Not comic books: Graphic novels elevate English studies at Geneva High School

Geneva High School seniors in English class not only study standard literature – they can also study graphic novels, contemporary texts, mythology, science fiction and fantasy.

Speaking at the District 304 school board meeting Nov. 11, English Department Chair Corinne Backman said graphic novels fit into the group of electives of speech, journalism, creative writing or film.

“The class specifically is designed to prepare the students for college,” Backman said. “What is going be the best route, the best skills that’s going to prepare them for when they go into the entry-level English classes.”

A misconception of a graphic novel is to think of it as a comic book, Backman said.

“Some fun, some light reading,” Backman said. “A comic book, right?”

Wrong.

“Graphic novels have evolved over the years. And they’re much more rich and complex in what they can offer to students,” Backman said.

Graphic novels comprise two weeks in the senior English semester, Backman said.

A graphic novel that English teacher Andrew Cozzi teaches is “They Called Us Enemy” by George Takei, famous for portraying helmsman Sulu of the USS Enterprise in “Star Trek.”

The graphic novel is about Takei’s real childhood experience living in a Japanese internment camp during World War II.

“What we focus in ‘They Called Us Enemy’ is how the story is told in both textual areas as well as graphic form,” Cozzi said. “It is a heavy topic.”

Another English teacher, Drew Longo, teaches the world mythology class.

This includes Greek epic poem, “The Odyssey,” by Homer, about Odysseus, written in 800 BCE – via Gareth Hinds’ graphic novel.

“Did anybody read ‘The Odyssey’ in school? The actual epic poem,” Longo asked. “Yeah. Did you enjoy it?”

Board members and others at the meeting chuckled.

“We laugh at that. But this story has been around for several thousand years. And yet, we force students to read it and they don’t enjoy it,” Longo said.

English teacher Heather Peters, who teaches science fiction and fantasy, said she could do a whole year on just Frank Herbert’s “Dune.”

“It is one of my favorite books,” Peters said.

Herbert’s son, Brian Herbert, wrote the “Dune” graphic novel her students read, she said.

The others she teaches are Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451″ retold by Tim Hamilton, about a society that outlaws books and burns them.

She also teaches “Kindred,” by Octavia Butler, as adapted by John Jennings and Damian Duffy, about a Black woman who time travels back to the pre-Civil War south.

“A graphic novel allows us to adapt directly to the students that are sitting in front of us for the needs that we have in this moment in this time,” Peters said. “Like ‘They Called Us Enemy,’ it allows us to bring some of these hard-hitting topics that we don’t talk about.”

Peters said the courses are designed to help students learn critical thinking skills.

“We’re operating on ... critical thinking all the time,” Peters said. “If your brain has not leaked out of your ears, we’ve not done our job.”