Hacking Graphic Novels: 8 Ways to Teach Higher-Level Thinking with Comics and Visual Storytelling

Praise for

Hacking Graphic Novels

I practically begged Shveta Miller to write this book. When she showed me the incredible power of graphic novels as a tool for expression, complex thinking, and demonstrating learning, I wanted every teacher to hear about it. Graphic novels have gotten a lot more attention in the past decade, but Miller has a special gift for diving deep into their emotional and cognitive benefits; at the same time, she manages to make implementation seem easy. I feel certain that you’ll be trying the ideas in this book before you’ve even finished reading it.

— Jennifer Gonzalez, Editor-in-Chief of Cult of Pedagogy, and Co-Author of Hacking Education: 10 Quick Fixes For Every School

Miller’s work is a much-needed addition to the ever-growing canon of comics scholarship because it provides an abundance of practical, hands-on activities for teachers. By framing each chapter with a specific issue faced in the learning environment, presenting a hack to address that issue, and supporting her plan with visuals and a near-exhaustive list of things you can do, she provides a clear map for teachers to discover the numerous ways that comics can inspire creative and critical thinking in their students.

— Rocco Versaci, Author of This Book Contains Graphic Language: Comics as Literature and That Hidden Road: A Memoir

Slam, Bang, Pow to dated classrooms. Shveta Miller’s text explodes with eminently practical strategies for creating a genuinely student-led classroom set free from the burdens of textbook and administrative-driven instruction. If you want students who are critical thinkers, imaginative problem-solvers, and nuanced observers, read and use this book!

— David Seelow, PhD, College of Saint Rose, Editor of Lessons Drawn: Essays on the Pedagogy of Comics and Graphic Novels

Hacking Graphic Novels is a gift to educators looking to incorporate more comics and graphic novels into their teaching. In one crystal-clear chapter after another, Shveta Miller breaks down and explores the language and world of comics, then offers a host of brilliant ways in which to package this information and these ideas into discussions, lessons, and activities. Importantly, she also shares methods of dealing with pushback, both from students and adults. By taking advantage of the unique elements and strengths of comics, Hacking Graphic Novels has the power to make education more exciting, engaging, productive, and meaningful. I can’t recommend it strongly enough.

— Jarrett Lerner, Author-Illustrator of Give This Book a Title

What Shveta Miller reveals with this book is an opportunity for educators to adapt to the (incredible) speed and learning capabilities of this new generation of students. Utilizing the comics medium as a hacking tool brings an approach that excites and engages students of all abilities.

— John Shableski, President of Reading With Pictures

Shveta Miller’s Hacking Graphic Novels is my new go-to resource for teaching with comics. It is filled with easy-to-implement activities teachers can use in their classrooms tomorrow to not only teach about comics, but to improve students’ thinking, questioning, and analysis skills. I’ve been working with comics in education for over fifteen years, and I learned so much from this book. It made me want to get back in the classroom immediately and use all of these great ideas!

— Tracy Edmunds, Vice President of Curriculum

for Reading With Pictures

Hacking Graphic Novels hits the mark in highlighting the fundamental, educational value comics have as tools that facilitate deeper understanding of composition and comprehension, as well as critical and creative thinking. Having co-taught with teachers in all four core subjects, I have utilized many of the strategies listed within this book: from pairing slow looking with close reading of a panel at the start of an ELL class, to suggesting categories for guided exploration and discussion before transitioning to informational text in a biology class. These strategies have not only helped my students develop a richer sense of exploration and curiosity toward text and information, but have also legitimized the use of comics in the classroom in the eyes of many teachers and administrators. This book so clearly and carefully itemizes this range of options and approaches to foster explorative thinking that it will undoubtedly allow for more educators to see their merit and begin to confidently implement these strategies.

— Zawadi Noel, Cartoonist, Educator, and Founder of MyHeroComics

Shveta Miller’s Hacking Graphic Novels book expands the possibilities of using graphic novel/visual storytelling as an ESSENTIAL tool in twenty-first century education. For example, in her Hack 4: Think, Learn, and Communicate by Creating Comics, she offers methods to incorporate simple drawing techniques (including sketching, color, collaborative drawing exercises, and other techniques) for students to increase concentration and to convey their understanding of a topic of study. Shveta’s Hacks provide clear, detailed approaches that will be fun for students AND educators!

— Gustavo Alberto Garcia Vaca, Visual Artist, Writer, and Community Teaching Artist, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

A rare find! Even though I have been teaching Persepolis for several years, I was inspired by Miller’s Hacks to question my assumptions and expand possibilities in my teaching. I revamped my curriculum in order to center student discovery, to increase diversity in content, and to engage students in storytelling. I came away with accessible, creative ideas and a new understanding of what the study of comics offers students.

