Today’s Monday Motivator post is written by Stephanie Reid and Dani Kachorsky. Stephanie taught eighth and seventh-grade Reading and Language Arts in Wisconsin for 12 years. She also taught students in grades 6-12 in England for three years. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Literacy Education at the University of Cincinnati.
Dani has 15 years of teaching and research experience in the field of literacy education. She has taught at the middle school, high school, and university levels. Currently, Dani teaches English, Research, and “the comic book class” at a high school in Phoenix, Arizona. She also hosts the Reading in the Gutter, a podcast that bridges the gap between comics and education.
We love to read visual and multimodal texts, and our research together has explored how students interpret picturebooks, graphic novels, and multimodal novels.
Dani has 15 years of teaching and research experience in the field of literacy education. She has taught at the middle school, high school, and university levels. Currently, Dani teaches English, Research, and “the comic book class” at a high school in Phoenix, Arizona. She also hosts the Reading in the Gutter, a podcast that bridges the gap between comics and education.
We love to read visual and multimodal texts, and our research together has explored how students interpret picturebooks, graphic novels, and multimodal novels.
Over the years, we have thought a lot about multimodal texts, which are made up of images and written language. Together, we have examined TIME magazine covers focused on education, non-fiction graphic novels in Science and history classrooms, multimodal novels in a middle school Language Arts classroom, and the adaptation of written language novels into graphic novels.
Typically, we embrace multimodality and multimodal texts. However, the recent trend of adapting graphic novels into audiobooks caught us by surprise. We admit that when we heard about this trend, it seemed odd to us. We could not imagine how a predominantly visual format was turned into solely audio text. We wanted to learn more about these audio versions of text and understand how they made graphic novels accessible to readers through sound alone–through spoken language, music, and sound effects.
In this post, we want to share some classroom ideas that might support students in analyzing a graphic novel extract and a graphic novel audio excerpt. We also want to introduce the idea of the 360° reading experience, where students experience the printed language and images together with the audio soundscape. The graphic novel we will focus on as an exemplar text is New Kid by Jerry Craft. New Kid is an award-winning graphic novel with an audiobook adaptation that was published simultaneously in 2019.
Introducing the Print & Audio Versions of New Kid by Jerry Craft
New Kid follows the experiences of Jordan Banks, a middle schooler whose parents send him to a private school against his wishes. Jordan would rather attend art school to pursue his passion for drawing or, at least, would like to stay at his neighborhood school in Washington Heights with his friends. At the prestigious Riverdale Academy, Jordan is one of the few students of Color and one of the few students on financial aid. As Jordan navigates his new environment, he faces questions about his identity, confronts the racism of peers and teachers, and wrestles with being the new kid.
The graphic novel variant of New Kid follows a familiar dramatic plot structure, occasionally interrupted by two-page spreads from Jordan’s own notebook featuring his illustrated commentary about his life. The first of these, for example, displays monstrous, anthropomorphic school supplies chasing students around the city to force them to return to school.
The audiobook variant of New Kid features a cast of nine actors voicing various characters. The audiobook employs a range of sound effects and musical components, which add depth and dimension to the narrative. For instance, during the opening sequence of the audiobook, a combination of footstep sound effects and audio fading suggests to the reader-listener that Jordan’s mother leaves a room. At times, the audiobook also incorporates additional content to the graphic novel in an effort to account for the visual nature of the comics format. For example, during the aforementioned school supply scene, Jordan’s father, Chuck, asks Jordan, “Is that a history textbook eating a student?” (Craft, 2019, 00:01:54). This paints an image in the reader-listener’s mind, adding context that would otherwise go missing.
Preparing to Teach: Choose a Dynamic Text Excerpt
To prepare for this analytical work, we recommend that teachers select a short text extract from the story that students will both read and listen to. We recommend choosing a dynamic section of text. Teachers could pick a moment of significance in the plot, an excerpt with visuals that catch their attention, or a section of the audio where diegetic or non-diegetic sounds seem particularly meaningful. Diegetic sounds are sounds that the characters in the story’s fictional world might hear. Non-diegetic sounds are sounds that readers hear but the characters do not (e.g., background music or musical interludes).
