007) and hold great potential in their use with English learners (Chun, 2009). As they cover diverse topics, especially non-mainstream stories, graphic novels have an emancipatory possibilities (Sabeti, 2013; Rhoades, Dallacqua, Kersten, Merry, & Milleret, 2015). Additionally, graphic novels can be used intertextually in similar ways as other texts (Gillenwater, 2014; Pantaleo, 2014), but also connect students with multimodal and contemporary modes of literacy (Chun, 2009). READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 8 However, teachers, especially those who are new to graphic novels, may not even be able to read them expertly let alone use them in the classroom. While many resources are available for teachers despite the relative newness of graphic novel research, no one text functions as a “crash course” to graphic novels for teachers. The articles and resource books that exist make suggestions for integrating graphic novels in small and significant ways, present whole unit plans revolving around them, or give a defense of their potential in education. Before using graphic novels teachers need to expertly read graphic novels, which depict time, space, and tone through pictures rather than words. An expert reader must be able to navigate both text and visuals simultaneously as the two are interconnected. When I first started reading graphic novels, I had to learn to slow down and stop ignoring the pictures for the text due to my experience with text-only narratives. However, the pictures play a major role in graphic novels, making visual literacy an important part of the reading. McCloud’s Understanding Comics (1993) shows the various visual functions and how intertextuality aligns with the addition of visuals through the format of a graphic novel. While McCloud’s seminal work, oft-cited in graphic novel literature, is a great beginning resource for those new to comics, the text is geared more toward the general reader or enthusiast and is not directly geared toward the middle school language arts educator, who has more specific needs. Literature Review In this literature review I will first define graphic novels and other associated terms and explore the history and growth of graphic novels in popular culture. Next, I will examine potential educational benefits of using graphic novels—its effects on motivation and comprehension, its use of inferential thinking, its existence as a multimodal text, and its increasing diversity—delving into each category to explore current research and theoretical READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 9 assumptions. Finally, I will explore resistance against graphic novels by our culture, by teachers, by students, and through a general lack of knowledge. Background of Graphic Novels Many terms are used to describe visual storytelling in a sequence, and each scholar has a preferred term and definition. In this review I will mainly use graphic novel, largely because the term is more recognizable to lay readers for the type of text I refer to throughout: a sequential narrative. However, I also use the terms graphic narrative, comic(s), and graphic novel interchangeably depending often on the language of the source text. All studies discussed, despite the word used, used extended graphic narrative rather than single panel comics or multi-panel strips that do not function as a text alone. All texts not falling into this definition will be strictly defined throughout the review. A brief history of graphic novels. The roots of comics as a series of graphics telling a narrative existed throughout human history in cave paintings, art, and illuminated scripts (Cary, 2004; McCloud, 1993). While more formal serialized graphic narratives were being created across the world by a variety of people in the 19th century (Inge, 1990; Versaci, 2007), comics grew as a uniquely American form with the serialization of Richard Felton Outcault’s The Yellow Kid in 1895 (Inge, 1990). As Inge (1990) noted, “Along with jazz, the comic strip as we know it perhaps represents America’s major indigenous contribution to world culture” (p. xi). The codifying of certain visual layout helped establish the new form as distinct from previous one-panel political cartoons (Inge, 1990; Versaci, 2007). Meanwhile, the rising popularity in mass culture enjoyed by comic writers such as Windsor McKay and American comics’ relationship with vaudeville and the budding film and animation industry solidified comics as a part of American culture (Dowdey & Lambert, 2016). Comics became linked intrinsically to American READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 10 cultural values and experiences. Similar to the history of film, another popular culture media that began in the early 20th century, comics went through times of government investigation; a self-censorship board, the Comic Code Authority, emerged and strictly enforced cultural norms and morals until countercultural publication in the 1970s and ‘80s broke down barriers to better align with the diverse preferences and culture of Americans (Baetens & Frey, 2015; Inge, 1990). The regulation of comics during times of cultural regulation aligns it as a force of popular culture, as does its breakout of these restrictions in times of cultural upheaval. With Will Eisner writing the first graphic novel to use the descriptor “graphic novel,” A Contract with God, in the 1970s, the future of graphic novels was set (Baetens & Frey, 2015; McCloud, 1993). Rise to prominence. As graphic novels broke out of their earlier restrictions and increasingly moved toward longer, sustained stories and darker, more serious themes, the public began to take them more seriously (Baetens & Frey, 2015). While award-winning works such as Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons and Maus by Art Spiegelman were written in this time period (Serchay, n.d.), the main growth and acceptance of the graphic novels market only took place in the last couple decades. Graphic novels moved out of the realm of comic shops and into bookstores and libraries. In the early 2000s a combination of teen interest in manga (a Japanese form of comics) and a series of well-written graphic novels from major book publishers fueled an interest in graphic novels, allowing librarians who may have grown up reading the more serious graphic novels of the ‘80s to purchase more for their collections (MacDonald, 2013). High circulation numbers continued library graphic novel collection growth (Brenner, 2009; MacDonald, 2013). In 2008 Clark County Library put on what would be the first annual Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival as part of the Vegas Valley Book Festival (Brown, 2008). Since I attended the first year, it has grow into a separate and equally anticipated festival as has READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 11 the library system’s graphic novel collection. I have checked out books from similarly enlarged collections in Washington, D.C., and Salt Lake City, Utah. Working at bookstores in D.C. and Las Vegas for the 2000s and shopping in bookstores ranging across other cities in the Mountain West since then, I have watched the growth of the graphic novel section, moving from generally one bay in the bookstore stocked mostly with what I would consider the comics canon to a whole row of bays ranging across series and stocked with the newest storylines. The growth in interest in graphic novels matches the growth in how seriously they are taken; since 2001 graphic novels have increasingly won more mainstream library awards and writing prizes in both adult and children’s literature (Serchay, n.d.). Nowadays, graphic novels are integrated within children and teen sections, sometimes having a separate space within due to the size of the collection, and are regularly being featured in displays not focused on graphic novels. Pedagogical Potential Motivation. Engagement is a crucial component of literacy and achievement, so interest is as important as comprehension when considering interventions; students who are engaged in what they are reading are more likely to connect to and comprehend the text (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006. Much of the research on the reading habits of adolescents has been based on the positive relationship between leisure reading (Hughes-Hassell & Rodge, 2007; Nippold et al., 2005). The results of the 2000 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which assessed the literacy of 15-year-olds internationally, show similar inclinations. In the 2000 PISA, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2003) found, “Engagement in reading appears to be an important factor that distinguishes between different levels of performance in reading literacy” (p. 183), noting that socioeconomic and gender differences found in the measured literacy rates might be ameliorated through reading READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 12 engagement. Motivation and engagement of readers is necessary to increase literacy rates, so educators should use texts students enjoy. Because comic readership cuts across all socioeconomic classes and reading levels (Cary, 2004), it would make sense to use a popular, engaging form of literature as expressed by graphic novels to increase student interest in reading. Three different surveys of reading preferences among adolescents showed possible promise for graphic novels engaging secondary readers. In the first study 41% of 6th and 9th grade students at a public school in lower-middle income neighborhoods in western Oregon were found to read comics for pleasure, coming in third place after magazines and novels (Nippold et al., 2005). In the second study 44% of students at a midwestern urban middle school were found to read graphic novels, second only to magazines. In contrast, only 30% of the same students read books for pleasure (Hughes-Hassell & Rodge, 2007). While this study was constrained to a single school and included not-yet adolescent 5th graders, the school was specifically chosen by the researchers for its inclusion of lower-income and minority students. These two studies, while limited in scope and population, indicate consistent rates of adolescent pleasure in reading graphic novels and consistently higher rates over other forms of non-novel literature included in literary reading standards such as plays, poetry, or nonfiction texts. Clark