Anyone can read and write, which is a superpower. Why not learn from superheroes? Comic books are a great way to improve literacy skills for both children and adults.
A panel of educators shared their knowledge at the Comic-Con 2016 in San Diego, California. Lalitha Nataraj (a panelist and librarian) said, “Idioms and homonyms and homophones–you see that clearly in text-to-pictures play.” Comics are amazing because of that.
Another panelist uses Chris Claremont’s X-Men comic to illustrate one of the most important roles comic books have in literacy. You have Colossus. He’s a big, heavy metal guy. It’s only a 10-cent word, but you get a great sense of the meaning of the word “colossus.” Banshee is a screaming machine. These characters embody the vocabulary words they represent. It’s fun to learn new vocabulary words and contextual clues.” James Bucky Carter, author of Building Literacy Connections using Graphic Novels, said.
There are many ways comic books can be used as a way to teach learners of all ages.
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Motivation
Books stuffed with text can intimidate adults who are unable to read or have low reading skills. Comic books have a limited amount of text per page that acts as a stepping stone to more complicated texts. These small amounts of text allow readers to see a lot more details than they can decode.
Reading comprehension
Comic books’ sequential art provides the basis for reading comprehension. It’s not possible to understand every word of a comic book the same way as you would when reading a novel. Comic books require that you can read between the lines. Draw interpretations and combine the information. The reader can understand and visualize the story by interfacing with text and images. This will help them improve their comprehension of the text and images.
Dialog
Comic books allow readers to engage in a lot of dialogue. This is especially valuable for English language learners. The text is short and simple, while the images show various expressions throughout the dialogues. It is helpful for someone who doesn’t know English to read the text and to see the expressions of the characters to understand the meaning of the dialogue.
Writing
Comic books include basic story elements. These include setting, characters, and resolution. One paragraph is one panel in a comic. Adult learners can enjoy comic books as a great way to learn. Each panel will contain text, but not all panels will. The setting, characters, and so forth are all in place. With the setting, characters, and other elements in place, learners can begin to practice writing by taking what they see into consideration and creating their own paragraphs.
Vocabulary
Comic books, as mentioned earlier, provide a foundation for learning vocabulary. Comics have many characters that are unique but also include many nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Readers have the option to learning new terms by word usage and illustrative support.
Comic Books are now part of the Literacy Agenda
Adult literacy can be dominated by comic books. Communities such as f95zone comics allow adult enthusiasts to explore the benefits of adult-focused comics that result in the benefits we have discussed here.
The inventory of educational materials for instructors may include online courses, books, workbooks, and novels, but it is not usually comic books. You might be surprised at the effectiveness of comic books as a learning tool for advanced readers and writers. Learners can then have their own superpowers.