Elementary+Viewing+Strategies

Every visual media requires viewing strategies. Typically, those strategies vary with the type of visual media. Thus, television requires some quite different viewing strategies from graphica. This page will concentrate on viewing strategies for comic books and graphic novels written for the elementary-aged child.

While manga and anime for adolescents may be written from right to left, graphica for younger children is typically intended to be viewed from left to right and top to bottom. This means that not only should the panels be read in that order, but each text box or bubble must also be read in that order. Thus, a text box appearing to the right of a thought bubble should be read AFTER the thought bubble.

Just as there are conventions for print found in picture books and chapter books, there are also some conventions found in graphica. Much of the information that would be carried in paragraph form in more traditional texts is carried in the pictures and conventions that accompany graphica. Therefore, it is extremely important that a child understand the conventions in order to fully comprehend the text.



__Excerpt from Magic Pickle__ (Morse, 2005) These are 2 successive pages from __Magic Pickle__. I will use them to exemplify the conventions I am discussing below.

__Panels or panes:__ Pages typically contain 5 or 6 panels, although (above) the first page contains 9 and the second page is just 1 large picture. Occasionally, a panel (pane) will extend across the page as with the second page above. More commonly, panels are side by side in a 2 across, 3 down format. It is important to read these in order and to note that action DOES happen in the spaces between the panels (called "gutters"). Readers must make inferences about what has happened from one panel to the next. Each panel is analogous to a paragraph. However, the transitions that typically occur to connect paragraphs in traditional texts are usually not present in graphica. The reader is expected to make inferences about what has happened from one panel to the next based upon the story line and the information presented in the 2 panels. Note particularly the middle panel on page one. The little girl is peering down into the hole in the bedroom floor. Only the top of her head is shown, but the reader gets a glimpse of what is in the room below. Then note the transition from the last 2 panels on the first page to the second page. The little girl is climbing down into the hole. The next to last panel shows her hanging by her fingers and then in the last panel, she has disappeared. On the next page, she is in a room full of equipment. The reader has to make the inference that she has fallen down into that room and that the room is, in fact, underground below her bedroom in order for the story to make sense. The reader actually has to go back to the middle panel on the first page to match it with the picture on the second page. A careful look at the second page will show the hole in her bedroom floor at the very top of the picture. Another example of how the pictures must be read carefully! I personally read this story 3 times before I noticed that middle panel OR the hole depicted at the top of page two!

__Narration:__ A rectangular box usually contains narrative. Sometimes a narrator is noted, but usually not. Narration is brief and need not be a complete sentence. Sometimes it denotes passing of time ("Later...") or a move to a different venue ("Meanwhile, back in town..."). Occasionally it is just intended to provide some background for the characters' actions as on the second page above. If written in complete sentences, narration rarely consists of more than a couple of sentences.

__Speech bubbles__: An oval bubble containing text that appears above a character's head with an arrow pointing to the character denotes that the character is speaking. In the panels above, the ovals are almost rectangles. A cloud-shaped bubble with smaller bubbles pointing to the character's head denotes the character's thinking. However, in the panels above, rectangular boxes denote thinking. In the pages shown above, the reader has to pay attention to whether or not the character's mouth is open to determine if the character is thinking or speaking. It is important not only to note the __sequence__ in which characters speak in order to understand a conversation, but also to note things the characters are only __thinking__. Thus, the other characters aren't aware of that information. A whispered conversation may have a dotted-line bubble rather than a continuously-drawn oval. This indicates that other characters may not be aware of the conversation. A jagged bubble or a z-shaped bubble usually denotes loud or violent action or speech. This is sometimes accompanied by a pseudoword such as Zowie! or Arrrgh!

__Body Language__: It is also important for readers to note facial expressions and body language. Again, much of the information that would be mentioned in a narrative description in a chapter book or picture book may be conveyed through facial expressions or body language in graphica. It is important for the reader to note where the character is placed in relation to the other characters and how the character relates to the other characters physically. While the example above shows only one character, note particularly the middle panels on the first page. The little girl appears hesitant as she peers down into the hole. In the middle panel, only the top of her head is seen but we get a preview of what is down below. The way the little girl's body is drawn in the first panel on page 1 and also on page 2 leads the reader to feel that she is a strong, unafraid character.

__Pictures__: Since the story line is carried through the pictures with text being merely a support, every item in the picture is important. As noted above, readers need to look carefully at the details in order to fully understand the story line. Many children are not good observers of details. Yet, research on mental imagery suggests that the ability to translate text into a mental image is extremely important to comprehension of text.

One way to develop this mental imagery is to ask the children to look at just one panel and write a paragraph. This will take some practice. However, the practice has a number of benefits. Children will become more proficient observers; they will become more proficient at writing paragraphs, both with and without dialogue; AND they will become more proficient at looking at a paragraph in a traditional text and translating what they are reading into mental imagery. See the section on writing strategies for further explanation.