and Osborne (2008) indicated lower rates of graphic novel reading in the United Kingdom at the secondary level with only 25.6% of respondents reading graphic novels outside of school more than once a month. However, among self-identified non-readers the rates of graphic novel readership, while only 14.6%, were higher than those for both fiction books and factual books (Clark & Osborne, 2008). The higher rates of graphic novel readership among what may be termed reluctant readers compared to fiction and nonfiction books show promise at engaging at least some students who may not be attracted to traditional texts. Additionally, rates of circulation and readership reported READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 13 in school libraries (Brenner, 2009; Karp, 2011; MacDonald, 2013) reinforce the suggestion of graphic novels as a comparatively popular form of pleasure reading in the first two studies (Hughes-Hassell & Rodge, 2007; Nippold et al., 2005). Teachers also report higher student engagement. Melissa Mayville tells a story of her students flocking to the table on which she had set down a stack of science graphic novels in her 8th grade science class, asking questions about them excitedly before class even began (Brozo & Mayville, 2012). My practicum advisor, Jeff Martinez, an English teacher at Ben Lomond High School, mentioned in my first week how much students enjoy reading a graphic novel as one of their in-class texts (J. Martinez, personal communication, March 1, 2017). His classes read American Born Chinese, and despite a complicated structure for the graphic novel involving three narratives, he said student engagement was high. In addition to anecdotal and statistical evidence of students liking graphic novels, student responses in two other studies indicate engagement in graphic novels. Graphic novel readers in one middle school study mentioned that they did not fall behind in the reading, unlike with previous novels in class, and that their enjoyment of the graphic novels caused them to want to talk about the reading more in class than they normally did. Although their general depth and level of analysis remained the same, their teacher also mentioned that the students’ written responses to the readings tended to be longer than normal (Moeller, 2016), which could indicate higher engagement if not higher cognition. Many students in a high school study measuring graphic novels’ effect on text comprehension reported higher engagement with the graphic novel than the traditional text, citing easier or better comprehension and the visual elements as reasons (Cook, 2017). However, in both studies, a small proportion of students thought the graphic novel READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 14 versions were not as engaging when compared to the traditional text, listing the visuals as the main barrier (Cook, 2017; Moeller, 2016). The power of comics to engage adolescent readers acknowledges literacy as both a social act and a personal transaction. Readers create meaning through dialogue with the self and with society (Taylor, 2011). Interpersonal exchanges give the text meaning through the reader’s experiences and knowledge while intrapersonal exchanges can exist with other readers or through the social negotiation of what words or ideas mean (Taylor, 2011). While graphic novels may resonate with students on an individual level, graphic novels can also tap into a social experience of literacy through a larger pool of shared social knowledge due to their popular cultural roots. This creates engagement for adolescents with the text on a dual level: personal and social. These multiple levels of connection can increase reading motivation and engagement. Comprehension. The main way to improve reading comprehension is to simply read more (Krashen, 1989). Krashen (1989) suggests increasing pleasure reading through low-risk, high-interest texts, which leads to further language acquisition and vocabulary growth due to an increase in comprehensible input. Since graphic novels can for many students function as high-interest texts, they fulfill this niche. The multimodal nature of graphic novels means that language is expressed both in text and graphics, which leads to dual coding. Dual coding, a theory of cognition by psychologist Allan Piavio (as cited in Martinez, 2010), posits that knowledge is stored in the mind either visually or verbally. Therefore, information represented both visually and verbally is coded in the brain twice, or dual coded, which makes it easier to associate with other information and to retrieve (Martinez, 2010). Graphic novels can also support comprehension of a text (Cook, 2017). In a study at a southeastern Title I high school, students from grades 9 to 12 read either a short story, both the short story and the graphic novel READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 15 adaptation, or only the graphic novel adaptation (Cook, 2017). Students who read the graphic novel adaptation, whether or not they read the original text, performed better according to comprehension measurements than their peers who did not. Students also mentioned in interviews how the visuals clarified their understanding (Cook, 2017). Similar responses about the helpfulness of visuals were also mentioned in Moeller’s (2016) study. Cook (2017) concluded that “the use of visuals in conjunction with less text appears to have made it easier for many students to create their own two-way transactions with the text, helping them to interact with and comprehend the graphic adaptation” (p. 37), an observation repeated in descriptive case studies of graphic novel book clubs (Conners, 2013; Sabati, 2012). In contrast to the overall positive view of visuals supporting comprehension, in interviews a small number of students mentioned that the graphic novel adaptation was harder to understand than the original text (Cook, 2017). Moeller (2016) found similar responses in a study comparing pairs of 6th graders reading the same books in opposite formats—text versus graphic novel—which were self-selected by the readers. However, she did not compare the results of the final tests between graphic novel readers and text readers, and the test questions were created based on the text versions. A few students who read the graphic novel versions mentioned that they felt the test would have been easier had they read the original text as some of the details they were tested on were only represented visually in the graphic novel and were therefore harder to recall (Moeller, 2016). Graphic novels can help teach and refine reading strategies due to visual support of the text. Chun (2009) outlines the perks of multimodal texts especially for less proficient readers or English learners (ELs): “As Krashen (1989) pointed out, the visual narrative that accompanies the text in comic books ‘can provide clues that shed light on the meaning of an unfamiliar word READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 16 or grammatical structure’” (p. 146). Visual supports can help with language supports, and as students decode unknown words and structures with contextual clues, visuals such as the pictures in comics can provide that context, especially for ELs. Krashen’s (1989) theory of comprehensible input means that language is acquired when students get exposed to language they can mostly understand. Input can be made comprehensible by supporting language, which is very abstract as it is a symbolic representation of an object or concept, with a more concrete representation such as the item or action itself or a visual representation. Graphic novels provide this representation, linking the word to the idea, which in turn makes otherwise too-high texts comprehensible. The increase of comprehensible input and reduction of stress when reading is especially important for ELs (Cary, 2004). Similarly, Krashen (1989) noted that reading must be low-risk, without pressure or frustration. For these theoretical reasons, many of the studies of the use of graphic novels on comprehension have been focused on ELs. Some studies have examined the effectiveness of comics on comprehension of a text across proficiency levels and text difficulty. Liu (2004) sorted EL students at a Chinese university by English proficiency and assigned them either high or low text difficulty either with or without the added visual support of a comic. Among these students only the comprehension of low-proficiency ELs benefitted from comic strips. However, in response to Liu’s findings, Wong, Miao, Cheng, and Yin (2017) tried to isolate possible uncontrolled variables in Liu’s study. In their quantitative study on college students enrolled in EL courses at a large southwestern university, Wong et al. isolated not just proficiency but also cognitive preference (visual, verbal, or both), prior knowledge on the topic, and comic-reading history. Topic knowledge was controlled for by introducing an unfamiliar topic, and comic-reading history was not statistically significant. Regardless of cognitive preference, all students’ comprehension and READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 17 recall benefitted from comic use. While these findings track with Cook’s (2017) study on a mainstream U.S. class, they contradict Liu’s (2004) findings that only lower proficiency ELs benefited from comic use when measured on comprehension of a text. Either way, comics benefit less proficient readers and show potential benefit at all levels of proficiency for reasons that may be deeper than simply text difficulty and visual scaffolding. In a study in Malta 14- to 15-year-olds of four different achievement levels were assigned either a text, an illustrated text, or a comics text, all based on the same text. Students were tested with the same questionnaire on text recall. Recall of content for the comics text and illustrated text were both greater than that of the text-only text. Students who received the comics version were asked, “How do you think the comic helped you learn what was in it?" (para. 24) eliciting responses that focused on aspects of the narrative form rather than only the visual depiction (Mallia, 2007). As one of the major aspects of graphic novels is a penchant of narrative structure, regardless of content, the narrative quality that helped additionally organize information and make it memorable in the study extends across the mode. Chun (2009) points