How Comic Books Can Change the Way Our Students See Literature: One Teacher’s Perspective

A delicate balance exists between passing on our literary judgments and encouraging students to develop theirs, says Versaci, and the challenge begins in the middle and high school classroom, where teachers must present literature at once in a way that interests students and teaches them to evaluate literature. One way to do this, he suggests, is to use comic books. In this article he details the many merits of using comics and graphic novels in the classroom, suggests how they can be integrated into historical and social issues units, and recommends several titles.