Reading When the World Is on Fire

Teaching with Comics and Other Multimodal Text Sets

Authors

  • Ashley K. Dallacqua The University of New Mexico

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2376-5275.2022.5.2.38-63

Keywords:

comics, graphic novels, multimodal text sets, critical literacy, multimodal lit, multimodal literacy, diverse representation

Abstract

This study explores teaching and learning with a range of texts — with a focus on comics — that highlight diverse identities and voices. I asked: What happens when a range of multimodal and nontraditional texts with prominent diverse identity representations are integrated into a 10th grade ELA curriculum? Data was collected in a culturally, racially, and linguistically diverse school with a 10th grade ELA teacher and six students as participants. The comics medium, combined with other media in multimodal text sets, provided opportunities to challenge normative curricula and for students to think about themselves and how they operate in their worlds. 

Author Biography

Ashley K. Dallacqua, The University of New Mexico

Ashley K. Dallacqua is an Assistant Professor in Literacy at The University of New Mexico. Her work focuses around multimodal and multimedia literacies and how these literacies are used, read, and composed in educational spaces; she focuses much of her research and teaching around the medium of comics. 

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Published

2022-07-01