The election may be over, but the policy discussions that came up between both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in all those speeches and debates — not to mention among politicians, pollsters, pundits, and the American electorate — will continue to be fodder for prognosticating the direction toward which this nation will lean.
All of that pondering going on about the causes of crime, poverty, the economy, international relations, racism, and so on can be a springboard for meaningful discussion in the classroom.
Interestingly enough, graphic novels that explore these topics can help students grasp complex ideas, especially if the medium becomes required reading. According to a 2010 College and Research Libraries article, “Comics are a vital and growing medium with importance to scholars investigating both popular culture and culture in a larger sense. They are a reflection of popular thought and concerns …” [1]
In addition, the use of graphic novels to help students think critically helps them to become “media literate.” According to the Media Literacy Project (found at https://medialiteracyproject.org/), a media literate student has “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media.” Here are a few suggestions for tackling some of the topics from the 2016 presidential elections through books that contain sequential art:
- About the economy: Economix: How and Why Our Economy Works (and Doesn’t Work), in Words and Pictures by Michael Goodwin and Dan E. Burr (2012, Harry N. Abrams)
- About the idea of media bias: The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media by Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld (2011, W.W. Norton & Co.)
- About racism in America: Incognegro by Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece (2008, Vertigo)
- About the United States’ actions in the world: A People’s History of American Empire by Howard Zinn and Paul Buhle (2008 by Metropolitan Books)
Image courtesy Economixcomix.com. Learn more about the graphic novel Economix: How and Why Our Economy Works (and Doesn’t Work), in Words and Pictures at http://economixcomix.com.
- Downey, E.M., and Davidson, K. (2012). Graphic novels in graduate-level library and information studies literature and materials courses. New Review of Children’s Literature & Librarianship, 18(1), 67-83.
