"Reading With Pictures" J. Elder Presentation

1.  A detailed description of the text. 

• This book is about how the comic industry has changed the face of "visual literacy" in ALL subjects based on common core standards. The Common Core State Standards now explicitly recommends the use of comics in the modern classroom. It also gives examples of how they use the comics in readings, writing, math, social studies, language arts, and science. 

  2. Please explain why you chose this text. What was your rationale? How does your understanding of this text influence your thinking about your teaching.

• The reason I chose this book was because of the cover. It captured my eye and looked the most interesting when I was looking around the library. That is basically one of the reasons why comics are actually recommended, they catch the readers eye. It hooks the reader and they become a little more interested when there is action or adventure in a story, rather than sitting and staring at a white piece of paper with a bunch of words on it. I have thought greatly about how pictures influence students in a positive way, and this just proved my point on how visual learning is the greatest benefit you could give a child/ young adult in the classroom. 
• I am 100% a visual learner, if I don't see pictures or examples, I won't understand material or the assignment. Visual Literacy was a huge part of my success in every subject, and there are many more children and young adult like me who will benefit from my way of teaching; through the many versions of visual literacy in my classroom. 

3. Please include some teaching ideas. How do you envision employing this text in a secondary English language arts classroom? Provide at least 3 specific ideas for what is possible with this text.

• Comics are known for having a plot and an order the plot has to be in. I was thinking i could use this as an example of how to create a paper through creating a comic before hand. The students would make up their own comic on a paper topic and write a story in the order their comic was in to show the importance of organization when it comes to introduction paragraphs, body paragraphs, and their conclusions. How nothing can be left out and leave their audience unsatisfied or unclear.
• Comics to explain Shakespeare. I wouldn't mind drawing stick figures for my students who are trying to understand Shakespearian plots.
• If we analyze or go over a difficult story, I would strongly recommend we watch the movie after the book so students can have a better visual understanding of the story/book. Also analyzing in powerpoint, using pictures of characters or settings makes understanding the plot a little more clearer than just trying to imagine some events that happened in the text.

4. Please consider some challenges to using strategies from this text. What are the potential issues that may arise from using these strategies? Predict students’ responses. How will you address these challenges?

• I have asked a few of my friends and their responses were "I don't really enjoy comics or pictures when i want to read sometimes."I can also predict that it might be unusual to make a comic about math. In math, you need printed examples of how to solve problems when in a secondary classroom, pictures might be distracting from the actual way to problem solve for some students. (p. 73) example. 
• To address the problems, I think a class discussion on how the comics are helping or not helping them would benefit both sides of the issue.

5. Anything else you think is important for us to know and understand about this text and its use with students.

• I had so much fun reading this book. I wish I have seen this when I was in middle school or high school, or at least have some visual literacy more in general. It is important for your classroom to be on the same page when reading classic or complex books/stories. Visual literacy is proven and recommended as much as possible throughout the classroom today. This text has shown how important and useful graphics can be for some students and even teachers. (p.45) example.