My belief is that reading is the foundation for all other subjects. Think about how reading is so crucial to learning. If you can’t read, how do you learn new words, pick-up a textbook and understand the content or enjoy a story.
Recently students in my class have been taking silent reading time and asking if they can read Japanese comics called manga Other students are going on the Internet and reading car magazines, and what I like to call “low literature” I didn’t think I would have a problem with it. That was until students started to whine about reading high literature, like Anne Frank’s Diary. Now I’m wondering if students aren’t increasing their reading skills or becoming good readers. The skills that I want students to learn include how to learn new words, visualizing, and questioning. I question and doubt that these skills are being practiced when students choose to read comic books.
Don’t get me wrong. I used to read comics when I was a student. They’re great, but let’s face it, the language in them is rather simple and easy to understand. This has more to do with the audience that reads them. If the audience for manga is pre-teens or young adults, the language is simplified. Descriptive words like unbelievable, passionate, succulent are often depicted in comic art rather than in words. How do students learn new words when all the words are simplified?
Visualizing is a technique of taking the written word and creating a realistic movie of the mind. It’s a powerful reading technique that develops imagination and understanding. High literature like novels, plays and non-fiction books, where the only picture is on the front cover, are great to develop visualizing. Comic books and manga already have pictures, and thus the movie we create Is already made. Where’s the effort?
Questioning too is a powerful technique that is limited by comic books. Questioning is the idea of asking powerful questions to further thinking about the book. Really, questioning can happen in any book, but in comic books it’s more difficult to make good “thick” questions
I think that silent reading time will only be high level novels from now on. No more comics, magazines, joke books or reading from the internet.
Recently students in my class have been taking silent reading time and asking if they can read Japanese comics called manga Other students are going on the Internet and reading car magazines, and what I like to call “low literature” I didn’t think I would have a problem with it. That was until students started to whine about reading high literature, like Anne Frank’s Diary. Now I’m wondering if students aren’t increasing their reading skills or becoming good readers. The skills that I want students to learn include how to learn new words, visualizing, and questioning. I question and doubt that these skills are being practiced when students choose to read comic books.
Don’t get me wrong. I used to read comics when I was a student. They’re great, but let’s face it, the language in them is rather simple and easy to understand. This has more to do with the audience that reads them. If the audience for manga is pre-teens or young adults, the language is simplified. Descriptive words like unbelievable, passionate, succulent are often depicted in comic art rather than in words. How do students learn new words when all the words are simplified?
Visualizing is a technique of taking the written word and creating a realistic movie of the mind. It’s a powerful reading technique that develops imagination and understanding. High literature like novels, plays and non-fiction books, where the only picture is on the front cover, are great to develop visualizing. Comic books and manga already have pictures, and thus the movie we create Is already made. Where’s the effort?
Questioning too is a powerful technique that is limited by comic books. Questioning is the idea of asking powerful questions to further thinking about the book. Really, questioning can happen in any book, but in comic books it’s more difficult to make good “thick” questions
I think that silent reading time will only be high level novels from now on. No more comics, magazines, joke books or reading from the internet.