Comic books. Yay or nay?

amother

Fri, Nov 03 2023, 10:05 am

As a reading tutor I am really on the fence about using comic books to help struggling readers increase fluency and motivation to read.

Lots of kids like comics. They are exciting and interesting especially when decoding is a struggle. For kids with ADHD it gives them that higher interest. It gives kids context from the pictures so they know which words to expect to read.

However, there is a concern that they will only read comics and not read other books. Comic books usually are a lot shorter than other books.

I know one school that doesn't allow comic books into the library for this reason.

As a parent or educator what is your take on it?

bigsis144

Fri, Nov 03 2023, 10:36 am

As a parent, I feel like I want to choose my battles. I know my kids will be assigned “real books” for reading in school, so my job as a parent is not to take away what they enjoy and leave only the “nutritious” stuff.

Reading is reading is reading.

I was a total bookworm as a kid, so I sort of feel sad and don’t understand my kids who won’t even pick up a text-only book. They go through comics/graphic novels so quickly, too, and run out of new material to read so much faster when they choose to ignore the majority of the books on the shelf. It’s really frustrating when a 14 year old kvetches he’s bored when we have a house full of books of various genres and difficulty levels. So he’s just gonna re-read Calvin and Hobbes for the millionth time.

Some of it is my kids’ neurodivergence, yes, and I try to keep that in mind. But part of me is just like, ugh, get over yourself, don’t be lazy. Why are you cutting yourself off from something that will enrich your life or at least tame your boredom?? But then again, I can’t compare myself to my kids, and I have to meet him where he’s at.

All I can do is make sure they have a variety of options. You can lead a kid to the library, but you can’t make him read 🤷🏻‍♀️

amother

Fri, Nov 03 2023, 10:53 am

amother Chocolate wrote:

If you don’t use graphic novels(better than saying comic books)
Will your students read?

With Me or by themselves?

With me they will read.

By themselves they will probably read less initially. I think also for the frum world there aren't graphic novels. Most graphic novels are not very appropriate for our Frum kids. So they really are reading either comic serials in the magazines or short comic books.

amother

Fri, Nov 03 2023, 10:57 am

bigsis144 wrote:

I feel you. I have a kid with ADHD who reads mainly graphic novels/comic books. Recently I picked up some books that have some pictures on some pages and it's on a subject close to his heart so he has been reading. I am surprised at how well he reads though just from mostly reading comic books for years. But yes, super hard to find enough books from the library.

Something I do that can help is I read to him for a limited amount of time every day. When I'm done if he's motivated he will read a few pages. Something maybe worth trying. Also to get some books that are in between. They have some pictures but lots more text.

bigsis144

Fri, Nov 03 2023, 11:16 am

amother OP wrote:

I have read entire series out loud to my kids! (How many Ranger’s Apprentice books are there?? Plus the sequels and the prequels…)

One of my adhd kids likes audiobooks, and I told him I would only allow him to listen to the first 3 Harry Potter audiobooks; after that he had to read the books himself before listening to them.

That was partly my way of gauging his maturity level for reading the later, more mature books in the series. Listening to the books is more passive, but if he was willing to put in the time and effort to read them, then he was more ready for that sort of content. Reading is slower than listening, and would give him time to absorb things, talk to me, etc.

Last edited by bigsis144 on Fri, Nov 03 2023, 11:17 am; edited 1 time in total

amother

Puce

Fri, Nov 03 2023, 11:17 am

There are great graphic novels with educational frum content.

Koren Meggilas Esther and Haggadah that are graphic novel form. They include the full Hebrew Text also, in addition to the graphic novel English. The English in Esther is a straight translation of the Hebrew, not made up dialogue. I haven't looked as closely at the Haggadah, but would expect it to be similar.

Navi Illustrated. This graphic novel series covers approximately the first half of Sefer Shoftim. It is action packed and hews very closely to the text with midrashim.

Feldheim Tannaim Series graphic novels by R Meir Lamberski. These are aggadic stories from the lives of Tannaim and they have all the sources in the back for each tanna story. Each book is on one specific Tanna.

honey36

Fri, Nov 03 2023, 11:19 am

When DS was about 6-7 all he read was graphic novels. I was nervous about it too for the reasons you mentioned and tried to get him to read normal novels, but he wasn't interested.

Now he is 10 and reads mostly normal books, with the occasional graphic novel. Not sure when the change happened - I think he just picked a regular book at some point that looked interesting to him and breezed through it. No input needed from me. So now I'm not worried anymore when I see my younger ones gravitating to the graphic novels only. I think they will graduate eventually on their own.

amother

Oak

Fri, Nov 03 2023, 11:24 am

amother OP wrote:

Personal experience - my ADHD daughter was exactly like this. The only way to get her to read was via comic books. But it really helped her fluency and reading skills, and once she developed proficiency she gradually gravitated to text books. It took time, but she got there and she is now reading adult novels. I do think that the comic books laid the foundation for her to develop skills in this area.

For timeline references, it was comics only for about 3 years, short books for another 2 years, before moving on to lengthy readings.

amother

Mayflower

Fri, Nov 03 2023, 11:27 am

If it gets them to read, it's all good (as long as they are appropriate content). Some of my kids were a bit slow to warm up to reading, but graphic novels get them going until they eventually also started reading regular books. Also, just because it has pictures, doesn't mean it lacks depth and meaning. Many graphic novels have won literary awards. It is a form of real literature.

watergirl

Fri, Nov 03 2023, 11:27 am

amother Viola wrote:

I’ve seen literacy experts agreeing that reading is reading. I was surprised because as parents we’re all such purists lol

Not just literary, experts, reading specialists (masters degree) agree that reading is reading. Even listening to audiobooks has a huge benefit.

OP, you are a reading tutor, what is your qualifications and education?

amother

Nemesia

Fri, Nov 03 2023, 11:46 am

amother Puce wrote:

p

Do you have links for any of these

amother

Puce

Fri, Nov 03 2023, 1:11 pm

amother Nemesia wrote:

p

Do you have links for any of these

Sure!

https://korenpub.com/products/.....sther

https://korenpub.com/products/.....cover

https://www.feldheim.com/tannaim-series

https://www.feldheim.com/navi-illustrated

The Feldheim link for Navi Illustrated only has a portion of the titles. You would need to search around other book sellers for the rest.

seeker

Fri, Nov 03 2023, 1:24 pm

The kids who were going to read books anyway are still going to read books, they crunch through the comics fast and then move on.

The kids who would not be reading otherwise, at least now they're reading. It might be a gateway to better books, or it might be just better than nothing.

So I see a net positive.

In remedial sessions though I keep them to s minimum. They have their place (good for inferential thinking; it's usually not quite clear what's going on and the reader really needs to fill in the clues) but they generally don't reinforce the specific skills in trying to target. And many of the frum ones are terrible quality - often translated from Hebrew, presumably by people whose first language isn't English. There are exceptions but I see this a lot.

amother

Fri, Nov 03 2023, 2:20 pm

[youtube]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz4JqAJbxj0&pp=ygUsU2hvdWxkIHdlIGVuY291cmFnZSBraWRzIHRvIHJlYWQgY29taWMgYm9va3M%3D[/youtube]

Just found this on YouTube. Very interesting. Looks like America got cold feet and that attitude infiltrated the school system.

I see it isn't working. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Ted X talk on why comic books are not in the classroom.