Comic books are loved by children, despite the lack of options they have on the market today. Comics aimed for children should be made about them, so they can relate to the story similar to the method used when writing scripts for TV shows and movies. With the electronics on the market today, comic books have to compete for the spot of entertainment in a child’s eyes.…
"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." In the short story Superman and me, by Sherman Alexie it shows us how this metaphor is used without it even being said. Alexie unlike most Indian kids in 1998 had a passion to read. He got this urge to read from his father, someone that went out of his way to buy any novel, magazine, or book that he could get his grip on. Reading material was stacked throughout the house, Alexie would read every second and when he wasn't he began seeing life in paragraphs. Unfortunately he had his struggles just because he was an Indian boy. People would think less of the person he was, less of the knowledge in which he with held. Yet Alexie was not ashamed to show the others how smart he was, he would not hold back and pretend not to know anything. Proud, smart, and arrogant he proved there was a positive change in the Indian community.…
“Superman broke down the door,” Sherman Alexie’s metaphor just as he broke through adversity. Internal and external expectations are a basis of identity and how we each perceive ourselves. In Alexie’s writing, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” he describes finding his identity through his struggles as he excelled academically obtaining his unique view on the world and facing many stereotypes. As a young boy expected to maintain limited intelligence and accept the standard of ignorance, he was able to surpass limitations while “viewing his world in paragraphs.” While sharing a love of reading with his father he overcame his expected limitations on his reservation. The struggles he endured allowed him to give back to the community he grew with after becoming an adult.…
He said that reading and visualizing things together increased the thinking and grasping of brain. Stan says, “Kids were doing better in composition and grammar and English” (Lee). The word choice of authors depended on different audience. But, Stan doesn’t agree with this notion. “I didn’t limit the vocabulary to young people. I tried to use college level or above vocabulary. If I wanted to use a word like ‘charismatic’ or ‘misanthropic’, I use it” (Lee). He encourages young readers to find out the meaning and use them in their daily sentences. This way readers are engrossed and it becomes a learning experience while…
In The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me, Sherman Alexie shares with his audience his story of when he learned to read at a young age through a Superman comic book. Through stories and memories of his childhood, he explains how Indian children on reservations were expected not to try in school and fail in the non-Indian world. In order to successfully portray his ideas, Alexie uses many rhetorical techniques and ideas. By using these techniques the audience is forced to look more into the writing instead of just being given the direct meaning of what Alexie is trying to share.…
read or write. Alexie refused to be labeled as such and states “I refused to fail. I was smart. I was…
Intolerance on the basis of color, gender, religion, sexual orientation, social status, wealth, and other factors has caused the undue suffering of millions around the world. Even as early as the colonial era, Native Americans have been a prominent target of discrimination; the treatment of the American Indians portrays how modernization can open the door to oppression. Sherman Alexie, a Spokane author, illustrates how past prejudice continues to obstruct his fellow people from attaining success. The underlying theme in Alexie’s writing is his cognizant awareness that intolerance left unchecked makes oppression inevitable. In "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” he tells the story of how he developed his love of reading, and how he uses his gifts to challenge the boundaries that society has set for…
This essay “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie was about how he learned to read. For Alexie, he picked up the habit of wanting to read from his father. He explains how long before he could even read he would pick up his father’s books and just look at them. Looking at how the books were structured allowed him to grasp the concept of books and paragraphs but it also allowed him to relate it to his own life. He looked at his own life, his family and thought about how they are each like their own little paragraph. The very first time he started to read was with a superman comic when he was a younger kid. Throughout his essay he talks little about learning to read from the comic book but more of how hard it was to fit in wanting to be a smart indian. He felt it was hard growing up because indians didn’t approve of him being smart, they were supposed to be stupid to society. But it was the books, and ambition to read…
All the way through a lifetime, living life without being able to read text would be more effective than being able to read images. Without being able to read text at an older age, there would be no imagination. But without being able to read text at a younger age, reading images is introduced. Children find it quite east to read images and in picture books, it kick starts their imagination so that when they are older they may visualize images without a picture book. So having the ability to read images and also read text is quite handy from a young age.…
Over the years, my interest and awareness regarding reading and writing have varied from time to time. I remember my mother reading bedtime stories to me as a child and actually painting my personal pictures to what she was saying. Once I was old enough to read the stories myself, I would go back and compare my mental pictures with those that were in the book. During my elementary days, I found the novice level of reading and writing to still be interesting. Everything from transferring imaginary stories I had thought of onto a sheet of paper to tell the entire class about my church league team winning the basketball championship the previous Saturday, I thoroughly enjoyed writing and felt I had a personal connection to it.…
Children should be allowed to experiment with creative activities, allowing them to explore different options and develop solutions on their own. Reading is a fantastic creative activity for improving intellectual and cognitive skills as children can let their imaginations run wild and discover a world outside of their own. They can even combine this experience with art by drawing/painting the adventures that occur in the books they…
In the book How Picture books Work, Maria Nikolajeva and Carole Scott explore the lively relationship between the words and the imagery in children's literature. It is explained in their work that the children’s picture book is a form of literature and culture that prepares children for other media of communication. (Nikolajeva & Scott, 2001) ‘’The unique character of picture books as an art form is based on the combination of two levels of communication, the visual and the verbal. Making use of semiotic terminology we can say that picture books communicate by means of two separate sets of signs, the iconic and the conventional.’’ (Nikolajeva & Scott, 2001, p. 1) Nikolajeva and Scott focus mainly on the relationship between the words and…
Comic books are often overlooked by middle and high school teachers. Although they promote creativity, literacy, higher level comprehension and vocabulary, many teachers fail to accept them as literature. Also, some would say that pictures are too much of a distraction in a story. On the contrary, the pictures add to the story and overall scene being expressed. The truth is, comic books could do so much for a classroom setting, both positive and negative.…
This experiment has been tested across the country and has been benefiting children. Teacher, Brenna B, says "As the study progressed, the students began to demonstrate preferences for graphic novels within a practice of reading for pleasure, and particular graphic novels were cited as offering an opportunity for what comprehension strategies appropriate for use with other textual forms were modelled and utilized with respect to the students’ current graphic novel reading.”. At this school they have been using graphic novels to help children visualize the story as an example for when they move on to chapter books. These experimental teaching methods have had a positive effect on students, and has been getting children excited about reading. Not only can it help with starting chapter books, but it also has been helping high school students with new styles of writing. Graphic novelist, Neil Babra, translated Shakespearian writing by giving them pictures to help understand the stories. He created the No Fear Shakespeare series which has stories like Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, etc. Graphic novels don’t only have to be used in the classroom to be educational, they can also be used in the work place. J. C Short says "Graphic novels represent cool communication media that are high in participation because communication receivers must “fill in,” or use their imaginations to complete the communication.” Companies have been using graphic novels to pitch business ideas and present new information and help employees understand business concepts. Pros to using this format is that is helps give specific details that prevent from having people misunderstand the concepts in which are being presented to them. It also draws your audience in with an interesting new perspective that will keep them…
When considering comics, one cannot deny this popular application as a rising medium utilized among many modern classrooms as a teaching resource. James Devaney says the following in his blog for the Huffington Post Comics Instead of Textbooks?:…