Comic Books by:Damatha Johnson
I enjoyed reading Versaci’s article on comic books and watching the TED video. The two scholars overall claim is that it all boils down to cognition. Vision is key because it inflate the imagination and thinking of an individual and how they perceive things. Everyone’s perspective of the world is different and unique and important. In the article, Versaci says that reading comic books can develop analytical and critical thinking skills in students and change how students see literature. It also claims that reading comic books in classrooms encourage students to think more deeply about other works or genres of art and how everyone can defined their own literacy quality. Similar to the TED video, Scott McCloud stated, “Media provides us a window back into our world”. Comic books is another form of art that can expand one’s imagination and cause one to feel something different and brings them back to reality and look at the world in multiple ways. Vision and Cognition are the two main focal points that we need in order to perceive, adapt or “try” to understand, and be open minded to this ever changing world
Reading the comic books for our genre study was different than reading regular chapter books because reading regular books forces me to come up with my own interpretation of scenes in my mind. Whereas the comic book provided pictures for me which made me feel like I was watching a movie. Reading comic books changed how I read because I did not put the book down, I read the entire book in one setting because there were no long paragraphs that went on and on that caused me to wonder off in space. If I were to have had a chapter book, I would have taken breaks in between and probably wouldn’t have finish it(depending on the book).
I can imagine using comic books in the classroom by having students come up with their own form of comic books about a prompt I may have them do. Instead of writing in a journal about their weekend or what exciting trip that they have been on, they can put it in comic book format and share with the classroom.