NCTE Calls it as it Sees it

This week's NCTE Inbox links to a follow-up article from the rag that broke the Guilford High School (Connecticut)/Eightball story in which a popular new teacher allowed a young female student to read the 22nd issue from Dan Clowes indy comic series Eightball.

NCTE placed it in a "Censorship" section of the weekly e-mail newsletter, and I was glad to see them do so. I probably wouldn't have offered the student Eightball #22, but no one is talking about what Mr. Fisher might have done right, i.e. offering the student a choice of reading materials (as some have reported he did) and telling the student up-front that the book she decided on had mature themes. And the whole idea that the book is being censored is an accurate one, but not much attention is being placed on that, either.

So, kudos to NCTE for calling it like they see it! The story was very poorly covered from the original source, so it was good to see an organization able to cut through the crap and get to one of the hearts of the matter concerning this bewildering beast of a happening!

The NCTE Inbox can be accessed by clicking here.

For more info on censorship and Sequential Art in Education, click here.

My E-mail to Guilford High School

Since the recent story about a Connecticut teacher resigning after parental complaints concerning his asking a student to read Daniel Clowes' Eightball #22 corresponds so well with one of the talks I'll be giving at this year's NCTE convention, I decided to offer my services to the high school where the action took place. Here's my letter to the principal at Guilford HS:


"Hello, I am James Bucky Carter. I recently edited a book entitled _Building Literacy Connections with Graphic Novels_. Published by the National Council of Teachers of English, the book offers suggestions on how to use graphic novels in the 6-12 classroom.I know you all recently had an event that may have some of your teachers resistant to using GN's in their classrooms. Indeed, at this year's NCTE in NYC, I will be leading a roundtable discussion on how to avoid the pitfalls and roadblocks associated with using graphic novels. I just wanted to bring that to your attention.

As a sort of preview, in my reaction to the Eightball incident on my blog, I list 2-3 suggestions for teachers who want to consider GN's but might now be afraid to. My blog is http://www.ensaneworld.blogspot.com/.Trolling the archives will also reveal many legitimate resources for using sequential art in the classroom.

Also, if you think your school community would like to hear me speak on the subject of graphic novels, I'm a member of NCTE's cosponsored speaker program.Best to you and your school (and to Mr. Fisher too) as you all seek a return to normal.

Sincerely,
James B. Carter"

So far, I've not had a response, but the New Haven Register has printed a follow-up story with more info on graphic novels and which also states that higher-level personnel have deemed the material inappropriate, so maybe the system is just trying to put it behind them. Still, I hope their remaining teachers aren't afraid to use sequential art in their classrooms now.....

I felt I should do something proactive about the situation, something that took the emphasis off the past and focused on the future and also tried to preserve a place for sequential art narratives in the classroom. It wasn't much, but at least I offered.

To Be or Not to Be.. Behind the Eightball #22

The New Haven Register is reporting that a popular high school teacher has resigned his position after complaints stemming from the teacher assigning Daniel Clowes' Eightball #22 to a 9th grade female student.

Clowes' stories are known -- to those of us in the know on today's comics scene, anyway -- for their offbeat, insightful look at the sides of life that permeate our worlds but that we often fail to consider or brush off because of what they might illuminate about ourselves and our society. His work pays attention to the things we often don't want to admit about our cosy little towns and their inhabitants. A work like Ghost World or his Eightball series is a lot like Spoon River Anthology or Our Town, only in comics format.

But, as Stephen Cary has pointed out, it's one thing to write about nudity, rape, and other "unmentionables" that happen; it's another to see them depicted in a visual form. Americans seem to fear the visual. We want our drawings safe and cartoony. Anything else, we're suspicious of, it seems. Cary refers to this phenomenon as the "naked buns effect."

I have not read the issue that English teacher Nate Fisher asked the female adolescent to read. My general impression of the Eightball series is that it is probably best for older high school students and does contain Clowes-style quirkiness, meaning it does not shy away from topics of sexuality, perversion, etc. One blog poster on another site said that a respected school library magazine suggested it for 10th grade and higher. I'll have to check my own sources..

