The Use of Graphic Novels to Support Struggling Fifth Grade Student Story Writing

This study focuses on the use of graphic novels to support struggling fifth grade students with story writing skills. Forms of data collected were student interviews, student work, and recorded observations. Three themes emerged from analyzing the data. First, graphic novels increase student motivation and confidence in writing. Second, students gained a knowledge of the relationship between image and text. Third, students improved writing skills in the areas of sequencing, plot, and character development. Teachers should include graphic novels in their literacy curriculum. Graphic novels could be used across all curriculum. Another implication that arose from this study was that creative writing should be included in the writing curriculum. GRAPHIC NOVELS AND STORY WRITING 3 The Use of Graphic Novels to Support Struggling Fifth Grade Student Story Writing The use of comic books and graphic novels have become increasingly popular in today’s classrooms in order to boost motivation and engagement in order to get even the most reluctant readers and writers to pick up a book or a pencil. There have been a few studies showing the impact that this type of literature has had on the motivation of struggling students (Lapp, Wolsey, Fisher & Frey, 2012; Carter, 2009; Gavigan & Albright, 2015). However, most of the studies listed above (Wolsey, Fisher & Frey; Carter, 2009) have only explored the reading side of literacy. The question remains as to how using comic books and graphic novels could impact students’ creativity and make the most reluctant writers start to write. Before we study the effects of graphic novels on writing development, it is important to recognize what a graphic novel actually is. Baird and Jackson (2007) define a successful graphic novel as one that “starts with a stellar story told with words and pictures that augment the story, providing insight the text alone cannot do” (p. 5). Graphic novels combine both the print and image forms of media to make a story. Graphic novels in the context of literacy are not associated with words such as “adult” or “explicit. ” Instead, it has to do with the visual nature or “graphics” of this form of literature. Hughes, King, Perkins, and Fuke (2011) explored the effects of using graphic novels with struggling students and motivation to read and write. They concluded that the use of graphic novels with these struggling students significantly increased student motivation to not only read the graphic novels, but then develop their own comic strip using stories from real life experiences. I have also learned that graphic novels and comic books can be for all ages. Normally, most people would think that comic books and for younger GRAPHIC NOVELS AND STORY WRITING 4 students and graphic novels are for older students. While that is the case much of the time, older students can still get value out of reading comic books. Graphic novels use multiple modalities as the text and image are fused to tell the story (McPherson, 2006). Struggling readers can look at the image and understand the story much easier than if it was all text that they had to decode and try to figure out. The trouble with graphic novels is that they are a relatively new form of literature and some teachers and librarians do not even consider graphic novels to be literature. Many educators, including Griffith (2010) argue that there is a need for further research using graphic novels. That is what this study aims to do. As stated before, graphic novels have been shown to increase reading achievement and motivation. However, this study took it a step further to find out what the impact of using graphic novels in the classroom has on writing skills, specifically story writing. Writing is an often undervalued aspect of literacy. However, writing is so important, not only in school, but in life after high school. There is a reason that there are writing standards included in curriculums in order to be college and career ready. Nowacek (2011) argues that writing is important in many ways, especially because writing is the primary basis upon which your work, your education, and your intellect will be judged throughout your life. Writing is portable and visible. It makes your thinking become visible. Fields, Hatala, and Nauert (2011) had a similar view on the importance of writing as they argued that writing skills are essential to being successful in college and further into your career. Whether a student likes to write or not, the student needs to know how important these writing skills will be as they go further in their learning. The purpose of this study was to explore how graphic novels can support struggling fifth grade student story writing skills. The study aims to show how students can use graphic novels as mentor texts in order to learn and practice the literary elements and writing skills needed to be GRAPHIC NOVELS AND STORY WRITING 5 successful with story writing. This study is important because it shows how a new and upcoming genre can have a positive impact on students’ literacy achievement. I conducted pre and post study interviews, took anecdotal notes and audio recordings during each session, and collected student work samples in order to analyze the impact of the use of graphic novels to improve these students’ writing. Three themes emerged from analyzing the data. The first was that students showed an increased interest and engagement with the use of graphic novels to improve their writing. These students also showed an increased level of confidence as we ventured deeper into the study. The second theme was that students were accurately able to connect the pictures that they drew with the text that they wrote, showing a good command of a specific skill needed to be a good graphic novel story writer. The third theme was that these students gained a better knowledge of story writing skills including sequence and organization, plot, and character development. A few implications arose due to my findings in this study as it pertains to literacy instruction. The first implication calls for the use of graphic novels in the classroom to improve reading and writing achievement and engagement. This study proved that graphic novels can be used to improve writing skills. This study also showed that the students had an increased level of engagement and interest in the topic because of the use of graphic novels in instruction. Another implication calls for an increased use of creative writing in the classroom in order to improve writing skills. The students used story writing in this study and improved in many areas of writing that could be transferred to other genres of writing. Theoretical Framework Before looking at the theories that will be used to guide this study, it is important to know what literacy is and how literacy is acquired. Larson and Marsh (2005) define literacy as the ability to decode, encode, and make meanings using written text and symbols. That is a pretty GRAPHIC NOVELS AND STORY WRITING 6 tightly constructed definition. Larson and Marsh’s definition means that a good student of literacy has strong ability to spell and figure out words along with read them. Also, a strong literacy student can make meaning and form connections with the text based on their past experiences. The Larson and Marsh (2005) definition is a very narrow definition compared to Gee’s definition. Gee defines literacy in a more universally relatable way. Gee (2003) defined literacy as “the control of secondary discourses or secondary uses of language” (p. 542). First, one must understand what a discourse is. Gee (1996) defined discourse as “connected stretches of language which hang together so as to make sense to some community of people” (p. 90). A discourse is a community in which you speak and act within certain values and viewpoints. Another characteristic of discourses is that they are resistant to internal criticism and selfscrutiny because opposing viewpoints from individuals would make those individuals considered to be outside of the discourse. The first Discourse that we learn is our primary discourse. Primary discourse is usually focused on our home and families. Secondary Discourses are learned through our social institutions such as school, church, and work. There are two types of Secondary Discourses. No matter what type of Discourse that we participate in, graphic images are all around us that need to be understood and analyzed in order to participate in that Discourse. The first type of Secondary Discourse is Dominant Discourse, which can allow for acquiring social goods and social status. The Dominant Discourse in society is the majority or most popular among the whole of the population. Non-Dominant Discourses do not help an individual with their social status, but it does give them a sense of inclusion in their own social network. Furthermore, literacy development occurs through the process of acquisition and learning. It requires exposure to the concept in many different settings. Acquisition and learning are not the same. Acquisition is how literacy can be mastered, not through learning. Gee (2003) GRAPHIC NOVELS AND STORY WRITING 7 states that in our culture, we often confuse the importance of acquisition versus learning and we don’t get what we thought we would out of our literacy instruction. Literacy acquisition can be defined as follows: “Children acquire literacy as they participate in a literate society” (Goodman, 2001, p. 316). Children develop their literacy through their experiences, and their attitudes towards literacy as they interact with many different groups or discourses. Goodman (2001) highlights that there are three roots of literacy each with smaller branches within them. The first root is the functions and forms that the literacy events serve. This highlights the fact that children develop both their reading and writing as they participate in these meaningful events and