Graphic novels prove to be valuable educational tools in many disciplines

One of our favorite forms of literacy–the graphic novel–is expanding its scope yet again, this time to the medical field.

According to a blog post in The Pharmaceutical Journal, medical graphic novels are filling a niche for both patients and doctors.

“Graphic pathographies,” visual narratives of illnesses, can provide patients with important information about what to expect while giving doctors a glimpse into the day-to-day lives of their patients.

Dr. Ian Williams, a general practitioner in Wales and the founder of the website Graphic Medicine, is at the forefront of this movement. He initiated the 2010 conference Comics and Medicine: Medical Narrative in Graphic Novels, and is working to organize the 2011 conference.

Maupin House author James Bucky Carter, author of Super-Powered Word Study and editor of Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novels, will be a panelist at the 2011 conference.

He plans to discuss the role that comics have played, and continue to play, in regards to social education.

“Comics art has been used for direct educational purposes for decades,” Carter said, citing examples like comics published by DC Comics and distributed in war zones where Superman might help locals properly and safely identify, understand, and report landmines.

“[This genre of graphic novels] is just a continuation of the rich and long legacy that sequential art narratives have regarding education, indoctrination, and social influence,” he said. “It’s more evidence that the form can be used to grow multiple types of literacies.”

While graphic novels like Mom’s Cancer provide innovative methods of introducing cancer patients and their families to aspects of dealing with the illness, works like Carter’s two books and Katie Monnin’s books Teaching Graphic Novels and Teaching Early Reader Comics and Graphic Novels introduce children of all ages to reading concepts that build the foundations of literacy.

Monnin’s most recent title, Teaching Early Reader Comics and Graphic Novels, provides teachers with standards-based, strategic approaches to teach print-text and image literacies together.

She provides examples from a wide variety of comics and graphic novels, plus recommended reading lists, supplementing these with sample lesson plans, resource lists, and the IRA/NCTE standards each activity corresponds to, making it easy for teachers to seamlessly implement graphic novels into their reading curriculum.

Graphic novels are an excellent way with which to engage readers of all age–especially emerging or struggling readers.

Check out Teaching Early Reader Comics and Graphic Novels on the Maupin House website and get a free sample lesson and a sneak peak of the power graphic novels can have in the classroom!