Teaching Graphic Novels to Adolescent Multilingual (and All) Learners

This book provides a roadmap for teaching with graphic novels as an effective and engaging approach to advancing reading comprehension for English Learners in secondary schools. Accessibly synthesizing and presenting existing graphic novel research, the authors walk through how to use graphic novels as a teaching tool to improve student motivation and key reading skills, increase their reading proficiency levels, and bolster their vocabulary. The authors provide curricular ideas for teaching multilingual, gifted, and striving readers, along with methods for developing critical literacy and multimodal comprehension. Applying a universal design approach and including examples, current graphic novel recommendations, and pedagogical strategies, this book is essential reading for pre-service teachers in TESOL and literacy education.

Kristine Gritter is a Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Seattle Pacific University, USA, and has published extensively about reading instruction, selection of classroom texts, and student discourse focusing on literature.

Xu Bian is the Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Sunny Language Academy after serving as the Assistant Professor of Chinese at Seattle Pacific University, USA, from 2016 through 2023. She uses graphic novels as cultural and reading tools in her courses.

Deborah Van Duinen is the Arnold and Esther Sonneveldt Professor of Education at Hope College, USA, and has published extensively on community literacy practices.

Bill Boerman-Cornell is a Professor of Education at Trinity Christian College, USA, and has written multiple peer-reviewed articles and two books on teaching using graphic novels.