out the power of narrative when making meaning from a text when suggesting Maus, a graphic novel about the Holocaust, in lieu of textbooks. Another trait of graphic novels that supports understanding is its place in popular culture. For example, when teaching Antigone recently during my practicum, many students confessed that they had no clue what had actually happened in the play although they understood the conflict and character motivations. However, Hopkins and Kurzanski (2006) wrote a graphic adaptation that integrates quotes from the play even as it simplifies the speeches to the main points. As it portrays the action visually in time with the character development in the speeches, this comic could have graphically supported my students’ understanding of the action of the READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 18 play, allowing them to focus as I wanted them to on the bigger ideas. Additionally, this comic version uses contemporary images of war, such as tanks and a visual allusion to the Twin Towers, to illustrate the conflict that happened directly previous to the start of the play. These contemporary visual allusions can work within students’ frames of references to increase understanding and relevance (see Figure 1). Hopkins and Kurzanski’s integration of popular culture into the images and story led to a contemporary relevance—a trait of the format. As comics are a product of popular culture, they align with contemporary frames of references for the average person using familiar language and common knowledge as touchstones. This furthers the effectiveness of graphic novels to help visually support student understanding through shared frames of reference while also supporting verbal understanding through contemporary language and visual representation to provide vocabulary context clues. Additionally, the direct relevance to students’ own experiences through popular culture grounding gives students an entry point to relate to the work even if the subject matter does not directly correlate to student experiences. READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 19 Figure 1. Panels from Antigone depicting contemporary images` associated with the theme of the lines from original play by Sophocles, including the Tiananmen Square protests, the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, and the Kent State shootings (Hopkins & Kurzanski, 2006, p. 2). READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 20 Inferential thinking. Inferential thinking, the ability to tell what is not clearly stated, is another oft-cited reason for using graphic novels in the classroom. Inference is part of daily life as humans make meaning of the world around them, filling in gaps of information with previous experiences (Martinez, 2010). In literature inference can be explained as that which is not directly said but understood. However, in graphic novels the concept and function remain the same but are expressed in what is outside the frame (i.e., the gutter, or the space between panels). Therefore, from one panel to the next the images are different. The movement between the images is not depicted, yet the reader understands the movement to have happened without seeing it (McCloud, 1993). For example, McCloud shows an image with multiple panels, each with the same stick figure in a different pose (see Figure 2). The gutters serve as a space for inference, which McCloud refers to as “closure” (p. 63), indicating to the reader the connectedness of the five separate images. Accordingly, the reader understands these poses as an uninterrupted flow of movement rather than as five discrete moments. The movement is assumed rather than depicted. Thus, intertextuality is shown through the existence of inference in both texts, understood by the reader the same but possibly expressed differently within the texts (Gillenwater, 2014). READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 21 Figure 2. Explanation of inference, also called closure, in Understanding Comics (McCloud, 1993, p. 67). This cognitive leap is one that is innate beyond the visual. This idea of inference follows similar lines in pragmatics, the study of language in context of use: In a conversation, what assumptions does a listener make about unknowns, or how does a listener make decisions about likely meanings when a word or phrase has multiple meanings (Novick & Reboul, 2008)? As human brains function to fill in the unknown in linguistic contexts to create meaning, the brain also fills in the unknown in visual contexts for the same act of meaning making. The skill of inference is directly translatable between the two forms. READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 22 Multimodality. As text moves increasingly from the written word into the wider world of multiple media, literacy takes multiple forms. As this change happens, Chun (2009) suggests that “our definition of literacy needs to encompass not only the textual, but also the visual, the spatial, and the aural” (p. 145). The relationship of various media, both physical and digital, within the same text changes how any one medium would be understood. In researching how children understand picture books and the relationship between the visual and the verbal, Sipe (1998) notes, “Picture books allow children to have multiple experiences as they engage in creating new meanings and constructing new worlds.” The relationship between pictures and words changes the interpretation of both the pictures and of the words. Multimodality encompasses the variety of modes and how their interactions change the whole. Contemporary literacy is increasingly heading in a more multimodal direction. The Partnership for 21st Century Learning (2007), a coalition of states and businesses that are trying ensure students are ready for the future, includes information, media, and technology skills as one of its major tenets. Stressed in these skills is navigating multiple sources and modes critically and expertly. Juggling varying forms of information and evaluating them with and against each other is a skill built out of multimodality. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) (NCTE Board of Directors, 2013) agrees and has adapted this framework to further define the challenges of literacy when looking toward the future. According to the NCTE, the definition of literacy changes as societies change. As society becomes more technologically advanced and complex, literacy has grown to a concept of multiliteracies among a range of contexts and media, which are “multiple, dynamic, and malleable” (NCTE Board of Directors, 2013, para. 2). While the core curriculum standards are less explicit on the need for multiple and multimodal literacies, the standards acknowledge communicative diversity, defining literacy along four dimensions READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 23 (reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language) and stressing the interaction of multiple media within each (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010). As multiliteracies are “multimodal practices of meaning making,” (p. 145) including not only traditional forms of literacy across multiple media but also day-to-day activities such as texting and playing online role playing games, multiliteracies support linguistic diversity and meet students where they and their interests are, and graphic novels tap into this larger movement (Chun, 2009). Intertextuality. Intertextuality is the relationship between texts and implies an ability to use literary interpretation skills on a variety of texts outside of literature (Gillenwater, 2014). Graphic novels, being narratives like literature, draw on the narrative form and can aid visual interpretation due to their pairing of literary interpretation and visual interpretation. Librarian Tabitha Simmons explains, Graphic novel readers have learned to understand print, but can also decode facial and body expressions, the symbolic meanings of certain images and postures, metaphors and similes, and other social and literary nuances teenagers are mastering as they move from childhood to maturity. (As cited in Bucher & Manning, 2004, p. 68) The ability to interpret visual cues in a literary context is evident in a descriptive case study of an extracurricular graphic novel book club at an affluent midwestern suburban high school. Students used visual cues such as facial expressions and color in conjunction with the text to create nuanced readings along complex themes. Students decoded allusion through visual mirroring and perspective as creating a metaphor for a character (Conners, 2013). In another study of an extracurricular graphic novel reading group, this one in a Scottish secondary school, students also had little trouble navigating complex meaning making across both the visual and textual realms without instruction or support (Sabeti, 2013). READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 24 In a phenomenological case study of a 12th-grade AP English class reading graphic novels within larger literary units, students transferred traditional literacy skills to reading the visual elements of the text (Gillenwater, 2014). Literacy strategies such as think-alouds were used by the teacher during instruction, and “other students also recognized intertextuality during the structured think-aloud” (p. 258). However, despite the transfer of literacy strategies to the visual elements students still benefited from direct instruction in visual literacy when they had no previous art instruction. Similar intertextuality was found in Moeller’s (2016) middle school study. Students were able to discuss similar literary elements such as mood or characterization regardless of format. In two middle school studies examining students’ readings of graphic novels, students were able to use primarily the visual elements in the graphic novel to decode the literary elements when paired with some instruction about visual elements (Pantaleo, 2011; 2014). Despite the intertextuality between graphic novels and traditional texts, some barriers for readers persist due to the visual nature, such as not knowing how to read the textual and visual elements without explicit instruction (Gillenwater, 2014) or the visual elements impeding a student’s normal visualization while reading. One student who read the traditional text first claimed that because