Below is video of our San Diego Comic-Con panel, "You Have to Read the Pictures, Too: Visual Literacy and Analyzing Graphic Texts with Students." I really enjoyed our wide-ranging discussion on the power of comics in the classroom and I hope it will be helpful to educators, librarians, and creators.

Thank you to all of the panelists!  Follow them on Twitter for great comics information and discussion:
Rachelle Cruz  @rawqeli
Derek Heid  @MrHeid_TVHS
Laurence Tan  @LTzy11
Tony Weaver, Jr.  @TonyWeaverJr

And be sure to get Talia Hurwich and Meryl Jaffe's fantastic new book: Worth a Thousand Words: Using Graphic Novels to Teach Visual and Verbal Literacy. 

Please share this post so that more educators can learn from these engaging, experienced experts!

San Diego Comic-Con was tons of fun and so busy! I was involved with four different panels at the Central Library. Below are the names and social media handles of most of the panelists, along with resources and slides from the two panels I moderated. There’s a lot of great information here! Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or would like to follow up on anything. 

You Have to Read the Pictures, Too: Visual Literacy & Analyzing Graphic Texts with Students
Panelists:
Rachelle Cruz (UC Riverside, Experiencing Comics) Twitter: @rawqeli
Derek Heid (high school English Language Arts, TVUSD) Twitter: @MrHeid_TVHS
Talia Hurwich (NYU, Worth A Thousand Words) 
Laurence Tan (LAUSD and Teaching Tolerance Teacher of the Year) IG/Snapchat/Twitter: LTzy11
Tony Weaver Jr. (founder, Weird Enough Productions; Forbes 30 Under 30) Twitter: @TonyWeaverJr
Aron Nels Steinke (Elementary teacher, creator of the Mr. Wolf’s Class series) Twitter: @mrwolfcomics

Thank you to Rachelle Cruz for these fantastic resources:

• Queer Prisoners Anthology, Vols. 1 & 2 by ABO Comix
• Cancer by Mita Mahato 
• Elements: Fire and Elements:Earth edited by Taneka Stotts
• Ebony Flowers’ research on comics & young people 

​Click here to download a PDF of the slides from this panel.
​

Science and History in Comics
Thank you to Ryan Mita and the Children’s Book Council!
Panelists:
Jeffrey Brown (Jedi Academy, Lucy & Andy Neanderthal) Instagram @jeffreybrownrq
Jim Ottaviani (Primates, Feynman, Hawking) Twitter: @gtlabsrat
MK Reed (Science Comics: Dinosaurs, Science Comics: Wild Weather) Twitter: @yesthatmkreed
Emily Whitten (writer, The Underfoot) Twitter: @theemilyesse
Ben Fisher (writer, The Underfoot) Twitter: @benjaminpfisher
Michelle Nguyen (artist, The Underfoot) Twitter: @KuBits

Click here to download a PDF of the slides from this panel (includes title suggestions).

Ask Me Anything: Pick Educators’ and Creators’ Brains on Comics in the Classroom
Meryl Jaffe (Johns Hopkins University, Worth a Thousand Words)
Derek Heid (HS ELA, TVUSD) 
Mark Seigel (5 Worlds) Twitter: @marksiegelbooks
James Parks (Rickety Stitch)  
Gina Gagliano (Penguin Random House) Twitter: @_GinaGagliano
Jimmy Gownley (Amelia Rules) Twitter: @jimmygownley
moderator Talia Hurwich (NYU, Worth a Thousand Words)






Heroes of S.T.E.A.M.: Kids Doing Research Through Gaming
Jim McClain (Solution Squad)  Twitter: @TheJimMcClain
Jon Loftus (University of Notre Dame's Center for Environmental Science and Technology)
Get the game through the Kickstarter: http://www.heroesofsteam.com

Thank you to everyone who came to our panel "Engaging Students in STEM with Graphic Novels" and to the fantastic panelists: Mairghred Scott, Yehudi Mercado, Betsy Gomez, Isabel Morales, and Derek Heid. It was an insightful and entertaining discussion! 

What education-related panels would you like to see at San Diego Comic-Con? Click CONTACT and let me know!

My first trip to Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle was a blast! I met so many fantastic educators and creators and talked a lot about comics in education. Thanks to everyone who came to our panels! If you have any questions or need information, please send a message through my Contact page and I'll get back to you right away. And check out my Resources page for plenty of free information.

On Saturday I moderated the panel, "Can You Suggest a Good Comic With No Butts and No Guts? Exploring Amazing Elementary and Middle Grade Comics and Graphic Novels." Our panelists had so many great ideas around why kids should read comics, what makes a good comic for kids, and how to find the best titles. Here are some resources to help you find the best books:

ALSC Graphic Novels Reading Lists: K-2 and 3-5
Texas Little Mavericks List for grades K-5
EisnerAwards: 
   Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 8)
   Best Publication for Kids (ages 9-12)
Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards
ALA Youth Media Awards 
   (Caldecott, Newberry, etc.)
Dwayne McDuffie Awards for Diversity in Comics
School Library Journal: Good Comics for Kids
We Need Diverse Comics on Facebook

I have updated my Comics in Education: Research citations list. It now includes 16 research studies and resources in the following categories:

• Comics are motivating
• Words and pictures together increase recall and problem solving
• Comics aid comprehension
• Comics have a high average vocabulary level
• Comics enrich the skills of accomplished readers
• Comics support beginning and struggling readers
• Comics support English language learners

If you know of any more relevant research, please let me know so I can add it!

