Reading with pictures: comics that make kids smarter ; [comics that teach core concepts in science, math, social studies et language arts]

176 Pages·2014·423.23 MB·English

by  Reading with pictures.;Elder, Josh

Josh Elder
Founder, Reading With Pictures
CONTENTS
Introduction
Josh Elder................................................................................................ iv
Foreword: Comics & Education
Gene Luen Yang....................................................................................... 1
How to Read a Comic
Tracy Edmunds........................................................................................ 3
LANGUAGE ARTS

G-Man: Reign of the Robo-Teachers
Chris Giarrusso........................................................................................ 5
The Power of Print
Katie Cook................................................................................................ 13
Albert the Alien in “It’s a Figure of Speech”
Trevor Mueller & Gabriel Bautista............................................................. 20
Special Delivery to Shangri-La
Mike Lee & Janet Lee................................................................................ 30
SCIENCE
The Adventures of Doctor Sputnik: Man of Science! in “Force and Motion”
Roger Langridge....................................................................................... 41
Like Galileo...
James Peaty & Tintin Pantoja................................................................... 49
Mail Order Ninja and the Silverback Horde
Josh Elder, Tim Smith, Chris Beckett, Steve Wallace, & Jim McClain........ 59

ii
CONTENTS
MATHEMATICS
Finding Ivy
Michael Bramley & Alice Meichi Li............................................................ 68
Probamon! “Gotta Chance ’Em All!”
Geoffrey Golden & Nate Pride................................................................... 78
Solution Squad
Jim McClain & Rose McClain.................................................................... 88
Lumina: Celebrity Super-Heroine in “Menace of the Mathemagician”
Josh Elder & Jen Brazas........................................................................... 112
Squirrels vs. Birds “Prime–Composite Showdown”
Jason Allen & Heidi Arnhold ..................................................................... 122
SOCIAL STUDIES
The Black Brigade
Chris Schweizer....................................................................................... 124
Field Trip
Russell Lissau & MP Mann........................................................................ 134
George Washington: Action President
Fred Van Lente & Ryan Dunlavey.............................................................. 142
Contributors....................................................................................................... 162
Thank You for Your Support ............................................................................... 164
iii
INTRODUCTION
THE SECRET
ORiGiN OF THiS
BOOK

I
first learned to read–and more important, to love
reading–because of comics. Comics made reading easy, and
they made reading fun. So much so that by the fifth grade, I was
reading at a college level. By the seventh grade, I was taking college
courses on nights and weekends. I attended Northwestern University on a
National Merit Scholarship and went on to a successful media career working
in comics, prose, video games, and journalism.
In summation: Hooked on comics worked for me! And if comics worked
for me, then they can work for everyone.
So I founded Reading With Pictures in 2009 in order to “get comics into
schools and get schools into comics.” In the years since, I’ve become a sort of
“comics ambassador,” traveling across the United States and around the world
to speak in schools, libraries, and universities about the revolutionary potential of
comics in the classroom. And while I may have been brought in as a speaker,
I also made it a point to listen.
iv
INTRODUCTION
I listened when parents said they needed research to prove the educational
value of comics. I listened when teachers said they needed lesson plans to make
the most out of the comics in their classrooms. I listened when administrators
said they needed high-quality content that also met state and national curriculum
standards if they were going to justify the use of comics.
I listened, and Reading With Pictures listened. This book is our reply. I mean,
it’s right there in our mission statement:
We collaborate with cartOOnists to produce
exceptional graphic novel content for scholastic use.
To that end, Reading With Pictures: Comics That Make Kids Smarter
unites some of the finest creative talents in the comics industry with the nation’s
leading experts in visual literacy to create a book that is overflowing with
awesomeness while also meeting the criteria necessary to be accepted as
classroom curriculum. Reading With Pictures uses a comics format to make
traditional educational content more engaging (especially to struggling readers),
more efficient (for more advanced readers) and more effective (for all readers).
Aimed at grades three through six, Reading With Pictures features more
than a dozen short stories (both fiction and nonfiction) that address topics
in a variety of subject matter areas (Social Studies, Math, Language Arts,
and Science) in concordance with a variety of educational standards.
The accompanying Teachers’ Guide (available to download for free at
www.ampkids.com) includes standards-correlated lesson plans customized
to each story, research-based justifications for using comics in the classroom,
and a comprehensive guide to establishing best classroom practices.
Now you know what Reading With Pictures is
and how it came to be. It’s been an incredible
journey thus far. We hope that you’ll all join
us for what comes next.
v
FOREWORD
1
How to
Read a ComIc
by Tracy Edmunds, M.A. Ed.
Panels are frames Word balloons contain
that each contain one character dialogue. The
segment of the action. tail of the bubble points
Panels can be any shape to the speaker.
or size. Read the panels Sometimes different
from left to right, colors, shapes, or fonts
top to bottom. are used to show the
personality of a character.
Gutters are the spaces
between panels. This is
where the reader must
imagine the action from A cloud-like
panel to panel. thought bubble
means a character
is thinking, not
speaking.
Slow down!
Read both the text
and the pictures.
Think about what is Captions usually
happening between contain narration but
the panels. sometimes dialogue or other
text information.
Splash panels are large
images that take up most
or all of a page. They are
often used to establish
location or mood.
Bleed is when an
image goes all the
way to the edge
of a page.
What action
takes place
Sound effects are usually between these
drawn to visually represent panels?
the volume and feeling
of the sound.
3