she already had a different mental picture of the scene or characters that the visuals did not match, reading the graphic novel was challenging (Moeller, 2016). Other students felt that the lack of more complex vocabulary words could be a detriment to future literacy (Moeller, 2016). However, some students mentioned how the graphic novel supported their ability to visualize (Moeller, 2016) or infer (Gillenwater, 2014), showing how literacy strategies (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006) can also be supported through graphic novels. READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 25 Visual literacy. Visual literacy is an aspect of multimodal literacy that may not seem like a form of literacy as images inundate life through traffic signs, advertisements, informational graphics in newspapers, television, social media, and memes. Visual interpretation is an instinctive act with even small children being able to navigate visual meaning making (Sipe, 1998), and without prior instruction adolescents have been able to make complex interpretations of visual narratives along color, facial expressions, perspective and other elements (Conners, 2013). However, within the academic realm some secondary students may not feel as if they learned to interpret a picture or image (Gillenwater, 2014) or may not treat visual details with the same rigor as textual ones (Moeller, 2016). While the explicit teaching of visual literacy skills is often a major consideration in the methodology of studies using graphic novels in the secondary classroom (Gillenwater, 2014; Pantaleo, 2014), in practice, teachers may not have familiarity with the graphic novel format or its visual aspects (Griffith, 2010). Secondary students are required to compare images and texts dealing with similar ideas (Utah State Office of Education [USOE], 2013), so interpreting images expertly is embedded in the concept of secondary literacy. Using graphic novels as a literary text in the classroom allows for the direct instruction of visual literacy. Additionally, graphic novels can create a structure to negotiate visual meaning. Interpretation ends up as acts of negotiation between the creator and the reader using social contexts as a structure for this negotiation (Pantaleo, 2014). In interpretation social conventions form part of the interpretive structure. Graphic novels provide a more accessible structure for interpretation. In English texts are read left to right, top to bottom, but an image can be approached from multiple directions. The graphic novel format creates a narrative directionality within the images (McCloud, 1993). This combination of multiple entry points and narrative READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 26 structure was noticed in various studies. In the study in the AP class a student struggled with the directionality and flow of the images (Gillenwater, 2014), while in the Scottish graphic novel club the multiple visual elements allowed for a variety of approaches to the text not necessarily seen from the same students when in the classroom (Sabeti, 2013). Some of the nontraditional approaches seen in the book club could have come from the group’s informal structure (Sabeti, 2013), which was different from other studies (Cook, 2017; Gillenwater, 2014; Moeller, 2016; Pantaleo, 2014) that took place during formal instruction. Although this difference in informal setting may have had some influence on the students, nevertheless the student readings were still complex interpretive acts. Students negotiated the visual meanings, creating complex and nuanced readings not just of the narrative, but largely of the visual story and implications (Sabeti, 2013). The narratives of the graphic novels read seemed to provide structure to focus and allow for more nuanced visual readings. Media literacy. The push toward multiliteracies and multimodality leads to multiple narratives. While the diversity of narratives reflects the complexity of society, navigating through multiple versions of the same story requires critical examination not just of these new narratives, but also a reexamination of traditional or mainstream narratives. As there are many diverse and relevant graphic novels that tap into large, important events, students are able to engage in critical reading in a familiar and authentic manner about important events and ideas that often are presented only a single way in mainstream texts (Chun, 2009). Media literacy, the critical reading of media to examine the purpose of the narrative given (NCTE Board of Directors, 2013), fits naturally into the tendency of graphic novels to give alternate narratives to mainstream ones. The Partnership for 21st Century Learning (2007) also stresses the importance of media literacy, showing not just an academic necessity for critical media consumption but also READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 27 a business and social need for it. Graphic novels merge image with narratives, allowing for a deconstruction of not just the narrative but the visual representations. Thusly, the use of graphic novels can bring media literacy into all subjects (Schwarz, 2002). Diversity. Graphic novels often present “alternative views of culture, history, and human life in general in accessible ways, giving voice to minorities and those with diverse viewpoints” (Schwarz, 2002, p. 284). Graphic novels, through their joint position as popular culture and alternative culture, provide space for diversity. Similar to how graphic novels allow for multiple entrance points for the reader, they also provide multiple entrance points to creators in the stories told, who tells those stories, who they are told about, and how they are told. In narratives. Graphic novels range across a variety of topics and styles. While superhero comics may be the most well known, especially due to the recent deluge of superhero movies from both the Marvel and DC universes, comics have always had a strong independent thread, growing even stronger since the 1980s resurgence of alternative comics (Baetens & Frey, 2015) and the Internet enabling of more informal, digitally published Web comics (Cary, 2004). From their start in U.S. popular culture in the early 20th century comics have always crossed an array of purposes and genres as both a firm establishment of popular culture that influenced design and language and a subculture-countercultural force that was separate from and responded to dominant popular culture (Inge, 1990). In NPR’s list of must-read comics compiled with listener help, only 18 out of 100 are superhero stories, and two of those arguably belong primarily in other genres (Weldon & Mayer, 2017). In my graphic novel collection I have comics ranging from the adventures of Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage, who were the first computer scientists; explanations about the function of money; memoirs of individuals in times of upheaval, such as the Holocaust and the Iranian revolution; photojournalism about the aftermath READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 28 of war in Sarajevo; a history of queer theory; adventure stories in the weirdest summer camp ever; middle-school explorations of finding one’s place in a new town; sci-fi feminist retellings of The Odyssey; high-school explorations on identity and discrimination that mix fable with daily life; first-hand accounts of the Civil Rights movement; and superhero comics exploring Muslim immigrant identity with American superhero identity, or a family’s struggle with dementia, or the intersection of disability, identity, and superpowers. Graphic novels run the gamut of every genre and topic (Bucher & Manning, 2004), and due to their otherness they allow in stories that might otherwise be rejected by other genres or categories as not complying to their conventions or telling stories outside the dominant narrative (Versaci, 2007). The opportunity for personal connection as well as diverse story lines has been noticed by proponents of graphic novels in the classroom, namely teachers and librarians. Graphic novels across topics regularly take a confessional approach, such as Art Spiegelman’s (1992) Maus, Marjane Satrapi’s (2000/2004) Persepolis, and Mariko and Jillian Tamaki’s (2008) Skim, creating an authentic experience. Additionally, all three deal with issues through a contemporary lens. Even the historical aspects—Maus with WWII and Persepolis with the Iranian Revolution and its fallout—are brought to the present through through the lens of the storyteller, making them relevant. These effects transfer even with less obviously authentic or relevant narratives. The powerful combination of art and narrative pulls even the most foreign story closer to the reader. Watts (2015) explains that, due to readers’ using so much of their prior experiences to visually infer while reading graphic novels, students personally connect to graphic novels even when the subject matter may not be as personally close, making it especially useful for issues requiring empathy, such as social justice issues. Williams (2008) agrees that the constant inference required to read a comic creates an emotional connection that builds a bridge to further READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 29 personal connection. In addition to teaching graphic novels as content, she guided her students through creating their own sequential story. As an art teacher, her experiences show the impact such an interdisciplinary approach can have in affecting and reaching students. Agreeing with the power of graphic novels in connecting to students, Karp (2011) claims, “The form reaches young people in a way no other can” (p. 35). He also elaborated on why graphic novels are so effective at emotionally connecting to students by noting that due to the visual nature there were multiple avenues to convey emotion beyond just the literary elements available to written word, including color, posture, framing, and facial expressions. In a descriptive case study looking at how students engage in culturally relevant multimodal literacy, researchers also noticed the emancipatory possibility of multiple literacies, specifically non-dominant narratives. Ghiso and Low (2013) studied a free summer EL program in a large diverse district spanning a large array of grades and languages. They expressed interest in issues concerning dismantling the dominant American