This November I will be leading a roundtable discussion at NCTE that will help teachers learn how to navigate their way through the pitfalls and bumpy roads that come with the territory of trying to integrate graphic novels into the classroom. Though I do not want to give too much away here, two bits of advice could help others who might want to use graphic novels in the classroom but are now more afraid to do so:

1. READ it! Don't take a review's word for it or a friend's. Read a graphic novel fully before you bring it into your classroom or assign it or even suggest it to a student. Everyone's community has different standards. Don't get caught without considering those in relation to every panel on every page.

2. Write a rationale for why you want the book in your classroom library, reading list, etc, that explains to administrators, students, and parents why the book is an essential part of your literate environment. Explain the "pedagogical worthiness" of the text in the rationale and be upfront about any issues that might cause some students or parents to blanch. Attach this rationale to the book's cover.

2b.Even better, write the rationale as a contract between student, parent, and teacher such that all parties agree that if the student wants to read the book, all parties are aware of the possible hot spots of the text. Signatures offer a great record, and this means a student who brings the book home to mom or dad is doing so with the explicit and teacher-directed mission of considering the book with his or her parents before the text is read.

Apparently Fisher is a new teacher, and a popular one,which makes it all the more tragic that he's ran into such resistance for what could have been an honest mistake. Since we lose so many new teachers within the first five years anyway, it might have been nice to see the administration at least try to back their new hire. An administration with spine.... Ah, to dream. Surely there are some out there....

I was also disappointed that someone found issue with Fisher asking the student "how did the book make you feel?" I twinged when I considered the possible ramifications: will the school over-react and restrict the use of all text-to-self connection questions?

And let's not get too out of sorts because the book in question is a graphic novel. Plenty of traditional print-based novels have caused folks to react or over-react as well.

I'm not sure if more info will come to light about this teacher or about this story in general. I feel for all involved and hope that there's no reason for me not to hope that Mr. Fisher can and will find employment as a teacher elsewhere.

At the very least, hopefully the two bits of advice above will help others from finding themselves behind the eightball when it comes to using graphic novels in their classrooms.

New Book on Visual Literacy Forthcoming!

My friends and colleagues Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey have an edited collection coming out soon, and it is all about Visual Literacy!

Teaching Visual Literacy :Using Comic Books, Graphic Novels, Anime, Cartoons, and More to Develop Comprehension and Thinking Skills is currently in the copy editing stage and is set for an early 2008 release from Corwin Press. Here's how Corwin describes the aims of the project:

"Educators today understand that literacy involves at least five processes: reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing. This thoughtful and practical book by a team of literacy experts offers classroom teachers a guide to using visual forms of information as tools for literacy development. Teaching Visual Literacy offers strategies for fostering visual and critical literacy competencies and increasing student engagement through the use of picture books, comic books, graphic novels, traditional films, anime, and other visual sources of information. Each chapter examines relevant research and theory, and presents practical applications for the classroom."

Among the chapters is an essay I wrote that details one possibility for why sequential art narratives are still struggling for legitimacy in the classroom and how teachers seeing themselves as active policy makers can change that.

Here's the full table of contents. Lots of great work on sequential art in there!

Acknowledgments
About the Editors
About the Contributors
Introduction
1. Visual Literacy: What You Get Is What You See
(Lynell Burmark)
2. Graphic Novels: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
(Jacquelyn McTaggart)
3. Comics, The Canon, and the Classroom
(James Bucky Carter)
4. Seeing the World Through a Stranger’s Eyes: Exploring the Potential of Anime in Literacy Classrooms
(Kelly Chandler-Olcott)
5. “Literary Literacy” and the Role of the Comic Book Or, “You Teach a Class on What?”
(Rocco Versaci)
6. That’s Funny: Political Cartoons in the Classroom
(Thomas DeVere Wolsey)
7. Learning from Illustrations in Picturebooks
(Lawrence Sipe)
8. An Irrecusable Offer: Film in the K-12 Classroom
(Lawrence Baines)
9. "It Was Always the Pictures…": Creating Visual Literacy Supports For Students With Disabilities
(Paula Kluth)
Index

I'm very excited about this project and to have been a part of it! Look for this book from Corwin Press soon.

