Reread

The assignment was to re-read a section of the readings that were assigned for last week. Well, in all honesty the section I skimmed through was the comic section. I never liked comics as a kid, and always found it difficult to read the dialogue and look at the pictures in order to get a complete understanding of the plot. I also had this preconceived notion that comic reading was meant for the kids who just couldn't or refused to read more refined literature, such as the American Girl series. Needless to say, graphic novels have never been my friends. At least that is what I thought when I first started out reading the "Time Frames" section for a second time.

The more the little time character broke down that initial comic about the photograph, the more I got into what the graphic was saying. On saturday morning, when the funny sections came out I always tried to find humor in the comics that my dad loved to read. As hard as I tried I could not read into the pictures and connect it to the humor in the words. But, once the picture was being broken down into several different meanings that reflected the concept of time, or lack their of, I was able to wrap my head around the comic or graphic. The explanation of the different symbology and line placement gave me the tools that I needed in order to conceptualize the lapsed time within the sequence. It was as if I was being handed the manual to the medium I had always misunderstood. Therefore, by the end of the strip I had a fuller understanding of what the artist/author was trying to accomplish. It broadened my whole world to the idea of graphics as a form of literacy. This concept can be used in several different ways in the classroom. I can't wait to have my students create a miniature graphic novel or comic using all of their vocabulary words. Or have them create a comic out of the plot of a novel. This is a whole different way to engage students that I never would have thought of before, if I had not tried to read the section a second time.