Almost everything that we learn in life goes through a cycle. Most commonly these cycles will start with the simplest way of doing something and progress to the more mature and complex way. For example, learning to ride a bike, you go from training wheels to an adult bike or learning how to swim, you go from wearing floaties in the shallow end to treading in the deep end. Both of these examples are the standard way that many people learn how to do these things and we don't think twice about it because it's what we're expected to do. Similar to these cycles, reading is the same way. As we read in Scott McCloud's piece, "Show and Tell", the cycle of reading is starting with picture books until we eventually make it to chapter books. Once we make it to the long, imageless books, we stay there and don't think about reading books with pictures because we automatically believe that they are meant for kids. However, I completely disagree with this viewpoint because even when a book has images in it, it doesn't make it a kids book or a comic. As McCloud said, "Words and pictures have great power to tell stories when creators fully exploit them both." (McCloud 152). The two are interchangeable and when put together, can make a book even better. So next time you're looking for a book, don't completely put off the book with pictures because there's a chance that it'll be better than the book without pictures.
Poetry- the unit that most students dread to learn about in their English class. But why is poetry so disliked among high school students? A few of these reasons, and that I can attest for personally, are that poetry is seen as old, it can be quite difficult to understand/interpret, and we just fail to see the point of it. However, after interpreting some poems in class, my perspective began to shift (only slightly not significantly though). While I am still not the biggest fan of poetry, I am beginning to see a different side to it. Yes, poetry is all of the negative things that I stated above (at least in my opinion) but once poetry is understood, the lesson becomes that much clearer and applicable. Understanding and correctly interpreting poetry is not only a beneficial skill to have but it also opens your eyes to a deeper understanding to things that are important in terms of culture, history, and etc. For example, poetry has effectively been used to advocate and teach about i...
I love this! I really like how you compared it to swimming and riding a bike, because it really highlights how people think of comics and picture books as a sort of "crutch" for people who struggle with reading. I think you're totally right that we automatically dismiss picture books as childish.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you started broad with experiences that many people share and then narrowed it down to the reading. I agree with your point that books with pictures aren't exclusively for children and can be intellectual.
ReplyDelete