Bloomberg News Article on Graphic Novels and Education

Bloomberg News just (8.28.07) published an article on comics/graphic novels and vocabulary, discussing Kaplan's SAT prep graphic novels in light of the recent news that SAT scores are down. It is a good article, and I'm quoted in it, but there are a few statements that might need some clarification.

What the article does well is examine the financial aspects of graphic novels publishing, and it reveals why companies like Kaplan and Scholastic might see the format as a viable economic investment. It is always nice when concepts of capitalism and better education for all (a free market ideal???) work together. It also mentions the important role that librarians have taken in advocating for adolescents' literary interests and thereby advocating their literacy development. I'm not sure about the Library-GN-NCLB connection that is made, though.

As for other elements of the story:

1. The article says comics were once considered "trash literature." Though this is largley true, and I can think of many who probably still hold this point if view, it gets a little tedious for me to keep reading this sort of thing in a news article. Not to blame anyone here, but maybe one day sequential art will be so accepted in education that no one even considers the word "trash" when thinking about it.

2. "Literary skills" vs. "Literacy skills." I'm quoted as saying the "literary demands" are greater for students now than they were. I wonder if this is a slip of my tongue or a misedit. I usually say "literacy demands" or "literacy skills." It's a rather small change to some; a big one to me. I recently had an academic essay edited such that "literacy" was changed to "literary" and it really bothered me. This usually happens when someone outside of the field of English Education or Literacy sees the word. The one good thing, though? If we accept a new or expanded definition of literacy, we are most probably also expanding a definition of literary. So, though this little "c" vs "r" thing is becoming a pet peeve of mine, it might not be such a bad little mistake. It actually politically charges the word "literary" in ways that really appeal to me.

3. The article states, "Because students spend so much time with television, video games and comics, teachers should use visuals to win attention, Carter says. He edited Building Literacy Connections With Graphic Novels: Page by Page, Panel By Panels, published by the National Council of Teachers of English, in Urbana, Illinois." -- This is somewhat of a simplified summary of our interview. Though I certainly mentioned that using visuals can help grab the attention of students who might otherwise be hesitant to read or be interested in other texts, I sort of feel like this reduction of my overall statement reduces the use of sequential art to a gimmick. That's certainly not what I want it to be used as. I want it seen as a viable format from which teachers and students can sharpen multiple literacy (and sure, literary) skills.

4. The article also mentions that many graphic novels are under $10. This reminds me of a situation in which a peer summarized a comic strip he had read. "What's the difference in a comic and a graphic novel?" one character asks. "About $15," another responds. The Manga she refers to are indeed often under $10, but GN's considered more literary (yes, the "r" is intentionally used there), and even many of the super-hero trade paperback GN's, often run more along the $15-20 range.

But, overall, a solid article from Bloomberg. Please do listen to the radio interview that accompanies the link. I'm able to get much more involved in my statements and you can also compare how the print article summarizes/condenses and how the streaming audio portrays much of the same information in a different manner. By doing so, you're helping hone your critical, multimodal literacy skills as well! :)

125,000!

Comicbookresources.com reports that this year's San Diego Comic-Con, the nation's largest comic book convention, drew over 125,000 unique visitors this summer!

Let's Talk about Sequential Art at NCTE 2007!

Hi, all! Just a word to let you know that I am scheduled to be at this year's National Council of Teachers of English conference in New York City. It's my first trip to the Big Apple, so I'm excited and nervous. But, what will I be doing at NCTE? Discussing comics and graphic novels, of course!

On Thursday I'm giving a presentation at the ReadWriteThink booth over near the NCTE books secton. I'll be discussing some sequential art-related lesson plans that I've created for ReadWriteThink, previewing my other engagements, offering some additional lenses by which to view and thereby teach graphic novels, and feilding questions and generally chatting it up about comics.

On Friday I'm leading a roundtable devoted entirely to teaching graphic novels. Some of my former students and a contributor to my recent edited collection will help the participants gain a full understanding of the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to navigating comics through the English language arts curriculum.

Finally, on Saturday, I'm once again hooking up with my friends from San Diego State, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey, and I can't wait! Doug and Nancy always "bring it!" This year we'll be joined by Dianne Lapp, and we'll be exploring how we use comics to get our students writing and use writing strategies to get our students creating their own comics. I'll be focusing on how I got pre-service teachers writing their own comics and exploring the processes involved in making sequential art. The other excellent presenters will be focusing directly on adolescents' use of sequential art to express themselves and to increase their literacy skills.

Stop by and see us, and if you happen to see me walking around the convention grounds (just look for the name tag) and want some ENSANE conversation, don't hesitate to wave me over!!

New Semester Starting 8/22/07!

On August 22 I start my second year as a visiting instructor at the University of Southern Mississippi. This coming semester, I'll finally actually be teaching a majority of English Education classes instead of being a general education filler. I'm excited to finally be working with pre-service teachers, aka "my peeps!"

This semester will also mark my 4th -- that's right -- FOURTH time teaching a graphic novels-related course. ENG 311, the department's variable content course, allows me to teach a "Contemporary Trends and Issues in Graphic Novels" class. This will be the third time I've taught it, and I'm happy to see some former students of mine signed up to take another course with me. I also taught a "GN's as YA Lit" course this summer that went pretty well. I've added a few titles, such as American Born Chinese and the 9/11 Report. I wanted to add Pride of Baghdad and something from Craig Thompson , but maybe next semester. Students will have to read one GN of their choice beyond the syllabus listings, so maybe I'll turn them towards those...

In other news, Building Literacy Connections with Graphic Novels: Page by Page, Panel by Panel continues to do well. I just saw that it was in the top 70,000 in sales at amazon.com. It reached the top 12,000 at one time and had been lingering around the 250,000 ranking, so hopefully some libraries or college classes are picking it up. It's a great read, if I do say so myself (and on behalf of my contributors). If you're a future or current English teacher who wants to use sequential art in the classroom, I think you'd be happy with a copy. ;)

NCTE Focuses on Visual Literacy

This week's NCTE INBOX features an article on visual literacy from the Washington Post. As well, they're discussing NCTE's long advocacy and acceptance of visual and media literacy at the NCTE INBOX blog.

Graphic novels aren't explicitly mentioned in either, but it is good to see visual literacy getting attention. Graphic novels are obviously visual, and I think they can act as a good "middle-ground medium" between those who see ELA with traditional lenses and those who think we're at the point where English classrooms aren't really about the same skills that comprised the term "English" for a century or so.

Graphic novels offer conglomerate layers of text, images and words with meanings that aren't complete without both elements. In graphic novels, we see traditional print literacy preserved and a nod to the increasing visually oriented ways of knowing.

The important thing is to make sure that students have the skills to critique and examine both traditional text and pictures, moving or sequential or still or otherwise. My hope is that traditionalists might accept graphic novels and sequential art narratives into their classrooms without feeling like they've let go of their standards and also that those who have moved "beyond English" might respect the format for its strengths instead of coming to see it as a format or medium that only goes "half-way" when it comes to making full use of visual techniques.

My thoughts? Teachers and students should move in and out of various modes in their lessons. Within thematic units, they should examine novels, poems, songs, movie clips, comics -- any and all mediums and formats that deal with the theme at hand. I firmly believe that learning how to examine one form of media can help give students prior knowledge and skill bases for examining other forms. Furthermore, I believe that doing so helps us see how process affects everything. Movies aren't magic; comic books don't draw and write themselves, and news doesn't just "happen." It all has a process.

Graphic Classics

I just got a press release from a company called Eureka Productions, which publishes a series of graphic novels under the Graphic Classics title. It's like Illustrated Classics or the new Marvel Classics we talked about in an earlier post, but the company seems to have a strong taste for the gothic. This is no surprise. Comics scholar M. Thomas Inge once said that Edgar Allen Poe is the literary author most often adapted in comics.

Eureka's newest graphic novel, volume 14 of the series, is an anthology of gothic adaptations of stories from authors like Ann Radcliffe, Jane Austin, and, of course, Poe.

I have to admit that before getting this release, I had no idea this company existed, but since so many of our students share a love of all things spooky, I think this series might be worth checking out!

From the press release: "GOTHIC CLASSICS: Graphic Classics Volume Fourteen is available for schoolsand libraries from Diamond Distributors, Baker & Taylor, Ingram, GumdropBooks and other distributors, in bookstores, or direct from the publisher at http://www.graphicclassics.com."