From New Kid, we recommend selecting Chapter 1: The War of Art. This chapter introduces the protagonist, Jordan Banks, as well as his parents and his school guide, Liam, another student in Jordan’s grade.
This text segment is a particularly dynamic 6-minute segment / page sequence. The sequence features two scenes from Jordan’s sketchbook–the back-to-school scene previously described and a scene with instructions for how to do a handshake correctly–which are referred to as “sketchbook break[s]” (Craft, 2019, 00:03:06) in the audiobook.
Other auditory features include the non-diegetic naming of the chapter title; diegetic sounds such as heels tapping on hardwood, pages ruffling in a notebook, and the clicking of a manual camera; the purposeful fading in and out of sound effects to simulate physical space within the story world; and music–which can be argued as both diegetic and non-diegetic.
In the physical book, the black-and-white nature of these scenes within the full-color comic calls attention to these double-page spreads as being both internal and external to the narrative arc. The graphic novel utilizes a range of comic book elements, including panels with and without borders, speech and thought bubbles, caption boxes, onomatopoeia/sound effect words, and a variety of gutters (i.e., the white space between panels). There are several shifts in visual perspective, sometimes positioning the reader-viewer as an outside observer and sometimes as a character within the text. At times, visual and textual information are contained within panel borders, but there are also instances where image, onomatopoeia, and speech bubbles break such barriers. While most panels adhere to grid-like structure, some are drawn at odd angles.
Analysis Layer One: Analyzing the Graphic Novel
For this first phase, we recommend that students complete a first draft reading of the text to orient students to the narrative (thank you, Kelly Gallagher, for this reading draft notion!). Then, we recommend inviting students to complete a second draft reading response to the text. You could prompt students to think about the graphic novel extract using the questions listed below. Please note that question three’s sequence of prompts is borrowed from Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine’s Visual Thinking Strategies:
Analysis Layer Two: Analyzing the Audiobook
The next phase is to provide space for students to think about the audiobook version of the story. Again, after one listen-through to orient themselves to the audiobook extract, invite students to listen a second time. The following questions might help students develop their reader responses. Again, we thank Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine for the sequence of prompts listed here in question three
Bringing Both Versions Together: The 360° Reading Experience
During the first two layers of analysis, students focused on single-format reading experiences. For this final 360° reading experience phase, the graphic novel and audiobook experiences are brought together so that students have the opportunity to experience them simultaneously. Invite students to both read and listen during the first draft reading. Follow with a second immersive 360° reading experience, during which we recommend guiding students’ responses using the following questions:
Fine-Tuning Students’ Text Analysis
Finally, if you have curricular time and space, you may want to engage students in a more detailed analysis of these text extracts. For Dani, who teaches AP students, literary analysis is something that students need to practice and feel confident about. Dani has also engaged students in studying and thinking about graphic novels and their audiobook counterparts in both a Comic Book elective class and a Research Club for students. We developed an analysis template that Dani used to support her students in constructing the kinds of detailed notes that build towards detailed literary analyses–especially as it is hard to annotate audiobooks. Feel free to use and adapt!
Additional Recommended Texts
First, we definitely recommend When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed. The graphic novel shares the lives Omar and his younger brother, Hussein, lead in a refugee camp in Kenya. The brothers’ relationship is centered as the trajectories of their lives unfold. A compelling dynamic text excerpt would be the opening pages of the graphic novel before Chapter 1 starts.
Second, we recommend White Bird: A Wonder Story by R. J. Palacio, a historical fiction graphic novel prequel to Wonder. This text focuses on the experiences of Sara Blum, grandmother to Julian Albans, the class bully in Wonder. Her story of hiding alongside a former classmate she once shunned during World War II in Nazi-occupied France contains echoes of Julian’s story. The dynamic closing sequence of the text offers opportunities to discuss the visual metaphor of the white bird and what is lost in terms of context. Some images in the graphic novel are not accounted for in the audiobook.