narrative and exploring intersections of identities, and the students largely chose immigration and their transnational identities when writing their graphic autobiographical narratives. The authors point out that because multimodal literacies are themselves hybrid—and therefore more open—comic sequences become non-dominant literacies with spaces of untold stories—the gutters. Overall, one of the most looked-at aspects of comics in literacy is the gutters as they function to build senses of time and timelessness, movement and stillness, physical space and narrative space, and emotion (McCloud, 1993). The space between panels seems to take on a mythical quality; according to Ghiso and Low (2013), as with stories untold or too big to tell, the gutters allow readers to infer the stories within stories rather than just the moments between panels. Students narratives were READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 30 not just non-dominant narratives of American immigration but also showed examples of non-traditional, experimental narratives. Some graphic novels throw out even graphic novel conventions. The Arrival by Shaun Tan (2007) is a wordless graphic novel, which can open doors to even more personal readings. The lack of expectation for a single reading is similar to an abstract artwork, where the onus is on the viewer to assign meaning. Interpretation is symbolic rather than linguistic (Rhoades et al., 2015), translating to language through the lens of the reader. The researchers noted that while students initially struggled through reading a wordless text, this lack of linguistic cues caused deeper questioning and interrogation of both the text and the reader. In the study researchers noted the multiplicities of readings depended on the individual interpretation of pictures and that the lack of text prompted more creative and personal connections (Rhoades et al., 2015). When students questioned the texts through various possible narratives, they brought their own set of experiences and beliefs, creating personalized meaning through the synthesis of the various symbols and their own symbolic interpretation (Rhoades et al., 2015). Essentially, students actively participated in the act of meaning making through questioning the text—images—and then clarified meaning through their own frames of reference. In representation. While the history of comic characters and creators is distinctly white and male (Weldon, 2017), comics have also been a realm of subversive diversity. Many noted superheroes were created by Jewish creators at a time where anti-Semitism was high, and their own experiences often informed their characters’ lives (Baetens & Frey, 2015). In the past few years superheroes have become visibly more diverse thanks to initiatives from big comic companies such as Marvel, filling in titles with more women and characters of color (Weldon, 2017). However, even before the recent Marvel diversity push, non-mainstream stories were READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 31 being told in graphic novels. In the 1970s the underground comix industry created opportunities for radical storytelling from non-mainstream authors (Baetens & Frey, 2015). The creation of alternate publication streams and normalization of autobiographical, science fiction, and fantasy content opened up the wider world of independent publishing for creators, leading to not just more diverse characters and portrayals in graphic novels but also among creators (Baetens & Frey, 2015). Diversity in representation can be seen when looking at the NPR top 100 list of graphic novels (Weldon & Mayer, 2017). After removing the seven titles in the manga category nearly half of the titles had female or nonbinary main characters or an equal gender divide among an ensemble cast. After removing titles uncategorizable on terms of minority representation for a variety of reasons (such as non-human characters), almost a third of the remaining titles included either main characters who belong to an ethnic, cultural, or racial minority group or ensemble casts where minority characters’ storylines were important. Directly addressed in the titles were issues of gender, racism, immigration, sexuality, and discrimination, as well as slice-of-life and storylines unrelated to identity but including diverse characters. Two of the comics dealt explicitly with disability of the main character, one of them penned by a disabled creator. One additional creator was also disabled. About two-fifths of the titles were created by at least one female creator, and while the list was compiled for the U.S., even after removing the manga section multiple international creators were included as well as creators identifying as Muslim, African American, Jewish, Latinx, Asian-American, and as part of the LGBT community (Weldon & Mayer). With the scattershot of diversity popular in graphic novels, adolescents can easily see themselves in the text. READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 32 In accessibility. Adding to diversity in representation is that more avenues for U.S. distribution exist than only publishing either through major comic companies, creator-owned co-ops, small publishers, or literary publishing companies, or self-publishing. With the rise of the internet, readers can buy or access graphic novels online and grow their interests and social interaction through fan communities (Versaci, 2007). The creation of webcomics, comics published initially only through online forums, also increases access and community. Webcomics increase the ability of creators to directly reach readers, allowing for more types of stories being told and less barriers for creators and for readers to easily find and access comics that they more closely relate to (McCloud, 2000). Many countries, such as Mexico, France, and Japan, also have rich comic-creation traditions, and many of these titles are available in the U.S. (Cary, 2004). Manga are especially popular among adolescents (Brennan, 2009; Bucher & Manning, 2004). Due to an international presence, comics can be found in many languages either as the original language or as a translation, and some comics are without words completely, such as The Arrival (2007). Resistance Against Graphic Novels The main barriers toward the use of graphic novels in the secondary classroom largely stem from negative perceptions of them. In 1954 psychologist Frank Wertham labeled graphic novels as detrimental to not only children and adolescent readers but to society (Inge, 1990). The idea of comics as trash—harmful to both morality and literacy at worst and something that children read that can be a gateway to real reading at best—persisted (Cary, 2004). Although Wertham’s influence waned with the collapse of the Comics Code in the 1970s and ‘80s and studies persistently showed no detrimental effect of comics on literacy (Cary, 2004), these early negative perceptions can still be seen in some student and teacher responses to graphic novels. READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 33 Cultural perceptions. In the mid-20th century critics of comics regularly cited the lack of vocabulary and bad grammar in comics as having a detrimental effect on literacy. While both the claims of comic language and literacy were debunked in follow-up studies (Cary, 2004), perceptions remained of graphic novels not being as serious or vigorous as books, instead only being viewed as a gateway to reading more traditional literature (Baetens & Frey, 2015; Cary, 2004). Perceptions of comics as a low-brow and unchallenging form remained despite readership across class and abilities (Cary, 2004). While Spiegelman won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for Maus, it was in “Special Awards and Citations” instead of any of the nonfiction categories (“1992 Pulitzer Prizes,” n.d.). And while in 1988 Moore and Gibbons won a Hugo Award, one of the primary science fiction awards, for their graphic novel Watchmen, a graphic novel category was not created until 2009 (“Hugo Awards by Year,” n.d.). Only since 2001 have other graphic novels begun to be nominated for or receive mainstream, non-comic awards, and as of 2015 the majority of graphic novels that received these awards were from the previous three years (Serchay, n.d.). Despite a rise to prominence in the last couple decades, graphic novels are only just beginning to be taken seriously. Another cultural perception is who reads comics. Two common stereotypes of comic readers are young boys (Cary, 2004) and the basement-dwelling comic nerd (Botzakis, 2009). Historically, male readers vastly outnumber female reader of comics, although more recent reports show a rise in female readership (Cary, 2004). In other countries females make up an equal portion of the comic-reading population with some countries trending more toward female-targeted comics, such as shoujo manga in Japan (Cary, 2004). Comics readers cut across all socioeconomic classes and reading levels (Cary, 2004). While rates of comics as a percentage of overall readership often decrease with age (Cary, 2004), the largest group of comic readers is READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 34 adults in their 20s to 30s (Botzakis, 2009). Some adult readers of comics feel stigmatized due to continuing to read material they feel others consider for children (Botzakis, 2009). However, in a phenomenological study of longtime adult readers of graphic novels including 11 White male participants and one Asian-American female participant recruited from a local comic shop, participants read comics despite these stereotypes due to the mental and emotional stimulation they experienced, and comics often reinforced their overall literary practices (Botzakis, 2009). Teacher perceptions. Teachers also showed skepticism toward the format of graphic novels. Preservice teachers unfamiliar with the form were largely unenthusiastic about the idea of graphic novels when asked prior to a graphic novel class for preservice teachers (Clark, 2013). Even when teachers were receptive to graphic novels use, they often held an idea of them as not as legitimate or complex as other forms of text (Moeller, 2016). These perceptions are important because when the people in charge of teaching the curriculum do not think something is worth teaching with then it will not be used. Furthermore, the preservice teachers who wanted to use graphic