Teaching visual literacy: Using comic books, graphic novels, anime, cartoons, and more to develop comprehension and thinking skills.

By Nancy Frey

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I did not read all this book because many chapters move beyond what I was focusing on ‘graphic novels for science’. Although much of the research withing these other chapters probably overlapped due to the visual aspect. I was not interested in movies and videos, since they are already used in the classroom, and the focus was on literature. Here Frey addressed Paula Kluth “Joyful Learning” in how “visual literacy may succeed by helping students with disabilities demonstrate their knowledge. Many of those students exhibit clear visual orientation, so they are better equipped to understand and remember content when they can see it represented visually. (Frey 2008)”
This statement as well my other research articles provided incite to my inquiry about the use of graphic novels for supporting struggling students and gratefully disproved my UNM Physiology professor who Swore up and down that their was no such thing as learning styles. Yet all the evidence shows that students with disabilities visual education works better.   
I discovered that visual acuity is more binding than just reading. It is easier for us to view and interpret images and scenes than to translate words and letters. Being a Paleontologist I can connect to this reasoning. Our ancestors focused mainly on visual, trying to spot hiding predators in the bush, seeing which foods are ripe and good to eat. We did not develop letters until only a few thousand years ago, and even those early letters represented the shape of the words meaning        =house or home. On top of this we now need to translate the letters, incorporate the appropriate sound to them and then translated the word and meaning. Its no wonder visual images are easier to remember. We don’t need to break down as much. We see a bush full of leaves we know it’s a bush. If we see a drooling face sticking out we instantly realize it’s not just a the bush but danger. Our eyes were not designed for reading but interpreting our surrounding
Frey  addresses theories that are” based primarily on human physiology in relation to color and perception of forms and our particular cognition (with frequent mention of Paivo's dual model (1978) which remains an undeniable reference in the field of cognitive psychology).” My students admitted that they felt they learned chemistry reading “the cartoon guide to chemistry by Larry Gonick”. Unfortunately, due to the school closures caused by Covid 19, I was unable to assess if reading this graphic novel actually helped these students improve in class. But according to this research it most probably helped them to understand the subject and will help them in Highschool next semester because they understand more than they might have without it, giving them a little boost of more knowledge they can apply in their next science class. (and since they still have the book, they can continue to use it as a reference)