Deaf Characters in Comics and Graphic Novels

Straight from the blog of current Gallaudet professor and former UVa doc student comes a burgeoning list of deaf characters on comics and graphic novels. Dr. Pajka-West, whom I've known for a few years, is great at gathering literacy resources that intersect with deaf culture and deaf studies, so I hope you'll take a look at her blog and maybe even help her add to her list of characters by visiting http://www.pajka.blogspot.com. Or, go directly to the specific post here.

Classics Illustrated Redux: The Marvel Way!

Recent Marvel comics have told the stories of Edgar Allen Poe, and now Marvel is delving deeper into the literary canon by marketing a line of Classics Illustrated-inspired comics. Read a press release here. You might be surprised to learn that I never read many Classics Illustrated titles, though I certainly support their inclusion in a classroom.

Now, should they be used in place of the actual novel or story?

There are some who would see themselves as "purists" who would say no. There are many who want students exposed to the classics.

I say there are many different ways to "expose" someone to the classics. And, I hold to this core belief: a student who is being asked to read something well beyond his or her reading level, thereby being asked to "read" at the frustration level, is asked to accomplish an impossible task.

So, "exposure" is right! That's the very best you can hope for if you're asking students to read a novel that is beyond their reading level.

If a graphic novel/comic book adaptation can expose a student to the story in a more accessible format (note I don't say "easier." The interplay of word and image, the conglomerate layers of text inherent in sequential art, take some skill to read and examine fully), why not have it at least available for student perusal? Read the classic to the class aloud, if it's that important to you.

Of course, some studies have shown that comic books have a pretty sophisticated vocabulary too, so here's more evidence to suggest that it might not be as easy a read as some might think. Best to read the adaptation yourself before placing it in your school library, so you know what you're dealing with, then accept it into your room with confidence.

All in all, I favor other graphic novels over Classics Illustrated-type books, but I fully support the inclusion of these in the classroom as well. If they help teachers accept sequential art, and their students show them how much they enjoy the format, maybe it'll lead to a desire to include original graphic novels in the classroom as well!

May 5th was Free Comic Book Day!

So, if Free Comic Book Day, the annual event during which comic shops give away tons of freebies and sell many of their items for vastly reduced prices, was THIS weekend, why am I telling you about it now that it is over?

It's simple really. I know a little secret! See, during Free Comic Book Day, your lovable local retailer can only let you pick up one of each free title on display. And why not? He or she has to make sure there's enough to go around, and these events just seem to draw more and more people every year.

That means that the odds of your retailer ordering more stock than he or she can get rid of is very high. You might have only been able to pick up a copy of that great Spidey comic for yourself on Saturday, but if you act quick, you might be able to pick up a class set or two on Monday!

Retailers will be eager to get rid of their Free Comic Book Day backstock if they ordered too much, so take advantage of that. Just ask if they have anything left. I've gotten hundreds of free comics this way.

And, since they've just spent a whole day trying to get rid of some of their other backstock at cheap prices, you may find them willing to negotiate some great deals on other comics they have in bulk as well. They might even get a tax write-off for giving you a deep discount.

It never hurts to ask, so contact your local retailer and see if you can't get a few class sets of some of those freebies, and maybe see if he or she can't help you get some good deals on other comics for your classrooms as well!

NCTE Releases Book on Teaching Graphic Novels!

NCTE has just released Building Literacy Connections With Graphic Novels: Page by Page, Panel by Panel.

I was the general editor for this collection of essays and had the distinct privilege of working with very motivated, knowledgeable contributors who made the editing process a very pleasant experience. As well, the folks at NCTE could not have treated us and the project any better.

In fact, they are about to feature the book in their weekly e-mail newsletter, NCTE INBOX! And, they'll be talking about graphic novels in k-12 education on their blog (see topic posted April 9)!

The book features information on the current state of graphic novel research and how educators and the popular media are taking note of the format. It also features practical ideas for pairing graphic novels with more traditional texts, and all the lessons have a basis in Multimodal Literacy.

Please follow the links provided above, and do not hesitate to leave a comment. And notice that NCTE is offering a sample chapter for free download!

