The World's Gone Graphic! Gaining a Graphic IQ

 I realize that while my world of novels and books will always be there to entertain and enlighten, we are on riding the wave of a graphic revolution.

We have, we use, and we are bombarded with images everywhere.  And we increasingly need these images to better communicate and convince.

We see and seek  images everywhere.  From product identification and safety directions, to illustrations / art in blogs and in books.  When we communicate via email in short verbal bursts and often include icons to better express ourselves :-)

While this 'revolution' has been around for a while it has only recently hit me how extensive it is.  I now LOVE graphic novels, instructions are graphic, and road signs use more and more images to convey information.


GRAPHICS AND LITERACY:

Since reading my first graphic novel last year (Joe Kelly's I Kill Giants), I have read numerous outstanding educational graphic novels for kids - chalk full of extensive vocabulary, well-written dialogue, exquisitely inviting art, and exciting stories of fiction and nonfiction, science and technology, history, social conflict and the search of identities.

I have also learned that graphic novels are the fastest selling format of kids' books, and find myself the author of a book on how to integrate graphic novels into middle school curriculum.  Major publishers have now set up graphic novel divisions and while Barnes & Nobles don't quite know how to shelve them yet, they're out there!

Furthermore, librarians have realized that graphic novels bring kids and young adults back into libraries, and that graphic novels are bringing kids back to books and reading!  Graphic novels literally illustrate the art of story-telling.

GRAPHICS IN THE REAL WORLD:

We use graphic images in everything thing we do.  We have visual icons that relay safety messages and product information.  We use them to cross the street.  We use them to advertise.  We use them in presentations.  We use them to convince.

When was the last time you went to a presentation or workshop and just sat and listened?  To sell an idea or product we use Power Point, we teach with handouts, advertisers agonize over the most striking and memorable images.  We sell everything with images.

Look at your favorite blogs.  I don't know about you, but I favor some visual support when reading them.  The images are inviting, they help break up the screen, and they add a dimension to the message.



AS PRODUCTS GO GLOBAL - INSTRUCTIONS GO GRAPHIC:

Because so many of our products come from other countries or are sold world wide, instructions must be universally understood.  While some companies will provide written instructions / warnings in multiple languages, many are instead simply going graphic!

It's this last point that really got me to this graphic revolution point!

My daughter just moved to Boston where she started work on Monday.  We went to Ikea to furnish her apartment and found ALL the directions were purely graphic!

The thing is that as bright as we both are (she graduated with honors from Williams College, I have a PhD and graduated from an ivy league school)...the directions were really hard to follow.  There were times we just didn't quite "get" what went where.  Here's just one page:



THE BOTTOM LINE:

• Communicating with images is here to stay! 
• We as concerned parents and educators must teach our kids to "read" images
• The International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NTCE) have included in their standards that "Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts"

EDUCATION MUST include and address this graphic revolution. 

We should never abandon our classics.  I love teaching Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Andrew Clemen's Frindle, but we also have to teach kids how to use Power Point, how to read graphic instructions/directions, and how to tell stories with graphic images, even how to "read" faces.  Hence, enter graphic novels - a wonderful bridge for both worlds.



SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING GRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE:

• Include graphic novels in your reading repertoire and in your read aloud repertoire with your kids.
• Focus on learning to read the details in illustrations.
• Talk about advertising icons - why do you thing a company / advertisers chose a particular image?  Was it effective?
• Talk about art, the use of color, the use of particular shapes...what these images portray...what emotions they evoke.
• Discuss design choices for school projects, for homemade cards, for household products...
• Turn commercial time into a cognitive puzzle: Talk about your favorite/least favorite commercials.  What do you like about them?  What do you hate about them? (Here are two of my favorites - one serious [and notice - no words], one that made me laugh)

I am curious - how much have graphic images invaded your worlds?  How do you help teach your kids to cope with the images they're bombarded with?  How do you cope? Please let me know in your comments! 

Graphic Novels at Home and In School: A Dialogue

I spent this past weekend at the New York City ComicCon (comic convention) circulating with Jane Yolen, Joe Kelly, Magneto, Thor, Wonder Woman, and many others I didn't recognize.  It is a world which I initially entered tepidly, but am now curiously approaching (nay I say embracing?).