novels after taking the class about them felt unable to do so because they believed that the bias against graphic novels would make people discount their teaching. They felt their colleagues would judge them negatively and that their “credibility could be shot” (Clark, 2013, p. 43). Similar to students, some teachers also had perceptions of who read graphic novels (i.e. reluctant readers) and who did not (i.e. high-achieving students or readers) (Moeller, 2016; Sabeti, 2013). Student perceptions. Students may hold perceptions that graphic novels are for “nerds” (Moeller, 2011, p. 480) or that being seen reading them might negatively impact their peers’ perception of them (Sabeti, 2013). Even students who enjoyed the use of graphic novels in the classroom during the study questioned their educational validity (Moeller, 2016) or completeness READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 35 when compared to traditional texts (Cook, 2017). Additionally, when readers were allowed to choose their format, more male students chose to read graphic novels than female students (Moeller, 2016). When students volunteered to participate in the study, the samples again included more male graphic novel readers than female graphic novel readers (Gillenwater, 2014; Sabeti, 2013). The samples also ended up nonrepresentative of the populations studied (Gillenwater, 2014; Sabeti, 2013). When suggesting graphic novels to female readers in the high school she worked at, one library media specialist reported being told multiple times “Those are boy books” in response (Moeller, 2011, p. 477). However, a follow-up study conducted by the researcher found no real differences in gender perception among readers in a voluntary focus group from a predominantly white, middle class, Midwestern public high school (Moeller, 2011). The readership preference surveys also showed preference differences between male and female adolescent readers with more males than females choosing graphic novels (Hughes-Hassell & Rodge, 2007; Nippold et al., 2005), although no gendered preferences were observed when the reading of graphic novels was randomized within classrooms (Cook, 2017). Lack of familiarity by educators. Throughout the literature is a theme that no matter how much potential graphic novels hold and how drastically the field has grown in the last decade, educators may not be familiar or comfortable with the form (Cary, 2004; Clark, 2013). Even some testimonials from teachers or librarians exulting graphic novels start by explaining the author’s previous ignorance of them (Griffith, 2010; Sabeti, 2013). As most of the literature is from the last two decades, with many studies only being published since 2010, the field of research is fairly recent and still establishing itself, often pulling from more established research, such as that done on picture books or general literacy, to ground itself theoretically. No graphic novels are included in the core curriculum exemplar texts for middle school English language READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 36 arts (USOE, 2013) and while many of my pre-service texts and classes discussed using visual supports, only classes and texts about teaching ELs ever explicitly mentioned graphic novels and did not spend much time exploring their use beyond mentioning them as a tool. My practicum mentor used a graphic novel as one of four whole-class novels read in all 10th grade English classes at the school, but my student teaching in a middle school showed a complete lack of knowledge or interest by other teachers about graphic novels. In the master’s program, I often introduced professors or other students to graphic novels. Graphic novels are available in libraries and bookstores shelved with regular novels at the middle school level and a variety of sources exist providing information for educators, including books for teachers with lesson plans and ideas, journal articles and blog posts, and resources from the American Library Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and Scholastic. Nevertheless, I often find myself playing the role of graphic novel evangelist rather that collaborator. However, even knowledge of the pedagogical potential is often not enough for teachers. Lapp, Wolsey, Fisher, and Frey (2011) surveyed graduate students in education attending a summer seminar through availability sampling. Of the 60 students, most were in elementary education and 49 had taught at least one year. While most respondents expressed positive views toward graphic novels and rated graphic novels as being useful or highly useful, actual rates of use by teachers were very low, the most picked category being “never.” A few participants mentioned lack of availability of graphic novels in classes and schools. Researchers noted low numbers of participants considering graphic novels as useful for enrichment (i.e., advanced readers), which also could contribute to a lack of use if they are is considered mainly for READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 37 remedial readers whose teachers might be more constrained by programs, time, or administration concerns (Lapp et al., 2011). Conclusion Graphic novels offer a variety of uses in the classroom, from supporting ELs (Cary, 2004; Chun, 2009) to supporting overall reading comprehension (Chun, 2009; Cook, 2017) to providing high-interest and low-stress reading opportunities for students (Cary, 2004; Griffith, 2010). However, unlike common perceptions, graphic novels are not just for struggling readers but are appropriate for readers at every level including voracious and expert readers (Cary, 2004; Bucher & Manning, 2004). Readings of graphic novels show a complexity that navigates both the visual and verbal (Conner, 2013; Gillenwater, 2014; Pantaleo, 2011, 2014; Sabeti, 2013), often surprising both readers (Pantaleo, 2011, 2014) and teachers (Sabeti, 2013) at the depth of meaning and nuance discovered in graphic novels texts. However, despite their possible use in the classroom, many teachers are either unwilling to use them (Clark, 2013), see them as fun for occasional use but not as serious as other texts (Cary, 2004; Moeller, 2016), or simply did not know enough about graphic novels to use them even if they wanted to, as was often my own experience talking to educators in a pre-service program. One way to reduce barriers to graphic novel use in classrooms would be to educate teachers not just on their potential but on how to read a graphic novel like any other text so they can more efficiently bring them into their classrooms as any other text. READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 38 PURPOSE The goal of this curriculum project was to provide an introduction to graphic novels that explained the form through the form (similar to McCloud, 1993) specifically for middle school language arts teachers. The project demonstrated how to read a graphic novel at the middle school level through the annotation of a middle school graphic text, including identifying intertextual details such as theme, characterization, and figurative language when depicted across both text and graphic. By creating a new text rather than using other texts, the graphic novel was directly tailored to demonstrate various grade-level standards in a multimodal manner across the reading literature band in a compact narrative. The objectives of this project were 1) Create a middle-grade (6-8) level appropriate short graphic text that uses the combination of words and images to convey the following literary elements: theme, character, setting, plot, conflict, resolution, and tone. 2) Demonstrate figurative language (simile or metaphor, allusion, and hyperbole) through multimodal means. 3) Demonstrate foreshadowing through visual elements. 4) Show the interaction of literary elements through the interaction of text and image. 5) Model a nuanced reading of the above elements, aligned to the Utah Common Core 6-8 ELA. Reading will pay careful attention to visual elements, such as panels and gutters, color, and space, and align them intertextually. READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 39 METHODS This curriculum project provided an introduction to reading the visual elements of graphic novels intertextually for middle school English language arts (ELA) teachers unfamiliar with graphic novels. How the visual elements translate to literary elements was explained through annotation, a form most ELA teachers should be familiar with as annotation, or writing on the text; this is a skill often taught by middle school ELA teachers. I created a short graphic narrative of 11 pages. The length made the narrative more usable by teachers who may not want to or be able to invest a lot of time in learning to read a graphic novel by other means, and to help focus on the main intertextual elements that appear in graphic novels. Using a Neil Gaiman short story as a guide, I storyboarded the graphic short story, laid out the pages, created the images, and added in the narration text and dialogue. After completing these steps, I annotated the complete graphic short story to illustrate the intertextual details. The creation of annotations and the creation of the graphic narrative were recursive in nature; aligning the graphic narrative with the reading literature standards for grades 6-8 required deciding what literary elements should be illustrated visually, which in the text, and which with a combination of the two. READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 40 PROJECT Throughout the graphic narrative, annotations run along the side and bottom of the work. The side without annotations indicates the side that opens to the spine when bound. On most annotations I notated the specific standards that the visual or intertextual elements aligned with according to the Utah English Language Arts Core Reading Literature Standards for 6th–8th grade (Utah State Office of Education [USOE], 2013). I referenced standards in the annotations without additional citation according to abbreviation of the English language arts category and standard number as follows: RL2. This would mean that the element aligns with Utah English Language Arts Core Reading Literature Standard 2 for 6th through 8th grades. The notation RL2(8) would mean the same standard, but only the 8th grade iteration rather than a collation of all three middle grade standards. One standard