ENSANE in the Membrane, INSANE in the Brain!: Censorship and Sequential Art

Some people think it is crazy to allow comics and graphic novels in the classroom, but this site is dedicated to proving that it is a SANE venture. Sequential Art Narratives in Education are gaining more ground, but censorship has long been a problem for many school texts, and sequential art narratives are no exception.

Here I'll post some links about censorship and sequential art. For an excellent primer on recognizing censorship, what to do about it and how to prevent it as best one can, I recommend chapter 12 of Kenneth L. Donelson and Alleen Pace Nilsen's Literature for Today's Young Adults, 7th edition.

NCTE also has a number of great censorship-related materials, including a couple of CD-ROMS of excellently written rationales for teaching oft-challenged texts.

Libraries pull graphic novels Fun Home and Blankets until new plan is enacted:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/9459.html
http://www.marshallnews.com/story/1171005.html

(thanks to James Lowder for sharing these links with the comics scholars listserve)

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund: Yup, the industry has its own non-profit group. Since 1986, it has fought for first amendment rights for comics creators. The "resources" tab at the right hand top of the page is of particular interest, especially the comics censorship timeline. It starts in the 18th century, for goodness sakes!

Scott McCloud visits Hattiesburg!

I teach a "Contemporary Trends and Issues in Graphic Novels" course at the University of Southern Mississippi. Here are a few of my former and current students posing with comics scholar, creator, and all-around nice guy Scott McCloud.

He was in town doing signings of his new book, Making Comics, and took the time to chat with these very impressed folks. Since we read Understanding Comics in my class as an introduction to the form, they were eager to meet him. Now that they know how warm and friendly he is, they're even more ready to spread the message that Sequential Art Narratives are Literature!

Thank you, Mr. McCloud, and you're welcome in Hattiesburg and USM anytime!

ENglish Education Resources

Here are a few links that I feel every English Education student or teacher should know. Of course, I feel the same way about the links I've posted in the other sections, and just because a link shows up somewhere besides this string doesn't mean I don't think it has applicability to the English/Language Arts. Buuuut, these are some of the biggies in EE.

Again, please feel free to add your own links as well, with maybe a sentence or two description of the link, if you please.

NCTE/IRA Standards for English language arts: A must-have for any English teacher.

ReadWriteThink: An excellent source of lesson plans!

Dr. Allen Webb's English Education Resource Clearinghouse: OK, he doesn't call it that, but with a little investment of time, one can find pretty much anything related to English Education methods, perspectives, and initiatives by visiting this excellent site hosted by one of my favorite English Education scholars.

ECU's English Education Resource Clearinghouse: OK, they don't call it that, but this collection of links, pretty much categorized and listed all on one page, is another great resource to other great resources.


NCTE: The National Council of Teachers of English. If you're not a member, become one today. This has been THE professional organization for English teachers since 1911. Even if you're a pre-service teacher and don't have much money to spend on their subscriptions, etc., sign up for their Inbox newsletters and keep yourself in the know on the most up-to-date happenings in your field.

IRA: The International Reading Association: I firmly believe that English teachers MUST see themselves as reading teachers. This association works closely with NCTE, and I expect them to work even more closely in the coming years.

ALAN: The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents. I'd say NCTE, IRA, and ALAN make up the Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman of organizations every English teacher should know. From the site: "The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents is an independent assembly of NCTE. Founded in November 1973, ALAN is made up of teachers, authors, librarians, publishers, teacher-educators and their students, and others who are particularly interested in the area of young adult literature. ALAN, which is self-governing, holds its annual meetings during the NCTE annual convention in November and also publishes The ALAN Review."


Dictionary.com: If you're as bad a speller and malapropist as I am, it never hurts to have this baby bookmarked!


See English teachers in action via streaming video! Click here, and here! Thanks to Dr.Don Zancanella at the University of New Mexico for these links. Also, check out Dr. Zancanella's own English teacher-centered blog, Language Arts-New Mexico.

See the Young Adult Library Services Association's Top Ten Books of 2006, chosen by teens themselves!:
http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/teenreading/teenstopten/06ttt.htm

Multiple Literacies Link

Here are some websites that focus on multigenre, multimodal, or otherwise "New" literacies. I'll add links as I find them, and feel free to add your own in the comments section as well. Please do take a second to give a brief description of the link you offer.

