Teaching Graphic Novels in High School

I'm going to begin teaching Maus again and I want to start to create some deep analysis lessons of specific pages. I'm interested in ideas on what you might address. I'm obviously going to talk about The near full body shot we get of his father over multiple frames. I'm going to examine how the father is in shadow, how his arms (complete with prisoner number tattoo) completely surround Art. I'm going to address mom's presence in the room through the use of the photograph. How dad is riding a bicycle that never takes him anywhere. I'm going to address the use of the round frame to indicate a shift in time. What other things would you talk about? Any ideas for how a lesson on this might work?

Question: For those of you doing independent reading in your Graphic Novel classes, how do you handle these assignments?

- How long do you give them to read a single independent novel?

- What sort of assignments do you assign related to these novels?

Here is one of the projects I am working on and I wondered if others might be interested.

I am trying to write notes for the Understanding Comics (McCloud) text. Is there any interest in a completed copy of this? Would anyone be interested in collaborating so we each don't have to do every chapter?

UC - Chapter 2 “The Vocabulary of Comics” p. 24-59 (36 pages)

Icon definition - symbols / language, science, communication / (p.27)

Non-pictorial icons vs pictures / level of abstraction (p.28)

Photorealistic to cartoon (p.29)

Cartooning - amplification through simplification (p.30)

Universality of cartoon imagery (p.31)

Converting shapes to faces (p. 32) - HAVE STUDENTS TRY THIS IN CLASS

Cartoons allow us to see yourselves because we fill the vacuum - universal identification, simplicity, childlike features. (p. 36)

Whole bodies tell more of the story (p.37)

Interaction with inanimate objects / clothing changes the way we are perceived (p. 38)

Objects can become an extension of our identity (p. 40) - GIVE STUDENTS A LIST OF TRAITS AND ASK WHAT OBJECTS THEY COULD USE TO DENOTE THAT TRAIT

Objects possess separate identities / realism has an impact (p. 41)

Viewer identification makes cartoons popular / realistic backgrounds (p.42)

Masking a character into a sensual world. NOTE THE SIMPLICITY OF THE CHARACTER VS THE EXQUISITE DETAIL OF THE BACKGROUND. (p. 43)

In Japan, some characters are drawn realistically to objectify them, emphasizing their “otherness” from the reader. (p.44)

Are cartoons too simple to be literature? (p. 45)

Iconic abstractions scale (p.46)

Words, pictures, and other icons are the vocabulary of a language called comics.(p. 47)

Artists vs writers (p. 48)

Pictures are received and writing is perceived (p. 49)

Introduction of the picture plane. (p.51)

Picture plane full chart, (p. 52-53)

Greetings. I teach a high school Graphic Novel course. I would love to establish this page as a place for people to share lessons, collaborate, and build a stronger curriculum.

My primary texts are Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, and The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman.