Week 3 Blog Post- The use of comics withing the Primary Classroom

Does the use of comics and graphic novels (hard copy/electronic versions) within the primary literacy curriculum undermine the values of the classroom or do they offer opportunities for learning?

Claire Senior (2008) addresses how many teachers are uncomfortable with allowing comics as reading materials in the classroom as they promote violence and do not provide the reader with continuous text.  Her concern develops  as she feels characters portrayed “such as ‘Wonder Woman’ are seen as sensational and explicitly sexual while in others, such as ‘The Simpsons’, the language is often crude and challenging towards authority” (Senior, 2008 :p89). Whitehead supports this view as he believes the genre is “‘deplorable’ in its gross commercial exploitation of children attitudes” (Whitehead, 1977 cited in Millard & Marsh, 2001). Meek (1988) and Watson (1992)  consequently suggest that the availability of comics should be confined to wet lunchtimes and excluded by practitioners as part of their teaching (cited in Millard & Marsh, 2001). During our seminar discussion, myself and my partner were exploring the latest Halloween edition of The Simpsons Comic. We found some of the illustrations quite scary due to the horror theme of the issue. Therefore as a teacher, it is important to ensure the texts are age and content appropriate as the images could be too graphic for some children. Here are some of the potentially problematic images we identified:

However, research conducted by The National Centre of Research in Children’s Literature found that 71 per cent of KS1 and 70 per cent of KS2 children frequently read and enjoyed comics (Maynard et al, 2007). This reflects how children’s exposure to comics has always been an “important part of reading experiences for a sizable portion of children in the Primary School years” (Graham and Kelly, 2008 and Marsh & Mallard, 2001).

Helen Bromley identifies several key areas in which comics can assist in developing a critical knowledge of how texts work (Marsh & Millard (2008). These are the use of puns, jokes and alliteration, a range of voices such as the narrator, the editor and the inclusion of sound effects with differentiated typefaces to convey meaning.

This shows that comics should be welcomed into the culture of the classroom as it will support the progression of literacy skills whilst exposing them to another genre. Not restricting a child’s reading choices is paramount if we want to encourage reading for pleasure as the National Curriculum 2013 clearly states (DfE 2013).

We explored the use of the ‘Comic Life’ app which Audain (2014) describes as being “a great way of introducing comic writing to children or presenting a story in a different way”. For my comic ‘Tantalising Textures’ we explored the use of templates, text styles and sizes, captions and imported our own pictures. This would be a fantastic way to link ICT to English and it encourages children to apply their knowledge of the features of Comics. I really enjoyed making my comic as the app was very interactive and the navigation was clear. However, we found on some occasions, the selection areas were very small so the children would have to have developed their fine motor skills and would need clear demonstration on how to use it. 

Sources:

Audain,J.,(2014)The Ultimate Guide To Using ICT Across The Curriculum, London and New York: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

DfE (2014) Primary National Curriculum for Science Key Stages 1 and 2 [online] http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20131202172639/https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/260481/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_11-9-13_2.pdf  (Accessed 09.10.2014)

Graham,J., Kelly, Alison.,(2008) Reading under control (3^rd Edition) Oxon: David Fulton Publishers.

Marsh,J., Millard, E., (2000) Literacy and Popular Culture- Using children culture in the classroom, London and California: Paul Chapman Publishing Ltd and SAGE Publications Inc.

Meek, M.,(1988) How Text Teach What Readers Learn, Stround: Thimble Press.

Millard and Marsh (2001) 'Sending Minnie the Minx Home: comics and reading choices', Cambridge Journal of Education, 31:1, 25 - 38 .

Senior,C.,(2008)Getting the buggers to Read, London: Continuum.

Watson, V., (1992) The possibilities of children’s fiction, in: M,Syles., E. Bearne., V.Watson (Eds) After Alice: exploring childrens literature, London: Cassel.

Whitehead, F. Capey, A., Maddren, W., Wellings ,A.,(1977) Children and their books. The final report of The Schools Council Project on Children Reading Habits 10-16, Basingstoke: Macmillan Education.