As a parent, I was apprehensive my kids would abandon classic literature and I was apprehensive about violence.  I was concerned every next word out of their mouths would require parental censoring. But, my kids express themselves beautifully and appropriately and my comic-reading kids read - everything - avidly.  My daughter majored in classic literature in college; my son  after consuming Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials (a Young Adult novel) read Dante's Inferno because  he read that Pullman's story was based on Dante's work.  As a parent and avid reader, I realize now that one format influences, supports, and enhances the other.  As an educator and psychologist I am realizing that aside from enticing reluctant readers, graphic novels can and should be used at home and in the classroom - in terms of content, format, and skills they tap and reinforce.  The catch - finding appropriate material (which is getting easier and easier).

Overview:  Graphic novels have changed dramatically and are a force to be reckoned with.  In a world of visual images (on billboards, phone apps, television - just about everywhere), graphic novels are becoming enticing educational tools that can help our kids learn, read, critically evaluate and communicate - on many levels. 

The challenge:  finding comics, manga, and graphic novels appropriate for your kids.  This too is becoming much easier thanks to many fine publishers and careful reading and reporting by  The School Library Journal www.schoollibraryjournal.com which is an excellent resource in finding just the right comics for your child.

History:  As a kid I grew up with Archie and Veronica, Batman and Robin and a few others, and never fully embraced the world of comics.  In all honesty there wasn't much to embrace.  Born in the 1950's, I was and am a product of my time.  Comic art and graphics was in its infancy.  The comics I read told short stories  of limited plot and character depth, and politics was rearing its ugly neck in censorship.

In 1954 Frederick Wertheim, in his "Seduction of the Innocent" argued that the then-popular comics such as Dick Tracy, Flash Gordon, Superman and the then newly devloping "Tales from the Crypt" and The Vault of Horror" directly impacted on youth and led to violent delinquency.  Wertheimer's publication led to a subcommittee investigation which forced comic book producers to draw up a self-imposed "Comic Code Authority" restricting sex, violence, curse words and criticism of religion.  Many distributors refused to sell comic books, many comic book companies disappeared, DC Comics became a shadow of its former self and Marvel Comics (then called Atlas Comics) was almost forced to fold.

Today:  Comic books and graphic novels are an alternate format for story telling that come in many different genres.  There are still many challenges to Graphic Novels today, but they've come a long way. Graphic novels are now typically printed in serial format.  As a result there is tremendous character depth.  The plots are intricate and the messages quite powerful as they incorporate visual and printed mediums in numerous genres: 

• Science Fiction
• Non Fiction
• Humor
• Super Hero
• Romance
• Classics
• Western
• Historical

What Can Graphic Novels Offer Your Kids?  The list below is introductory and only touches the tip of the iceberg.  I plan to develop and explore graphic novels in greater detail in future blog posts - detailing and expanding their educational value and providing appropriate reading lists for your kids. In short, graphic novels:

• Are visually enticing;
• Usher the reluctant reader into a world of  rich story-telling, character development and graphic images;
• Reinforce and strengthen sequencing skills (visual sequencing following the panels, cognitive sequencing following the story line and plot)
• Reinforce and sharpen cognitive skills - especially problem solving and making inferences (since much of the plot and story are either provided visually in the art and inferred between panels);
• Reinforce and sharpen attention skills as readers must integrate language and visual forms - attending not only to print but to the illustrations and graphic representations as well;
• Often offer rich, challenging vocabulary;
• Sharpen visual literacy in a world of bombarding visual images;
• Further enrich  social skills and social cognition as their very nature evokes strong emotions as characters face diverse social issues.

Graphic Novels for Kids:  This weekend I was pleasantly surprised at the wealth of appropriate graphic novels for kids - even young kids.  First Second, Boom, Udon, Lerner, Scholastic, Abrams, Kids Can Press, Top Shelf, and Toon Books are just a few publishers with quality lines for kids.  Check them out on your own, and come visit them on future blog posts here, and please let me know what you think and find.