represented could not be notated. RL1—citing text to support analysis (USOE, 2013)—also can apply to graphic novels, although it may look different. While citing narration and dialogue works the same as citing a traditional text, citing images requires a brief description of the image or isolating the specific detail (e.g., In the first panel on page 3, the narrator’s shadow is a wolf’s head. This means….). While all citations of images are essentially paraphrased, the structure of the graphic novel requires more detail than just page number; when a page has multiple panels, which panel(s) the image occurs in needs to be indicated as well. Citing the interplay between the narration and text would mix those elements and may involve more explanation to set up the context of the image in comparison to the quoted or paraphrased text. (See Appendix A for the annotated graphic novel.) READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 41 DISCUSSION Before I began the creation of the project, I had a couple parameters already in mind. I wanted to use a Neil Gaiman story, and I wanted to use watercolors in some way. I chose to use a Neil Gaiman short story to create a graphic novel rather than an already published graphic novel for two reasons: 1) by making the graphic narrative I could control what elements were portrayed visually or intertextually and align them to the Utah standards; and 2) copyright and fair use when images are involved was not an area I was very knowledgeable about. However, I also chose a Neil Gaiman story over a public domain story because I did not want to confuse the validity of graphic novels by associating their worth to classic literature in readers’ minds, as that would reinforce the perception of graphic novels as a stepping stool to real literature (Cary, 2004). I wanted to avoid possible buy-in of only literary adaptations of the classics or other regularly taught titles by choosing a contemporary source less used in education. Neil Gaiman’s status as a comics creator as well as writer further alleviated association of graphic novels as lesser works. I chose the story “A Lunar Labyrinth” (Gaiman, 2015) partially because of the mood created throughout. Tone and mood are very suited to visual depiction. Additionally, I wanted a story that was not based on physical action for the rising plot, and not much actually happens in the story until the very end. I wanted to show a dimension of storytelling in graphic form that would be different from action-heavy stories currently popularized by the DC and Marvel superhero comic movies adaptations. My artistic choices stemmed from a combination of the influence of graphic novels I had read, a flash of images when reading the story, and books on creating graphic novels. I knew I wanted to use watercolors before I started because of their dreamy quality and complex use of color. David Mack (see Mack, n.d.), a comic creator and artist, served as a general inspiration READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 42 through his multimedia and often somewhat experimental graphic novels for how visuals and words can make something more transcendent together, while the recently read The Undertaking of Lily Chen (Novgorodoff, 2014) heavily influenced my use of watercolor and use of the background as narrative tool. While reading the story, I kept having images of shadows on backgrounds, á la Lotte Reiniger’s 1926 shadow animation in The Adventures of Prince Achmed. Because of these associations, I knew I wanted shadows to be important, though their role shrank and their medium shifted from paper cutout to felt marker over time. While I assumed originally that using digital tools for layout and lettering was the norm, reading books on the craft by big names in the comics industry contradicted this. Both Eisner (1985/2008) and Abel and Madden (2008) strongly urged hand-lettering, and Abel and Madden described in detail the steps for creating layouts and gutters by hand, which I ended up following. While my preference for layout was largely toward nonconventional patterns, previous research for the literature review mentioned that one benefit of graphic novels was the intuitiveness of more traditional layouts (e.g., the six-panel layout) to readers (Cary, 2004). As English readers read left to right then top to bottom, layouts where panels clearly follow that progression increase clarity (McCloud, 2006). In my own examination of graphic novels intended for middle-grade readers, writers generally used simpler layouts for the majority of pages. While I kept a couple differing layouts involving framing devices, diagonal panels, and frameless panels, I otherwise changed my planned layouts to variations on the six-panel configuration. One major creative roadblock I encountered stemmed from my new layout scheme. Once I pared back, I seemed unable to start even though I had a fair idea of what I wanted on each page. Eventually, I picked up a book of templates for two- to nine-panel layouts (Blank Comic Book, 2017). By flipping through the book and picking layouts that seemed to generally fit a READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 43 page’s content, I could draw my thumbnails directly onto the layouts. Once I had generally sketched out the panels and planned text, I drew new layouts over the thumbnails that better fit their contents, using McCloud’s (2006) explanation of types of framing and how to balance clarity against intensity as a guideline for where to make changes. With the new thumbnails I was able to use the layout process (Abel & Madden, 2008) to ink my panel guides and then make rough sketches on the page. At that point, the art was a matter of translating the necessary visual elements within my limited artistic experience. Many decisions about figures, complexity, detail, and depth were made with this caveat in mind. My struggle with creating layouts changed how I plan to use graphic novels as a teacher. Because of my experience with students’ struggle writing personal narratives during my student teaching, I originally wanted to use creating comics as a writing tool to help students organize their stories and flesh out details. However, my own struggle with starting from nothing taught me that providing templates for students to use would be necessary. While some students might take to an open page easily, others might struggle like I did and need the visual structure to start. I also noticed that in my thumbnails, sometimes images were all that I included, despite words being planned, versus in others where I only had the text I wanted in the panel. Just as reading graphic novels is an intertextual (and often recursive) experience, so was writing one. Another teaching tool I previously planned was providing either only words or only images in the panels and having students provide the missing element. I will definitely be sure to provide either option to students or a mixture rather than only one format. In my work, words and pictures took turns carrying the meaning even at the planning stage. Since I was adapting a story rather than creating one with the intention in mind of it being a graphic narrative, I was very aware of how I changed elements of the story. Certain details and READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 44 elements that were easy to skim over in reading (as I did my first couple reads) became more prominent when made visual, and others were left out. The organization that works when a story is written must change when depicted visually both for clarity and thematic resonance. Tone is set through color or shading, not word choice. Things left largely to the imagination are not just made concrete but carry new meaning in their concreteness. In adaptations, that can be either transformative or damaging, but in this case, preserving ambiguity felt important. If I gave the narrator, who is never described, new defining characteristics, I could impact readers’ interpretation of the story. Additionally, since the passage of time was so integral to the movement of the plot, I wanted to portray this element solely through visuals. These two narrative details decided my use of mostly long-range shots and contributed toward the lack of gesture and facial expression throughout the story. The more simplistic layouts allowed me to purposefully increase the drama in the last three pages without necessarily increasing the action through panel transitions and perspective as explained by McCloud (2006). By shifting from action-to-action and scene-to-scene panel transitions, to moment-to-moment transitions on page 9, I could slow down time and increase urgency, and by drastically changing the angle of view on page 10 and then 11, I could change how the reader related to the scene. Lastly, when reading the story, the impression of flashback and foreshadowing in my visualization shaped how I dealt with narration and dialogue. While the story happens completely in the present, the implied action in the dialogue lent itself naturally to flashbacks and gave the graphic narrative more potential to set up visual foreshadowing, such as through the presentation of the stories on page 8. Transferring this part of the conversation into a story within a story felt akin to storytelling modes in myths and fairytales. I wanted to parallel the structure of storytelling READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 45 traditions with nestled parables and anecdotes by stressing those instances visually, keeping an unreal feeling. Other changes in the adaptation were more practical. The story was so dialogue heavy and point of view reliant that I had to find ways to deal with both issues. I read the story multiple times to decide which lines of dialogue needed to be included as written and which could either be paraphrased or omitted. When either the way something was said or the back and forth exchange built up necessary points, I tried to quote directly to preserve characterization and the role of dialogue in moving the plot. I cut and condensed as necessary based on what would fit on the page. I created page 10 specifically because the speech to the narrator was so important, but action-wise I had not left room for it, physically or psychologically. By adding a page and making it a single panel I was able to balance that speech against the narrative point of view. When information was important but through