— Stephanie Pollicino, High School English Teacher

Hacking Graphic Novels

© 2021 by Times 10 Publications

All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing by the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. For information regarding permission, contact the publisher at [email protected].

These books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums, promotions, fundraising, and educational use. For inquiries and details, contact us at 10publications.com.

Published by Times 10

Highland Heights, OH

10Publications.com

Cover and Interior Design by Steven Plummer

Editing by Jennifer Zelinger Marshall

Copyediting by Jennifer Jas

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-948212-63-2

eBook ISBN: 978-1-948212-65-6

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-948212-64-9

First Printing: June, 2021

To Dahlia, who has been fearlessly and thoughtfully looking, describing, and creating nearly her entire life. Much of what I share in this book started with you.

Table of Contents

Introduction

How to Use This Book

Hack 1: Build Investment in Visual Storytelling

Establish the Value of Graphic Stories

Hack 2: Uncover the Elements of Comics

Guide Students’ Discovery of Tools and Devices

Hack 3: Encourage Slow Looking, Committing Closure, and Resisting Closure

Help Students Combine Words and Pictures to Tell Compelling Stories and Communicate Complexity

Hack 4: Think, Learn, and Communicate by Creating Comics

Use Drawing and Visual Storytelling for Deep Thinking

Hack 5: Disrupt the Comics Canon

Expand Concepts About Possibilities

Hack 6: Create With Constraints

Experiment with Creative Limits

Hack 7: Offer a Flexible Process for Creating Graphic

Narratives

Model Creation Processes

Hack 8: Connect With the Comics Community

Connect Students to Real-World Graphic Novelists

Conclusion

Graphic Novels Made Me a Better Teacher

About the Author

Acknowledgments

More from Times 10

Resources from Times 10

Introduction

How to Use This Book

When I first ventured into teaching a graphic novel in my high school English classroom, I did what many others do. Knowing the potential to do deep analytical work with this text and discover new tools and modes for expression, I skimmed Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics and chose a reputable graphic memoir. I didn’t know then that these benefits were trivial compared to the cognitive and social-emotional impact that reading, thinking about, and creating visual texts have on students’ whole selves.

Intended Audience

Comics and graphic novels have made their way into classrooms and established literary circles, winning illustrious awards and endorsements from national literacy organizations. However, many of us are not aware of the enriching ways they can help us develop innovative, independent thinkers and learners—those who see and hear something different from what they know and respond with curiosity; those who understand how they learn best and what they need from us to live the lives they want to lead.

This book is for teachers of kindergarten through adult education, for any content area, whether they’ve had little exposure to comics or a lifelong appreciation of sequential art. If you teach, you need strategies for keeping minds open and flexible, for building intrinsic motivation and ensuring retention, and for connecting with students so they see you as a trusted partner who can help them pursue challenging and meaningful work.

How to Use This Book

Even if you have taught with graphic novels for years, look for the less familiar challenges that open each chapter, and discover a few resources and exercises you haven’t tried before. Start with reading the opening Problem for each chapter. If you see your experience reflected there, read the Hack.

If you teach workshops related to making comics, read Hacks 2 and 3 for literacy skills like close reading and writing to help your students gain appreciation for the complexity of the constructed visual narratives. Visit Hacks 6 and 7 to structure the creation process to honor students’ needs to create in a different way than what is modeled.

For math or science teachers, use Hacks 3 and 4 to learn about the incredible power of visual models or drawn systems and processes. They help students retain complex concepts better than when they just write or talk. The comics medium helps students represent their thinking and offers valuable insights on what students know and don’t know.

Anyone can flex creative thinking skills by trying the comics constraints described in Hack 6. If we think inside the box about how things should look, if we rely on boundaries and definitions, and if we tend to be skeptical about new ideas that don’t easily fit with our experiences and world views, then we all can benefit from using constraints to try on an idea we otherwise might never consider.

How This Book Is Unique

There is an ever-growing number of excellent books on using comics and graphic novels. Many of them influenced what I have written. Instead of focusing on literacy instruction alone, on making comics with students or specific age/grade levels, this book appeals to anyone using comics, drawing, or visual texts to teach anyone else.

This book addresses common challenges and problems with leveraging the medium’s full potential. While you may not need help building investment (Hack 1) in your classroom, school, or community, you might see that the comics your students create reflect a conventional and narrow concept of graphics. In that case, start with Hack 5: Disrupt the Comics Canon.