A Question of Literacy: Visual Literacy: A good definition of visual literacy as well as some important links.

Reading Next: An Alliance for Excellent Education project. From the site: "Reading Next is a cutting-edge report that combines the best research currently available with well-crafted strategies for turning that research into practice. Informed by five of the nation's leading researchers, Reading Next charts an immediate route to improving adolescent literacy." Follow the link, look at the materials, and see what you think.

Arts Education Partnership publications: Excellent sources. Especially in terms of sequential art, we sometimes forget that when we're reading a graphic novel in class, we're automatically engaging in cross-curricular endeavor. Those images didn't just appear; they were crafted and created. There's a process to study in them just as there is in the writing, and in the study of the overall form the words and images create in tandem. Arts literacy is literacy.

Champions for Change: A report from AEP that I find particularly compelling.

A History of Early Visual Media: A little hard to navigate but worth a look. It deals mostly with early cinema, pre-cinema, film and photography.

IVLA: The International Visual Literacy Association. Great organization that reaches across disciplines. From the site: "IVLA was formed for the purpose of providing a forum for the exchange of information related to visual literacy. We are also concerned with issues dealing with education, instruction and training in modes of visual communication and their application through the concept of visual literacy to individuals, groups, organizations, and to the public in general." Also see this definition of visual literacy.

NCTE Statements on Multimodal Literacy: See what NCTE has to say about MML.

NCTE and Visual Literacy: Doing a search for multimodal literacy and/or visual literacy on the NCTE website will probably yield more results, but here's a link to a minor source from a few years back. Note that visual literacy in education isn't just a 21st century notion.

The On-line Visual Literacy Project: Very cool site from Pomona College. Multimodal in layout, it offers many videos, voice overlays, and graphics to explain visual literacy and its many component parts. It focuses on explication of elements of design and doesn't tie back directly to other literacies, sort of an art about art approach. But, with the application of a little intellect, one easily sees how this site is a great resource for any teacher.

SANE links!

Below are links to websites with connections to sequential art in education. Some are directly pedagogical; some are "scholarly pedagogical."

First, shameless self-promotion:

Textus/praxis: This is where I detail my philosophy of reading and define what I think literacy entails. Rooted in theory, it is a "way of seeing" that I feel has revolutionary potential for educators. Graphic novels and comics are a large part of textus/praxis.

ReadWriteThink: This site has many comics-related lesson plans. This link is to the ones I've published with the site, which is co-sponsored by NCTE and IRA. The Comic Book Show and Tell is a writing workshop lesson that also includes a primer on comic book production. So, even if you or your students lack expertise in the comics form, this lesson is for you. The fairy tale revision lesson is a multigenre approach to examining fairy tale motifs. More to come, and also check out the main page and search for more comics-related lessons!

ImageTexT: an excellent on-line journal out of comics-scholarship stronghold University of Florida, I've published in this journal and think it is an excellent resource for scholarly articles and reviews of sequential art narratives. A children's literature themed edition of the journal should be on-line soon.

Outcast Studios: This is an independent comics site for which I used to write articles and reviews and even some scripts. The good folks there have recently gone to a Wiki format and are trying to become a one-stop comics creator's resource page. Some of my earliest columns for this site can be found here.

Other great SANE links:

ALA: "Comic books and graphic novels: Digital resources for an evolving form of art and literature": This article gives links to other web-based comics resources, including review sites and libraries.

Americana: the Journal of American Popular Culture, 1900-Present. A comics-friendly academic journal.

Comic Books for Young Adults: Librarian Michael R. Lavin's excellent exposition on comics, kids, and libraries. Excellent practical information from an informed expert.

Comics-related theses and dissertations. Exactly what it says. Yep, people do such work more often than you might think!

Comics Research: The main page for the link listed above. This is an excellent resource for those who need to know how to get their comics scholarship published, or for those who need evidence that such scholarship exists!

Emaki Productions: The website for Berkeley, California-based independent schoalr Neil Cohn, Emaki offers tons of free essays and illustrates Cohn's theories on sequential art. Basically the Todorov of comics scholarship, Cohn sees comics as a language in and of itself, with its own grammars and structures. Highly recommended! I teach his theories alongside my Textus/praxis theory and Scott McCloud's ideas in Understanding Comics when I teach my "Comics as Literature" class.