narration, I tried to find visual parallels when possible. Retaining the subtle menace of the narrator to retain the ambiguity of the ending was important, but using words to do so in a graphic narrative would give them more weight than before and would have made the effect like a sledgehammer. The planned use of shadows in some form came in at this point, and while the execution is not as clear as it could be, much of the narrator’s inner thoughts and characterization were translatable to visual metaphor. While I did not annotate until after the graphic narrative was complete, throughout the creation process I considered what annotations would be most useful and how well those annotations and the narrative aligned to the Utah core standards. Throughout the process, I ran the story through a couple informal test reads to check for clarity of narration and of intertextual and visual details. The test caused me to caricature a couple of the symbolic shadows for easier READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 46 recognition as well as color the narration boxes that indicate the guide is telling a story rather than the narrator. Formatting the annotations took some work. I went back and forth between using Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat or Adobe InDesign. I had not used InDesign in years and was unsure of its compatibility with Word, and inserting PDFs into Word documents can be problematic. However, the formatting in Word was not consistent enough so I had to reset the formatting in Acrobat. Putting the annotations along the bottom and not the top allowed for the eye to be drawn to the page before the annotations, and putting annotations on the intended outer edge but not the intended bound side made the two-page spread more apparent. One issue is that while literary terms can be used intertextually, not all figurative language has direct visual expression (e.g., simile). In some annotations, I would have preferred to use more art-specific language for precision. The lack of visual language sometimes made paralleling the visuals to their literary expression more complicated. While not necessary, doing a mini-lesson on art terminology could give both teachers and students a wider range of words to express their analysis with. Having some art awareness might make it easier for students to pinpoint how and why the visuals affect them when the reasons might be very subtle, such as the fluidity or thickness of lines. While the main goal of the project was showing the intertextual potential of graphic novels to teachers, the process of doing so helps make a case for more teaching of visual and media literacy. Limitations and Opportunities While my initial assumption that adapting a short story into a graphic novel was not a copyright issue because it was for educational use, the more I learned about graphic novels the more I learned about the complexities of copyright and use. Most of my previous knowledge had come from experience and discussion in the fanfiction community and teacher training on media READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 47 ethics. Information was vague and contradictory, from a range of fair use covering any not-for-profit use to any adaptation being a derivative work no matter the use or whether the work was commercialized derivative work and required permission from the copyright holder. Fair use doctrine is determined on the following factors: purpose and character of use, type of copyrighted work, amount of the work used, and the effect on the value of the work (Netanel, 2011). I only clearly fell on the right side on use and effect on the work, and while these seemed to be the major factors, I wanted to be safe. With that in mind, I contacted the publisher to ask for permission and looked for a reliable source in legal journals. Netanel (2011), an endowed chair at UCLA School of Law, looked at case law since 2006 and cited decisions to define the contemporary meaning of fair use. A previous empirical study of fair use case law between 1978 and 2005 found that in 95% of cases where the first factor was found to be not fair use, fair use was denied, and in 90% of cases where the first factor was found to be fair use, fair use was upheld. Correlation of fair use aligning with the fourth factor was even higher (Beebe, 2007, as cited by Netanel, 2011). Between 2006 and 2010, decisions largely cite transformative use doctrine, based on the idea that when the use of the original work is unique or transformative, otherwise derivative works become fair use (Netanel, 2011). Of the 22 cases in that time where judges found transformative use of a work, fair use was found in 20. On the opposite side, in all but three cases where use was deemed non-transformative, fair use was not found (Netanel, 2011). Since 2006, the transformative use of works seems to largely guide fair use interpretation. As I transformed the content of the work through a new medium and the use of the work to research-driven and pedagogical, the fair use of Neil Gaiman’s copyrighted short story seemed clear. However, in response to my request, the publisher denied me permission to adapt the short story, citing the likely distribution based on the stated use as a teaching tool for teacher training READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 48 (R. Eskildsen, personal communication, March 26, 2019). Based on this reply and that my planned future use of the graphic narrative decoupled it from its research context, although it still retained its educational purpose, I decided to no longer use the project for its original intended purpose. Navigating the various interpretations of fair use in different contexts will inform my future plans. In teaching, the use of graphic novels in media literacy also becomes the opportunity to review fair use and media ethics on Internet-found images or using a song in a school paper versus posting a song to YouTube. My advocacy for graphic novel use also can be refined through the knowledge of copyright and fair use doctrine. While test reading and annotating, I learned how useful a think-aloud can be in describing the analysis of graphic novels. While annotation is an effective way to show standards alignment and explain elements of graphic novels, a video think-aloud might be a better format in teaching teachers how to read graphic novels. A limit of annotation use was the ability to point out or trace images because I did not want to distract from the narrative. In a video read-aloud, however, knowing the boundaries of what fair use is and what may be technically fair use but not the most ethical use can help me choose the right text: either an original works, works that I can receive permission to use in this way, or limited parts of works. While using the whole work for educational purposes might be fair use, putting an entire work on the internet to possibly be stripped of its educational value could affect creators negatively. As an advocate for graphic novel use in education, I also need to be an advocate for creators of graphic novels. While unable to use the annotated graphic narrative as a teacher tool, the process of being a comics creator rather than only a reader has increased my understanding of how readers are affected by visuals and the play between word and image. This new understanding will guide my READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 49 use of graphic novels in the future. When I have the time and inspiration to create a story from scratch, I plan to create another graphic novel as teaching tool using these experiences to guide its creation. A completely original work could be disseminated in online teacher communities or in my school or district. At a more immediate and smaller scale, I can annotate school copies of graphic novels for other teachers within my department to advocate for their consideration, or if I end up in a school that already includes a graphic novel on its reading list, I can help other teachers standards-align their use of it beyond just the text. In future research, the annotated graphic novel would be a good starting tool for a focus group to test its efficacy in the effort to create a better tool. By having teachers of various levels of familiarity with graphic novels read both the story and the adapted annotated graphic narrative, I can identify what in the visual elements of the narrative works or does not work, what elements from the story seem to be integral but absent, and how the annotations align with their reading of both versions. By using an A/B design where two groups read the short story and the annotated graphic novel in different order—I hope to elicit more nuanced feedback. Additionally, by including a mix of graphic-novel familiarity in participants, novice readers can pinpoint what elements may be too challenging without scaffolding, while more expert readers can make suggestions based on their own experience in the medium. This project suggests a starting point for transforming how teachers become comics users in the classroom. READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 50 REFERENCES 1992 Pulitzer Prizes. (n.d.). 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This book contains graphic language: Comics as literature. New York: Continuum. Watts, P. (2015). Graphic novels offer diverse perspectives, narratives. Education Digest, 81(2), 38–41. Williams, R. M. (2008, Nov.). Image, text, and story: Comics and graphic novels in the classroom. Art Education, 13–19. doi:10.2307/27696303 Weldon, G. (8 Apr. 2017). Beyond the pale (male): Marvel, diversity and a changing comics readership. Weekend Edition Saturday. Retrieved from NPR, READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 57 https://www.npr.org/2017/04/08/523044892/beyond-the-pale-male-marvel-diversity-and-a- changing-comics-readership Weldon, G., & Mayer, P. (12 July 2017). Let's get graphic: 100 favorite comics and graphic novels. NPR Books. Retrieved from NPR, https://www.npr.org/2017/07/12/533862948/lets-get-graphic-100-favorite-comics-and-graphic- novels Wong, S. W. L., Miao, H., Cheng, R. W., & Yip, M. C. W. (2017). Graphic novel comprehension among learners with differential cognitive styles and reading abilities. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 33(5), 412–427. doi:10.1080/10573569.2016.1216343 READING GRAPHIC NOVELS 58 Appendix A Annotated Graphic Narrative