Against shaming readers and generalizing experiences with books
I am not the biggest fan of graphic novels in my personal reading life. This is not because I doubt their worth. I read the Twilight series, and I was happy as a lark while doing it. I think reading snobs are boring, and I don't think they read half as often as they pretend to. I don't love to read graphic novels, but I love anything that gets my students reading. For this reason, graphic novels have a welcome home in my classroom library.
As teachers, we don't have to like, love, or even understand the reading trends of our students. We need to be aware of what they are reading. We need to monitor in some ways the content of the texts. But we don't have to love books in order to bring them into our classroom. We only have to love students.
Teachers often question and denigrate the value of graphic novels, and many teachers who do use them view them only as stepping stones to more complex texts. When we do this, our students notice. Pernille Rip explains that when teachers do this "we are telling them that their reading journey only has value if they read books that we deem appropriate and that is never okay." This is something that I feel very strongly about as an educator. Of course, there are books I read, and I feel a need to share them with my students, but I have to evaluate these urges. What about this book did I connect to? What might my students connect to? What does it mean to say that a student "needs" to read something. We see this in the form of "100 books to read before you die" but this is a ridiculous notion mostly because there is no way to codify the 100 most important books. This assumes a common human experience that I don't think exists. The 100 books I need, and the 100 books my students need won't be the same, and teachers have to accept that, or they risk losing students as readers.
Ripp defends the merit of these books when she says "I think the word we are really looking for is enticing, not easy. Is inviting, not fluff. Gives courage, not a cop out of reading." When our students like something, we tend to label it easy. If they like graphic novels it's because it's easy. If they like YA it's because it's easy, and if they like Hamlet it's because they are real readers. Who decided this? Why is student enjoyment linked so closely to being easy or not important. What assumptions do we make about teenagers when this happens.
Jarret J. Krosoczka advocates against referring to comics and graphic novels as a gateway experience to reading. A graphic novel may be the book that helps a kid realize they can read and that they can enjoy it. But graphic novels aren't something students have to leave behind once they master the skill. We are all growing as readers every time we read. Kids are growing as readers whether they're reading Nimona, Scythe, or The Scarlet Letter.
I'll leave you all with this quote from Pernille Rip on the literary merit of graphic novels "these masterful pieces of literature are, indeed, full-fledged members of the book family. Are, indeed, full-fledged literary components that deserve not just to be placed into the hands of our students, but also taught alongside other books. To be held up as shining examples of literary greatness that we should appreciate, promote, and celebrate alongside all of the other books we have."
As teachers, we don't have to like, love, or even understand the reading trends of our students. We need to be aware of what they are reading. We need to monitor in some ways the content of the texts. But we don't have to love books in order to bring them into our classroom. We only have to love students.
Teachers often question and denigrate the value of graphic novels, and many teachers who do use them view them only as stepping stones to more complex texts. When we do this, our students notice. Pernille Rip explains that when teachers do this "we are telling them that their reading journey only has value if they read books that we deem appropriate and that is never okay." This is something that I feel very strongly about as an educator. Of course, there are books I read, and I feel a need to share them with my students, but I have to evaluate these urges. What about this book did I connect to? What might my students connect to? What does it mean to say that a student "needs" to read something. We see this in the form of "100 books to read before you die" but this is a ridiculous notion mostly because there is no way to codify the 100 most important books. This assumes a common human experience that I don't think exists. The 100 books I need, and the 100 books my students need won't be the same, and teachers have to accept that, or they risk losing students as readers.
Ripp defends the merit of these books when she says "I think the word we are really looking for is enticing, not easy. Is inviting, not fluff. Gives courage, not a cop out of reading." When our students like something, we tend to label it easy. If they like graphic novels it's because it's easy. If they like YA it's because it's easy, and if they like Hamlet it's because they are real readers. Who decided this? Why is student enjoyment linked so closely to being easy or not important. What assumptions do we make about teenagers when this happens.
Jarret J. Krosoczka advocates against referring to comics and graphic novels as a gateway experience to reading. A graphic novel may be the book that helps a kid realize they can read and that they can enjoy it. But graphic novels aren't something students have to leave behind once they master the skill. We are all growing as readers every time we read. Kids are growing as readers whether they're reading Nimona, Scythe, or The Scarlet Letter.
I'll leave you all with this quote from Pernille Rip on the literary merit of graphic novels "these masterful pieces of literature are, indeed, full-fledged members of the book family. Are, indeed, full-fledged literary components that deserve not just to be placed into the hands of our students, but also taught alongside other books. To be held up as shining examples of literary greatness that we should appreciate, promote, and celebrate alongside all of the other books we have."
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