Hall and Lucal examine the usefulness of comic books in teaching sociology. Comics represent aspects of real life, as there are many sociological ideas present. Concepts of gender, class, race and sexuality inequalities can be observed in stories portrayed through comic books. They are practical resources for introducing sociological concepts. In McCloud’s Ted Talk McCloud talks about his background in creating comics, and how he developed a scientific perspective. He discusses the connection of space and time within comics and how the medium used influences those aspects. He proposes that we view the computer screen as a window, removing its boundaries so that we see a comic strip that moves across the screen rather than it being truncated with each image. Yang’s Ted Talk illustrates possibilities of comics in education. He explains how the visual and permanence features of comics can be helpful for some students in the classroom. Yang shares his background as a teacher and how he incorporated comics in teaching algebra, with its successes and failures. In comparison to videos and lectures which move at a pace not controlled by students, when comics on paper are used students can control the pace making them a useful format for learning. Yang and Holmes Secret Coders, the first comic book in its series, is about Hopper and her adventures at her new school. Her parents’ divorce and Hopper’s mom moves her to a new school. Hopper befriends Eni after a rough start and together they explore some obscure parts of the school. Getting caught by the janitor doesn’t stop them. They discover a hidden robot which leads to a mysterious portal. In order to find out what it is, you have to read the next in the series to find out what happens.
Throughout K-12 I didn’t read many comic books, with the exception of Garfield. I collected the Garfield comic strips from the Sunday papers for many years, from early childhood into my teenage years. I enjoyed the humor, Garfield’s sarcastic personality and the relationship between Garfield and Odie. I also enjoyed Calvin and Hobbs. Comics were not used in any of my K-12 classes that I can remember but I see their potential as a medium for teaching many subjects. I plan to teach elementary school and after these readings and videos it gives me ideas for alternative formats to engage students in various types of lessons.
What do you think of the color scheme in Secret Coders? Do you think there is a specific reason the authors used predominantly green?
Sylvia's blog 
Hi Sylvia! First of all, wow! I wish my schools taught me using Garfield! That sounds like an adorable idea. I also think it’s cool that you’re considering all these readings as reasons that you would like to implement comic books into your teaching curriculum as you’re planning to become a teacher in the future. From another student blog, I found the interesting question on the topic of whether teachers should be properly trained to know how to incorporate comics books as the teaching materials. I’m curious to know what you think on this? Did you feel like your past teachers were able to integrate comic books into classroom learning environment effectively? Also, good question about the color scheme! I wonder too. Perhaps it’s because green is the color of codes when you write them in the earlier old computers?
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