Do comic books motivate students to read?
I am wanting to develop the idea that reading comic books can inspire students to read who would otherwise be not interested in reading. I know within my own family, one of my sons was definitely NOT a reader. However, once he started reading comic books and graphic novels, his eyes were opened, and he now avidly reads books on other topics, such as real estate investing. Sometimes, all it takes is one good spark from some sort of reading material to change a person’s perspective on reading.
I knew a man who never read anything until he picked up the Lord of the Rings. Suddenly, worlds opened up to him, and he became an enthusiastic reader for life because of that one book.
I was researching some of the papers that have been written about this, particularly this one:
http://graphicclassroom.blogspot.com/search/label/Master%27s%20Thesis
Unfortunately, this particular paper, although it presents a lot of great ideas, did not find any conclusive evidence to support or deny his theory about motivating students to read by using comic books. However, I have talked with a special education teacher who raves about the effects that comic books have had on her students.
Obviously, more research is needed.
February 18, 2010 12:30 pm 
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By patty, February 20, 2010 @ 10:23 pm
I’ll send you some citations from the library world about comics and graphic novels and their effect on reading skills. It’s one of the reasons we are increasing our graphic novel collection just about as fast as we can.
By BigPictureKeith, February 28, 2010 @ 6:02 am
Couldn’t agree more…. Surely the whole idea of reading is to ‘read’, this is exactly the kinds of ’small steps’ I would advocate anybody doing to achieve their final goal.
AND also , if you only ever read stuff that you don’t want to read then sooner or later, you’ll give up !! Because anything that takes too much willpower eventually ends in failure !! FACT.
It’s why the stuff we do actually works, we focus students on what they do want NOT what they don’t want !!! http://www.thebigpicture.eu.com
By Linda, March 26, 2010 @ 10:10 pm
Thanks, Patty. That would be great
By Linda, March 26, 2010 @ 10:11 pm
Thank you, Keith. That’s exactly what I think – it’s better to get them reading SOMETHING, especially something that will hold their interest, than for them to lose interest in reading entirely. I appreciate your comment.