By focusing on problems and offering Hacks, this book helps educators reflect on instructional practices and on their students’ thinking and work. Then it offers actionable next steps for each Hack in various settings, from kindergarten to an adult comics class.

Hacking Graphic Novels helps you engage students’ interest for other content and skills, and teach interested students how to make the comics they love. This book is designed to help you use comics as a learning vehicle so your students can learn about themselves as thinkers, open their minds, build connections, and develop intrinsic motivation to challenge ideas.

What You Won’t Find in This Book

I do not open with an exhaustive history of the comics medium the way many other books do. I recommend learning that history, so try Hillary Chute’s thorough study, Why Comics?, which offers exposure to a wider range of possibilities of the medium.

You won’t find a list of recommended titles to teach. I refer to several comics, graphic novels, and other visual media in each Hack, but I do not endorse the use of any one text or offer a list of recommended titles. Your context and students’ learning needs and objectives must influence the texts you choose. In Hack 5, I provide sources for searching and vetting diverse visual texts, many of which lead you to examples with free online access. As you’ll learn in that chapter, you do not need to curate the perfect collection. Enlist students to use the search tools provided in the Hack to find excerpts, and teach them to establish criteria for what makes a text worth their critical attention.

Times 10 Publications provides practical solutions that teachers can read today and use tomorrow. Due to the nature of my background and thought process, I also included significant studies, researchers, and academics within each Hack, although there is no list of citations or sources. Find an ongoing collection of research on ReadingWithPictures.com.

A Note on Terms: I use the following terms interchangeably to promote the idea that the Hacks in this book do not strictly apply to comic strips or just literary graphic novels: comic, comic strip, cartoon, single-panel cartoon, sequential art, visual narrative, web-comics, visual text, graphic novel, graphic story, graphic narrative, graphic text, and probably a few more. Some Hacks apply to any visual artifact, but mostly I refer to visual texts using an intentional combination of words and pictures, often in sequential order.

Even that description feels limiting. Hack 2 details why terms we use can limit our conceptions of what is possible and offers an alternative method. Hack 5 explains the problem with focusing on only one type of visual text and offers ideas for expansion.

Hack 1

Build Investment in Visual Storytelling

Establish the Value of Graphic Stories 

Children often have vibrant literacy lives that go untapped because teachers fail to acknowledge those literacies, resulting in many adolescents beginning to see comic books as many adults do: subliterate, disposable, and juvenile.

— Rocco Versaci, author and English professor

THE PROBLEM: Many don’t see graphic novels as serious learning, or they only see limited potential 

While comics and graphic novels are increasingly appearing on library display shelves and bestseller lists, many of our young readers still hear adults say comments like, Choose a real book, That’s not real reading, or Try something more challenging. Though they may still enjoy reading graphic texts, students are internalizing the message that those books are not serious literature. They begin to think that a quick casual flip through the text, or devouring it in one day, is entertaining, sure, but ultimately frivolous. They aren’t exercising critical thinking and observation skills because they assume these picture books don’t demand that kind of attention and that intellectual nourishment comes from text-heavy books. 

A graphic novel has now won the Pulitzer, the Newbery, and the National Book Award, but students and school staff alike are still hesitant about these picture-heavy novels when a class syllabus demands rigorous close reading of complex texts. When used, the emphasis is often on their power to engage reluctant readers, bridge access to text-heavy books, or ignite an interest in reading. Therefore, the work is often focused on elements of plot and engagement without serious regard to the craft and structure. Without learning the language of comics or practicing close-reading skills unique to visual texts, students are less likely to read a graphic novel with analytical depth. They quickly consume it, overlooking the embedded complexity, unaware of how the craft and structure affect the visual story and their experience of it. 

Our students have unconsciously (or consciously) adopted the view that visual texts like graphic narratives, comics, and even cartoons and advertisements do not warrant literary analysis. They have absorbed ideas from the adults around them about the tiers of quality and purposes for different types of texts. This text is for fun; that one is for learning. I read these books fast; those take a lot longer. Using graphic novels in the literacy classroom is an opportunity to engage students in critical conversations about canon formation and the complicated process of literary selection.

This is a chance to involve students in thinking about:

What makes a text worthy of study?

Who decides the value?

What distinguishes high from low art?

How and why have these designations changed over time?

What role do active and curious readers play in disrupting seemingly fixed categories?

Teachers also face obstacles like censorship with graphic novels. Betsy Gomez from the Banned Books Week Coalition and former consultant with the Comic Book Defense Fund says that images are easy targets. One graphic novel was banned