ECI 306 Middle Years Reading: Getting Graphic

Graphic Novel Title

For my graphic novel, I chose to read MAUS I: A Survivor's Tale, by Art Spiegelman.  This was written about the Holocaust, a popular middle grades Social Studies topic, and I feel that it would be useful in the classroom. 

1. a) Summary: The book MAUS provides dialogue between a father (Vladek Spiegelman) and his son Art.  The two transition between modern day issues such as Vladek's marraige to Mala, being ill and aging to what events occurred to Vladek and Art's mother Anja, during the Holocaust.  Vladek portrays the opposing sides as cats (Nazi's) and mice (Jews) making the book easy to read and understand.  He discusses the obstacles Jews faced during this time, what everyday life was like, and what really happened within the camps.  The book switches between these two time periods quite often.   By the end of the book, the reader is not only familiar with the familial relationships between the characters, but of historical events also. 

    b.) Artwork: The book is in what I would describe as comic book format.  It is seperated into chapters with an average of 5-7 picture boxes per page.  The book is also in black and white. 

2. Strengths: I think this would be a great teaching tool.  It provides enough of a fiction story to encourage readers to read it, but is filled with historical events.  It goes into detail about what happens in the camps, uses the correct names, and is a true account from a survior. The illustrations are solid throughout, and are simple enough to get the message across.  No fancy clip art or beautification was added in this novel.  

3. Weaknesses: The biggest weakness I found within this novel was it's lack of color.  I liked the work being black and white but I sometimes found it mundane.  I like graphic novels that display color and I feel that in certain sections, color would be useful in getting the point across. 

4. Using MAUS in Other Content Areas:

Language Arts: Obviously this novel would fit into the Language Arts curricula.  It is a graphic novel easily set in the middle grades level that is not only a change from the normal chapter books but an interesting one too.  This would fit directly into the sixth grade National Standards which state: Standard 1: Students read a range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and comtempory works.   Standard 2: Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g. philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.

Social Studies: MAUS would be a great addition to any Social Studies curriculum.  It addresses an important historical topic, the Holocaust, and would be great for a teacher teaching both LA & SS.  This ties directly into Competency Goal 4: The learner will identify signifigant patterns in the movement of people, goods and ideas over time and place in South Africa and Europe. 

Math: Students could also showcase their Math skills while reading this book.  They could research and construct the measurments of a cell in the Nazi camps to see exactly how much space these people were living in.  The could work with probability to determine the number of persons killed in relation to the population of each individual country and the continent itself.  This could also be combined with exercises in probability and percents.  Each of the activities are listed as Major Concepts/Skills in the sixth grade. 

Science: A lot of the major skills and concepts covered in the Science section would relate nicely to the Math portion.  The students could use Science as inquiry to figure out different concepts and ideas behind the Holocaust and could also use the internet and other tools to research.  Science is the hardest to tie in, so any ideas would be helpful!

5. Critique: I believe this book to be a great addition to my Language Arts and Social Studies curriculum.  I think that it provides enough historical information to be useful in the classroom setting but also enough filler to keep my students interested.  I feel that a book like this one, and it's counterpart MAUS II And Here My Troubles Began would be very useful. 

6. My Opinion. . .  I believe that students would be very receptive to this book.  Oftentimes students are so fed up with reading the usual fiction and nonfiction choices, a graphic novel would be a great change. I think the students will like the artwork, will identifiy with the characters and will overall embrace the story. 

7. Recommendation: As many of my prior responses state, I would love to recommend this book to other teachers.  I think that the historical aspect is great, the information provided is accurate (correct names, spelling, etc.) and that students will enjoy reading it.  I would not hesisitate to provide this to my own students one day! :)

Posted at 07:57PM Apr 17, 2008 by Lauren Amanda Bass in Graphic Novel Reviews  |  Comments[0]