Comics and Literacy
Use Comics to Teach the Common Core with Our FREE TOON Poster
Fighting the Stigma Against Comics: Do Comics Count as Books?
When first drafting our mission statement in 2008, we turned to one of our advisors, Stanford Professor Emerita Barbara Tversky, for the best explanation possible of how comics teach kids. Professor Tversky puts it so well: “Comics use a broad range of sophisticated devices for communication," she told us. "They are similar to face-to-face interactions, in which meaning is derived not solely from words, but also from gestures, intonation, facial expressions and props. Comics are more than just illustrated books, but rather make use of a multi-modal language that blends words, pictures, facial expressions, panel-to-panel progression, color, sound effects and more to engage readers in a compelling narrative." Five years later, study after study has come out extolling the virtues of comics as a teaching tool. All we can think is...we told you so!
"Comic books have been shown to be useful for beginning readers, since the reduced text makes the language manageable for new readers. Comics are especially useful for improving reading development among second-language learners and children with learning difficulties."
—The Canadian Council of Learning
The Canadian Council of Learning has gathered definitive research showing that readers who love comics also tend to read more text-based material and report enjoying reading more than their peers who don't pick up comic books. Reports the CCL,
"Comic books allow children to develop many of the same skills as reading text-based books such as connecting narratives to children’s own experiences, predicting what will happen next and inferring what happens between individual panels. Even before children are ready to read text, comic books can give them practice in making meaning from material printed on a page, tracking left to right and top to bottom, interpreting symbols, and following the sequence of events in a story. Comic books have been shown to be useful for beginning readers, since the reduced text makes the language manageable for new readers. Comics expand children’s vocabulary by giving contexts to words that the child would not normally have been exposed to."
Comics, the CCL goes on to say, are especially useful for improving reading development among second-language learners and children with learning difficulties. (It's no coincidence that educators of these groups are among TOON's biggest advocates.)
"Comic books allow children to develop many of the same skills as reading text-based books such as connecting narratives to children’s own experiences, predicting what will happen next and inferring what happens between individual panels. Even before children are ready to read text, comic books can give them practice in making meaning from material printed on a page, tracking left to right and top to bottom, interpreting symbols, and following the sequence of events in a story. Comic books have been shown to be useful for beginning readers, since the reduced text makes the language manageable for new readers. Comics expand children’s vocabulary by giving contexts to words that the child would not normally have been exposed to."
Comics, the CCL goes on to say, are especially useful for improving reading development among second-language learners and children with learning difficulties. (It's no coincidence that educators of these groups are among TOON's biggest advocates.)
Students who read comics-format material, as opposed to text-only material, retained more information.
— University of Oklahoma study
Heidi MacDonald of Publishers Weekly recently covered a University of Oklahoma study measuring how students retain information presented in graphic novel format. The OU study found that students who read comics-format material, as opposed to text-only material, retained more information verbatim -- and 80% of the students involved found comics "compared favorably" with the text-only format.
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Josh Elder, the founder of Reading with Pictures, wasn't surprised at the Oklahoma study's conclusion. “Every year, more comics are in more classrooms than the year before to great result,” Elder said. “Even the newly implemented Common Core Standards explicitly call for the use of alternative media – including comics–in the curriculum." Jeremy Short, who headed the OU study, told PW, “It was exciting to verify what some would say was common sense but some naysayers would say was the opposite of commons sense. I was shocked at how opposed a certain minority seemed to be to this format. The pencil, ball-point ben, chalkboard, and computer are all innovations that educators scoffed at when they were first introduced. I hope the graphic novel can be added to that list of educational tools that seem foolish to bemoan in hindsight."
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Of course, we're proud of our books not just for their pedagogical virtues but also for their artistic ones. The thousands of kids exclaiming over TOON Books aren't so excited simply because they're developing their inference skills -- they're thrilled because they love making mud pies with Benny and Penny, swimming through the ocean with Nanaue, and journeying to the bottom of the world with Mouse. As Booklist pointed out way back in 2008, TOON Books are "a literacy tool to teach kids how to not only read but also love to read." And that's exactly what we want in schools.
"Comics are a gateway drug to literacy."
—Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of Maus, A Survivor's Tale
Educators praise TOON Books in the classroom...
"Schools around the country are using comic books to teach reading and other subjects. The Maryland State Department of Education has developed a comic book curriculum using classic Disney comics. After a successful test, it is being used in about 200 classrooms, and continues to expand. The state has introduced a new series of original comic books, TOON Books, in first and second grade. The series was created by Françoise Mouly, art editor of The New Yorker magazine, and her husband, Art Spiegelman, a prizewinning comics artist...Comics help introduce kids to important features of fiction, such as narrative structure, tone and character development. They also include context clues for difficult words."
--TIME for Kids "These books provide fun reading for younger children while also introducing them to the graphic novel format. They’re great for any library collection, and especially fine for school libraries."
--Kat Kan, librarian |
"TOON Books is easily one of the most interesting lines of children’s literature being published right now. The concept is simple–these are easy readers, written with a limited vocabulary, in a comic book format, complete with panels and word balloons, created by some of the masters of comics, like Art Spiegelman (Pulitizer Prize-winning creator of MAUS) and Jeff Smith (creator of Bone)...The way the best comics combine art with the written word to capture the readers interest has special magic to children--even children who otherwise shy away from books. And while I think it would be great to include some kid-appropriate superhero fare in the classroom library--that’s not what TOON Books is about. These are stories about talking animals, animated toys, kids going to school--a wide range of classroom-appropriate topics. The creators are great artists, renowned in their field, creating books with the express purpose of getting kids into reading. The stories are simple and charming, the illustrations are beautiful, and did I mention that each book has an accompanying, age-appropriate lesson plan available at the TOON Books website? Even if you’re not a comic fan, you owe it to yourself to check this one out."
--Brenley MacLeod, librarian |
"TOON Books are really a new generation of books for a new generation of young, emerging readers who are growing up in a very visual environment. These graphic novels are more than just stories translated into a comic format. They are organic, with simple dialogue and engaging illustrations created by some of the best writers and artists in the business…[TOON Books] help young readers as they begin the process of learning to navigate the page and decipher text."
--Michele Gorman, librarian "Just take a look at how TOON books differentiates their easy reading graphic titles. Like many beginning reader series, they’re divided into three levels. But here’s the difference - we’re not left to wonder what criteria was used to derive those levels. Surprise, surprise! TOON Books tells us! Each book has a listed Lexile Level, Guided Reading Level, and Reading Recovery Level...Surely all librarians can appreciate having the tools needed to appropriately shelve, catalog, and recommend our easy reader collections. This is how it should be done, folks!"
--Shelf-Employed |