Third, we recommend Nimona by ND Stevenson. This fantasy narrative tells the story of teenage shapeshifter, Nimona, and her supervillain mentor, Lord Ballister Blackheart, as they try to prove that the heroes among them are not as heroic as they seem. The fight scenes in this text offer particularly dynamic moments for visual and auditory analysis. The addition of a recent film adaptation on Netflix provides yet another narrative medium for analysis.
Typically, we embrace multimodality and multimodal texts. However, the recent trend of adapting graphic novels into audiobooks caught us by surprise. We admit that when we heard about this trend, it seemed odd to us. We could not imagine how a predominantly visual format was turned into solely audio text. We wanted to learn more about these audio versions of text and understand how they made graphic novels accessible to readers through sound alone–through spoken language, music, and sound effects.
In this post, we want to share some classroom ideas that might support students in analyzing a graphic novel extract and a graphic novel audio excerpt. We also want to introduce the idea of the 360° reading experience, where students experience the printed language and images together with the audio soundscape. The graphic novel we will focus on as an exemplar text is New Kid by Jerry Craft. New Kid is an award-winning graphic novel with an audiobook adaptation that was published simultaneously in 2019.
Introducing the Print & Audio Versions of New Kid by Jerry Craft
New Kid follows the experiences of Jordan Banks, a middle schooler whose parents send him to a private school against his wishes. Jordan would rather attend art school to pursue his passion for drawing or, at least, would like to stay at his neighborhood school in Washington Heights with his friends. At the prestigious Riverdale Academy, Jordan is one of the few students of Color and one of the few students on financial aid. As Jordan navigates his new environment, he faces questions about his identity, confronts the racism of peers and teachers, and wrestles with being the new kid.
The graphic novel variant of New Kid follows a familiar dramatic plot structure, occasionally interrupted by two-page spreads from Jordan’s own notebook featuring his illustrated commentary about his life. The first of these, for example, displays monstrous, anthropomorphic school supplies chasing students around the city to force them to return to school.
The audiobook variant of New Kid features a cast of nine actors voicing various characters. The audiobook employs a range of sound effects and musical components, which add depth and dimension to the narrative. For instance, during the opening sequence of the audiobook, a combination of footstep sound effects and audio fading suggests to the reader-listener that Jordan’s mother leaves a room. At times, the audiobook also incorporates additional content to the graphic novel in an effort to account for the visual nature of the comics format. For example, during the aforementioned school supply scene, Jordan’s father, Chuck, asks Jordan, “Is that a history textbook eating a student?” (Craft, 2019, 00:01:54). This paints an image in the reader-listener’s mind, adding context that would otherwise go missing.
Preparing to Teach: Choose a Dynamic Text Excerpt
To prepare for this analytical work, we recommend that teachers select a short text extract from the story that students will both read and listen to. We recommend choosing a dynamic section of text. Teachers could pick a moment of significance in the plot, an excerpt with visuals that catch their attention, or a section of the audio where diegetic or non-diegetic sounds seem particularly meaningful. Diegetic sounds are sounds that the characters in the story’s fictional world might hear. Non-diegetic sounds are sounds that readers hear but the characters do not (e.g., background music or musical interludes).
From New Kid, we recommend selecting Chapter 1: The War of Art. This chapter introduces the protagonist, Jordan Banks, as well as his parents and his school guide, Liam, another student in Jordan’s grade.
This text segment is a particularly dynamic 6-minute segment / page sequence. The sequence features two scenes from Jordan’s sketchbook–the back-to-school scene previously described and a scene with instructions for how to do a handshake correctly–which are referred to as “sketchbook break[s]” (Craft, 2019, 00:03:06) in the audiobook.
Other auditory features include the non-diegetic naming of the chapter title; diegetic sounds such as heels tapping on hardwood, pages ruffling in a notebook, and the clicking of a manual camera; the purposeful fading in and out of sound effects to simulate physical space within the story world; and music–which can be argued as both diegetic and non-diegetic.
