Why teach comic books? More specifically why teach superhero comic books? To this I have two answers.
1. The Keynote speaker at the last Rhode Island NCTE convention said that we should teach what the students are into, he was talking about rap music. This also applies to superhero comics. Superheroes are really “hot” right now. I found many teachers that have said students love reading comics for class, and I have never heard a teacher say they hate it. It is good to teach what students are interested in, it helps them be more interested in the class.
2. Why not teach superhero comics? They have every potential to be just as good literature as anything else.
In researching I found that there has been relatively little research done on teaching superhero comics in the high school classroom. And most of this had to do with teaching reading. Very little was available for using comics teach writing.
If I am able to I will definitely teach superhero comics in the classroom. They are great for teaching reading, writing, and creation.
