“Comics are a gateway drug to literacy.” ― Art Spiegelman
Week Nine.
Mentor Text.
Mentor Text.
I’m taking a page out of Scott McCloud’s book here
(literally).
But why do I think
it can be a mentor text in the first place? Well, it passes my test (more on that
later) and, probably more importantly, it passes Marchetti’s and O’Dell’s test for
mentor texts. Is it engaging? It’s
comics and wickedly self-referential- what kid can pass up a comic in place of pages
of picture-less words and what cool kid isn’t intrigued by the meta? Does it pass the highlighter test? Okay,
this one is a little harder to address, I’ll give you that. It does, however, give
the students an idea and a method to craft into their own creative ends. Look
at that pause in the fourth and sixth panels. That’s something to try there. Is it accessible to my students? Does it require
extensive scaffolding? The book itself is a crash course in comics, written
for the beginner (and, magically, also for the expert). Each student can work with the text, although
at varying levels of complexity- but that’s okay. Students who struggle with “traditional”
writing may bloom here and finally see for themselves they really can write,
sparking an inspiration that translates back to their “traditional” writing.
Students who struggle here can look for techniques they can translate for writing
styles they are more comfortable with. How
long is the text? This page works great in isolation. It’s one page in one
of nine chapters, where each chapter can also stand as its own text. It can be
as long of a text as students need it to be. Is it mentor text gold? Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics may be older than the students themselves, but
he has a continued written and internet
presence. (These questions are adapted from Figure 2.4 “Questions to Ask of
Potential Mentor Texts” on page 25 of Marchetti’s and O’Dell’s Writing with Mentors.)
This is an opportunity for writers to step out of (or maybe, for some, into) their comfort zones and really have fun with their writing. In breaking some rules of what they understand “academic writing” to be, they can better understand what academic writing can be. There’s potential for fun, for play, and for excitingly novel ideas of thinking and expression. Yet, it remains an exercise in critical thought, analysis, and argumentation. But I hear you: how can comics be a critical essay? McCloud’s book is one answer and example. I offer my own work (below) as another. (I’m finally coming back to how Understanding Comics passes my own mentor text test.) I’ve used McCloud’s Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art as a mentor text in my own critical essays- and in college, at that! This is also why I enthusiastically believe that this is a chance for many students to shine like they may not have been able to before; the essay below made a much better grade than my “traditional” essays.
This is an opportunity for writers to step out of (or maybe, for some, into) their comfort zones and really have fun with their writing. In breaking some rules of what they understand “academic writing” to be, they can better understand what academic writing can be. There’s potential for fun, for play, and for excitingly novel ideas of thinking and expression. Yet, it remains an exercise in critical thought, analysis, and argumentation. But I hear you: how can comics be a critical essay? McCloud’s book is one answer and example. I offer my own work (below) as another. (I’m finally coming back to how Understanding Comics passes my own mentor text test.) I’ve used McCloud’s Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art as a mentor text in my own critical essays- and in college, at that! This is also why I enthusiastically believe that this is a chance for many students to shine like they may not have been able to before; the essay below made a much better grade than my “traditional” essays.
Marchetti, Allison, and Rebekah O'Dell. Writing
with Mentors: How to Reach Every Writer in the Room Using Current, Engaging
Mentor Texts. Heinemann, 2015.
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art.
HarperPerennial, 1994.
and for the included essay:
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art.
HarperPerennial, 1994.
Mitchell, W.J.T. What Do Pictures Want? The Lives and Loves
of Images. University of Chicago Press, 2005.
Wilson, G. Willow, and Adrian Alphona. “Ms. Marvel.” Ed. Sana Amanat. Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal. Marvel, 2015.
Wilson, G. Willow, and Adrian Alphona. “Ms. Marvel.” Ed. Sana Amanat. Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal. Marvel, 2015.
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