From Deseret News archives:
Comics may help readers
Teachers take a 2nd look at strips as step to literacy
In Maryland, the State Education Department is expanding a new comics-based literacy curriculum, after a small pilot program yielded promising results. In New York City, a group of educators applied to open a new small high school that would be based around a comics theme and named after the creators of Superman; their application was rejected but they plan to try again next year. And the Comic Book Project, a program run out of Teachers College at Columbia University that has children create their own comic strips as an "alternative pathway to literacy," is catching on. Six years after it started in one Queens elementary school, it has expanded to 860 schools across the country.
"It's very much a teacher-led kind of movement in that teachers are looking for ways to engage their children, and they're finding some of that in comic books," said Michael Bitz, who founded the Comic Book Project as a graduate student and is its director. "For kids who may be struggling and for kids who may be new to the English language, that visual sequence is a very powerful tool."
Still, skeptics fret that in the wrong hands, comics could become simply a vehicle for watering down lessons.
"If you're going to use comics in the classroom at all, which I have serious doubts about, it should be only as a motivational tool," said Diane Ravitch, an education professor at New York University. "What teachers have to recognize is that this is only a first step."
Lisa Von Drasek, the children's librarian at the Bank Street College of Education, said that "not a semester goes by that not a parent or a teacher expresses a concern about a comic-format book that their child has taken out or is using for their reading time." Usually, she said, the critics come around. "What we say is, 'Whatever works."'
Recent comments
I think comics are a good way to help kids enjoy reading.
no name | Dec. 27, 2007 at 7:20 p.m.
- Funeral today for Utah soldier 11:16 a.m.
- Vaccination clinic set in St. George 11:15 a.m.
- Medicare paid $47B in suspect claims 11:11 a.m.
- 3 dead in Reno helicopter crash 11:02 a.m.
- Galaxy headed to MLS Cup 10:45 a.m.
- Veteran climber dies in Himalayas 10:36 a.m.
- Slovakia beats U.S. 1-0 10:30 a.m.
- Suicide attack kills 11 in Pakistan 10:28 a.m.
- A president of Europe? 10:18 a.m.
- Riesch edges Vonn in WCup slalom 10:13 a.m.
- Williams leaves, won't play tonight
- Attack meant to kill apostle
- Short-handed Jazz fly past Sixers
- Can BYU root for (ick) Utah Utes?
- Man killed during 3rd I-15 crash
- Bench proves fruitful for Y.
- Trial begins in toddler death
- D-Will home for daughter
- Unga family is making its mark
- ESPN suddenly loves MWC
- SLC council OKs gay rights policies
348 - Editorial: Mormons and gay rights
199 - Senators want food tax restored
162 - Will state consider gay rights law?
145 - Letters: Strange breed in Utah
129 - Utes remain silent about BCS
120 - S.L. vote pending on gay protections
113 - Celtics crush Jazz
104 - Pratt pleads not guilty to sex charges
103 - Can BYU root for (ick) Utah Utes?
95
Maybe someone out there can help me understand how raising the state...
How do you handle kids and contests? Our oldest daughter, 7, is of the...
Bingham's got a lot of talent for having a bunch of Juniors and sophomores....
Ben Cahoon is a class act!!
1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge,...
There is a VERY special place in hell for guys like this...Even ANIMALS know...
RE:Joe & Exactly. I tend to see the opposite way. I think that when Dwill...
Joe & Exactly are typical people who don't understand the game of basketball,...
I guess we only see what we want to see. But, the fact is that if BYU had...
It would be great if BYU could pull this off. Never count out a team that...
That's what i heard too!
Washington and Franklin believed in Providence, not Got. Franklin started to...