In the physical book, the black-and-white nature of these scenes within the full-color comic calls attention to these double-page spreads as being both internal and external to the narrative arc. The graphic novel utilizes a range of comic book elements, including panels with and without borders, speech and thought bubbles, caption boxes, onomatopoeia/sound effect words, and a variety of gutters (i.e., the white space between panels). There are several shifts in visual perspective, sometimes positioning the reader-viewer as an outside observer and sometimes as a character within the text. At times, visual and textual information are contained within panel borders, but there are also instances where image, onomatopoeia, and speech bubbles break such barriers. While most panels adhere to grid-like structure, some are drawn at odd angles.
Analysis Layer One: Analyzing the Graphic Novel
For this first phase, we recommend that students complete a first draft reading of the text to orient students to the narrative (thank you, Kelly Gallagher, for this reading draft notion!). Then, we recommend inviting students to complete a second draft reading response to the text. You could prompt students to think about the graphic novel extract using the questions listed below. Please note that question three’s sequence of prompts is borrowed from Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine’s Visual Thinking Strategies:
- What aspects of the story resonate?
- What words or images are significant to you and why?
- What do you notice? Why do you say that? What else do you see?
- How do you describe the experience of reading the graphic novel - what do you notice about yourself as a reader-viewer?
Analysis Layer Two: Analyzing the Audiobook
The next phase is to provide space for students to think about the audiobook version of the story. Again, after one listen-through to orient themselves to the audiobook extract, invite students to listen a second time. The following questions might help students develop their reader responses. Again, we thank Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine for the sequence of prompts listed here in question three
- What aspects of the story resonate?
- What words, audio, or sound effects are significant to you and why?
- What do you notice? Why do you say that? What else do you hear?
- How do you describe the experience of listening to the graphic novel - what do you notice about yourself as a reader-listener?
Bringing Both Versions Together: The 360° Reading Experience
During the first two layers of analysis, students focused on single-format reading experiences. For this final 360° reading experience phase, the graphic novel and audiobook experiences are brought together so that students have the opportunity to experience them simultaneously. Invite students to both read and listen during the first draft reading. Follow with a second immersive 360° reading experience, during which we recommend guiding students’ responses using the following questions:
- How do you describe the experience of listening to the graphic novel as you read?
- What do you notice about yourself as a reader-viewer-listener?
- Did the story resonate in different ways for you? If so, how?
- What new / different / expanded noticings or ideas did you think about?
- Were there instances where one format disrupted or interfered with your connection to the story or immersion in the storyworld?
Fine-Tuning Students’ Text Analysis
Finally, if you have curricular time and space, you may want to engage students in a more detailed analysis of these text extracts. For Dani, who teaches AP students, literary analysis is something that students need to practice and feel confident about. Dani has also engaged students in studying and thinking about graphic novels and their audiobook counterparts in both a Comic Book elective class and a Research Club for students. We developed an analysis template that Dani used to support her students in constructing the kinds of detailed notes that build towards detailed literary analyses–especially as it is hard to annotate audiobooks. Feel free to use and adapt!
Additional Recommended Texts
First, we definitely recommend When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed. The graphic novel shares the lives Omar and his younger brother, Hussein, lead in a refugee camp in Kenya. The brothers’ relationship is centered as the trajectories of their lives unfold. A compelling dynamic text excerpt would be the opening pages of the graphic novel before Chapter 1 starts.
Second, we recommend White Bird: A Wonder Story by R. J. Palacio, a historical fiction graphic novel prequel to Wonder. This text focuses on the experiences of Sara Blum, grandmother to Julian Albans, the class bully in Wonder. Her story of hiding alongside a former classmate she once shunned during World War II in Nazi-occupied France contains echoes of Julian’s story. The dynamic closing sequence of the text offers opportunities to discuss the visual metaphor of the white bird and what is lost in terms of context. Some images in the graphic novel are not accounted for in the audiobook.
Third, we recommend Nimona by ND Stevenson. This fantasy narrative tells the story of teenage shapeshifter, Nimona, and her supervillain mentor, Lord Ballister Blackheart, as they try to prove that the heroes among them are not as heroic as they seem. The fight scenes in this text offer particularly dynamic moments for visual and auditory analysis. The addition of a recent film adaptation on Netflix provides yet another narrative medium for analysis.
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