Thank you to everyone who came out for the Comic Conference for Educators and Librarians in San Diego. I hope you found the panels helpful! 

I mentioned during the panels that I would post an extra resource here. Below is my slide giving an overview of the educational strengths of the comics medium.  I will add it as a PDF in my Resources section. You can find my list of research and an article detailing this information there as well. I hope this information is useful!

I'm happy to be heading back to San Diego Comic-Con this year. Did you know that educators and librarians can attend panels at the Downtown Library for free? Sign up for the Comic Conference for Educators and Librarians and you can attend three days of panels without a con badge. Thursday panels are for librarians, Friday panels are put on by publishers, and Saturday panels are for educators.

And there's an educator and librarian mixer on Thursday evening that looks like fun. Free registration here.

I'll be on two panels Saturday:

3:00 pm, Teaching Fables and Myths with Graphic Novels—Bring fairy tales, fables, folktales, legends, and myths into your classroom using graphic novel adaptations that bring these tales to life. Panelists will discuss how creators' imaginative retellings build depth and complexity in the interplay between text and image and how these stories can be successfully taught in the classroom. Featuring creators Jenni Holm (Babymouse) and Alexis Fajardo (Kid Beowulf), educators Erin Hill (language arts teacher, Ramona High School) and Cori McDonald (librarian, Ramona High School), moderator Tracy Edmunds (Graphic Novels Are Elementary), and surprise panelists.

5:00 pm, Teaching Graphic Novels Across the Curriculum—Dr. Katie Monnin (education director, Pop Culture Classroom), Tracy Edmunds, M.A., Ed. (Graphic Novels Are Elementary), Erin Hill (language arts teacher, Ramona High School), Derek Heid (English/drama teacher, Temecula Valley High School), Scott Westerfeld (Spill Zone, Impostors), and Aron Steinke (Mr. Wolf's Class) explore a number of approaches and blended models for comics in the classroom by connecting these texts and lessons across subject matter areas (math/science/history/English/business, etc.). Pulling input from both educators and creators, the panel will discuss which titles work well across curricular lines, how educators can collaborate to make them effective learning and teaching tools, and how creators can tailor their works to find audiences that span multiple areas of interest for readers. Moderated by Adam Kullberg (education program manager, Pop Culture Classroom). 

My new elementary STEM series from Teacher Created Resources arrives in March! I designed these hands-on challenges to get kids thinking, doing, and having fun while experiencing phenomena, discovering new concepts, and designing solutions to compelling problems.

Each challenge is designed for students to experience either the engineering design process or scientific inquiry.
   •   In the engineering challenges, students create a solution to a problem and evaluate the effectiveness of their solutions. They use the engineering design process—ask, imagine, plan, build, test, improve—to arrive at the best solution they can under the constraints of the challenge. In these challenges, students must think creatively, meaning the final solutions will (and should) vary widely; there are no “right” answers. Solutions are evaluated by the class based on how well they solve the given problem.
 • For scientific inquiry challenges, scaffolding is provided to give students experience in exploring questions, testing hypotheses, recording data, and evaluating evidence. Although not as student-driven or open-ended as the engineering challenges, in most of these challenges the questions and hypotheses are created by students (within the parameters of the challenge), so they are deciding what to test and how to test it. They set up and carry out their planned tests, record and analyze data, and come to their own conclusions, which are then evaluated by the class.

As Adam Savage of the Mythbusters says: “The only difference between (messing) around and science is writing it down.” Throughout the challenges, students record their thoughts, ideas, procedures, data, and more on paper. In some cases they answer questions that help lead them through an investigation or set them up for success in a challenge. At other times they record data as they collect it, and then analyze to come to a conclusion or result. And in engineering challenges they do their planning and evaluating on paper. At the end of each challenge, students write about their experience by answering reflection questions to pull everything together. 

Because I always write with teachers in mind, the challenges call for classroom supplies you probably already have, recycled materials (think paper towel tubes and scratch paper), and sometimes a few items from the dollar store. For many of the challenges the material choices are quite flexible, making it easy to use materials you already have.

​First graders engineer bubble wands, marble obstacle courses, and bridges to help the chicken cross the road!

​​Second graders test invisible inks, paper helicopters, and every kid’s favorite...SLIME!

​​Third graders crash test toy cars, flip bottles, and engineer cup towers.

​​Fourth graders engineer solar heaters to make s’mores, create games using the five main human senses, and (my favorite) engineer giant bird beaks to eat giant food!

​Fifth graders crate games using Bernoulli’s principle, and engineer green roof models, water filters, and marble rollercoasters.