Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
When it comes to using new and innovative tools in teaching and learning, comic
strips provide several elements that can greatly benefit students of different ages.
The most apparent benefit of using comics in classrooms is their abilities to reach
out to different audiences. Furthermore, comic strips can improve students
engagement and learning in general. The following are some instructional
elements of using comic strips in todays classrooms that can positively play a
big role in learning and acquiring knowledge.
Humorous
Comic strips have the ability to convey messages in humorous and fun ways. s
a math teacher, one of the difficulties that students have is to associate math with
fun. Thus, ! believe that comic strips are an efficient way to mi" fun with learning
math concepts. For instance, in the e"ample below, the comic strip illustrates the
concept of imaginary numbers in mathematics through the use of characters in a
humorous conte"t. #y definition, an imaginary number when squared gives a
negative number, and the illustration below does an e"cellent $ob introducing the
concept of imaginary numbers through the use of numbered characters.
Source: http://www.math-problem-solving.com/funny_math_cartoons.html
Visual
!n a research study aimed to compare te"t to images, %ones &'())* found that
comics+ visual quality increases learning. !n fact, several different researches that
!ve come across in the past all agree on the findings that image and visual
representations can help improve students problem solving skills and
capabilities. Comic strips are a perfect mi"ture of images and te"t, which is very
beneficial to visual learners in particular. ,owever, given the quality and
characteristics of learners nowadays who depend on learning via various visual
tools, comic strips can provide much similar learning qualities. !n fact, the
implementation of colors, different backgrounds, and uniquely designed
characters can help both engagement and attention. lthough it is two
dimensional in nature, comic strips can give the illusion of the mobility of its
characters as well as more alive facial and gesture e"pressions.
The e"ample below is a great representation of certain geometry concepts
through comics. -sing role.play, the /wife triangle0 is a right triangle &(1 degree
triangle* that happens to be always right &as in what most husbands would say
about their spouses in real life*. The character gets the readers attentions about
different concepts and math terminologies such as hypotenuse, obtuse, and
isosceles. ! think this particular connection of certain math concepts to real life
through characters can definitely make learning math more alive and engaging,
not to mention that it can greatly help minimi2e the math an"iety among math
students.
http344www.pinterest.com4pin45''61617)'''6'8584
Permanent
9ang &811:* mentions how comics can be considered permanent, visual
components. !n other words, the /visual permanence0 of comics empowers the
readers to read at their own pace. 9ang &811:* makes his argument using the
e"ample of film and animation; for these two mediums he noted that learners do
not have any control over the pace of the scenes and sequences since the movie
producers dictate them. ,owever, in comics the pace of learning can only be
determined with how fast the learner is moving his eyes across the page.
Therefore, students are empowered to choose the pace that suits their learning
needs. ! personally find 9angs argument quite interesting due to the fact that as
a non.native speaker of <nglish, ! had always found comics to be an e"cellent
medium to learn the <nglish language. !t is true that animations and films in
general are also e"cellent tools to improve listening and pronunciation skills, ! did
find it difficult at times to follow along and in most cases had hard times capturing
words and vocabulary. Through comics, however, not only new language
learners can take their time reading through the dialogue, but they can also re.
read them as many times as they see fit.
The following are two good e"amples of how to incorporate comics in an <%=
class. !n e"ample ', <%= students can read the dialogue on their own and
e"plore the use of new vocabulary in an authentic conte"t. For instance, even
though the reader might struggle with some words or vocabulary, the facial
e"pressions and gestures of the characters can greatly help the learner
understand them through conte"t.
Example 1
Example 2
!n e"ample 8, the teacher can take a different approach. =earners can be asked
to fill in the blanks and be creative with the dialogue. s an <%= teacher, ! think
this method is very efficient to promote creativity and engagement.
Popular
nother important element of comics is that it is popular in this generation as
well. !n fact, >orrison, #ryan, and Chilcoat &8118* suggest that, by incorporating
popular culture into the curriculum, teachers can bridge the separation many
students feel between their lives in and out of school. %imilarly, the idea of
integrating i?ads into todays classrooms have proven to be a successful
approach due to the fact that learners nowadays are familiar with that specific
technology. The idea of integrating whats popular and engaging to students
outside of schools in the classrooms nowadays constitutes an important element
of why comics would make an e"cellent instructional tool.
References
>orrison, T., #ryan, @., A Chilcoat, @. &8118*. -sing student.generated comic
books in the classroom. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 45, 76B.757.
%ones, W. &'())*. The comics and instructional method. Journal of Educational
Sociology, 18, 8:8.8)1.
9ang, @. &811:*. Comics in education. Cetrieved from 3
http344www.humblecomics.com4comicsedu4inde".html