ENGL243B: Comic Book Literature: Arnold T. Blumberg's syllabus and materials for his comic book class.

The Grand comic Book Database: Search thousands of titles and see the original date of publication and cover image for each one. An amazing resource that secondary teachers can use for any number of exciting projects. For example: Compare cover images from the 1940s to images from the 1960s. What social issues and concerns are evident from this examination? Oh, the potential!

Image and Narrative: Another comics-friendly on-line academic journal. It has ties to ImageTexT.

National Association of Comics Art Educators: NACAE, or "naysay" has often focused on those who teach comic art to aspiring comic artists but has recently branched out into sharing a focus with k-12 education. An excellent organization with vast potential.

New York Comic Book Museum: Tons of practical ideas and projects for k-12 teachers. The site is very persuasive in showing sequential art's pedagogical potential. Very impressive and highly recommended.

Graphic Novels for Multiple Literacies: Gretchen E. Schwarz's seminal article on graphic novels. A must-read for k-12 educators.

Charles Hatfield: This children's literature and comics scholar teaches comics classes and has some pretty interesting opinions on kids, comics, and reading. I don't agree with all of his ideas (it is worth noting that he is a professor, but not an education professor), but I absolutely respect his work and feel he's worthy of serious attention.

Build It and They Will Come: Kerry Ireland's article on how to craft a solid graphic novel collection in the library.

The Comic Book Project: Dr. Michael Bitz has been doing some astounding work with comics and inner-city kids in his many after school sites. This project educates middle and high schoolers on the aspects of comics production and then asks them to create their own sequential art narratives. The results have been poignant and amazing. An absolute must-know resource for k-12 educators.

Ohio State's Yellow Kid Collection: Considered the first American comic strip character, the Yellow Kid series is often also considered the birth of American comic books. No comics scholar's education is complete without background on this poverty-stricken scamp from Hogan's Ally dating from 1895 newspapers.

WRAC 130.11: American Radical Thought. Another comics/graphic novel-heavy syllabus.

Martin Luther King Jr Comic from the 50s: I'll be teaching Ho Che Anderson's King (2005) later this semester in my Eng 311: Contemporary trends and Issues in Graphic Novels class (Spring 2007, USM), and this link should make for some great comparison. Thanks to Trina Robbins for posting this to the comics scholars listserve!

Three Sequential Art Anthologies Available!:

The New Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Stories: From Crumb to Clowes. Edited by B. Callahan (2004).

An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories
Edited by Ivan Brunetti (2006).

The Best American Comics 2006
Edited by Harvey Pekar (2006).

Each of these anthologies feature an array of talent ranging from known figures such as Art Spiegelman and R. Crumb and Linda Barry, to relative newcomers Chris Burns and Seth. The Smithsonian collection has more mainstream and superhero representation than the other two, and certainly a teacher would want to pick and choose which contributions to use for classroom teaching, but all three are highly recommended. I've read'em all and think that, for the price and the sampling they represent, they are excellent reads and excellent buys.

No Flying No Tights Blog: A blog devoted to reviewing graphic novels for teens! A student in my Ya Lit class at UVA recommended it, and so did "Morgan" over on the NCTE blog. as the title suggests, it shows that sequential art narratives are more than superheroes (but superheroes are still cool!).

Welcome!

Welcome to Bucky's EN/SANE World! If you've known me for a while, you know the title fits. If you're just coming to know me, you'll know soon enough.

This is my bungalow for sharing information about my academic interests and pursuits. I am currently finishing up my Ph.D. in English Education at the University of Virginia. I also currently teach English and English Education classes at The University of Southern Mississippi.

My interests include the field of English Education, Young Adult Literature, Reading and Multiple Literacies, and Critical Pedagogy. My area of expertise is in comics and graphic novels and the intersections they have with the above.

My desire is to use this blog as resource for those with similar interests and for those who are "fortunate" enough to be my students.

As I develop the blog, I'll be posting more and more about myself, sharing a bit about my work, adding links to important sites, and maybe even asking for individuals to do some posting too.

Check in often, and welcome to my world!

Sincerely,
JBC