The use of authentic literature in language teaching has several benefits, including development of literacy, critical thinking skills, and intercultural competence (Bland & Lütge, 2013). Nevertheless, teachers of ESL and EFL often continue to rely on textbooks to provide most reading material in their classrooms. While the judicious use of textbooks can be warranted and may provide meaningful learning experiences for EFL students, heavy reliance on textbooks often has the perhaps unintended by-effect of limiting students’ in-class engagement with authentic English language texts. We have noticed, particularly in our preservice classes, that teachers express a lack of trust in their students’ ability to comprehend and work with such texts. This is particularly true for teachers of the primary grades, whose misgivings about the use of literature in the classroom strongly contrast research findings, which suggest that encountering authentic literature though extensive listening and reading is a strong predictor of students’ later proficiency in a language (e.g., Elley, 1989; Nation, 2015; Wells, 2009).

In an attempt to mitigate in-service teachers’ fears about literature, we have increasingly required the in-service teachers enrolled in our courses to integrate authentic literature materials in the lesson plans they develop as a part of their required course assignments. To allow the teachers to try a new approach to teaching in safety, we provide them with a sample lesson that employs authentic literature. Although many in-service teachers enter into this experiment with some skepticism, their feedback at the end of the project period has been overwhelmingly positive. We thus wish to share one lesson plan they are asked to attempt in their own classrooms with readers of TEIS News.

This sample lesson is appropriate for Grades 3–5 in EFL settings. It was developed to encourage multimodal literacy and promote comprehension by allowing students the opportunity to show their understanding of a fairy tale through their own creative product: a comic. Comics enable even early language learners to create and share full narratives, and they foster multimodal learning opportunities (Bland & Lütge, 2013). Additionally, using fairy tales as inspiration creates opportunities for intercultural learning, as literary fairy tales are important cultural artifacts that are often referenced in other works of literature.

The lesson our in-service teachers are asked to try was developed using Kumagai, López-Sánchez, and Wu’s (2016) three-step framework for lessons: experiencing, conceptualizing/analyzing, and applying (p. 18). In the experiencing stage, students are exposed to one or several texts and given opportunities to activate their background knowledge. In the conceptualizing/analyzing stage, learners’ attention is drawn to “elements of language and other semiotic systems” through scaffolding (Kumagai, López-Sánchez, & Wu, 2016, p. 18). Finally, in the applying stage, students create new texts based on genres modeled in class, which activates their knowledge of generic conventions.

To carry out this lesson, teachers need examples of graphic fairy tales, such as Carroll’s (2015) Through the Woods or Duffy’s (2013) Fairy Tale Comics, as well as A3 paper, pencils, pens, pencil crayons, and/or paints or, optionally, a digital comic-creating tool, for example, Pixton. After carrying out the lesson, you should ask your student teachers to reflect on the successes and challenges of the lesson in their in-service university course.

In the first stage of the lesson, experiencing, the teacher reads a fairy tale aloud, such as “Little Red Riding Hood,” but does not read the ending. Students then work in small groups to create a tableaux (a frozen dramatic scene) of their own ending to the tale and share it with their classmates. This activates their prior knowledge of the tale, demonstrates their understanding of narrative structure, and activates various literacies.

In the second stage, conceptualizing/analyzing, the teacher introduces a comic version of “Little Red Riding Hood,” e.g., “In Conclusion” from Carroll’s (2014) Through the Woods, to the class. The comic should either be displayed on an interactive white board or given to students as a handout to examine. The teacher then introduces basic comics terminology, such as captions, thought and speech bubbles, and panels, and allows students to notice and reflect upon their use in the sample text. The teacher places the students in groups and asks them to examine how each element of the comic (captions, thought and speech bubbles, and panels) creates a sense of story.

In the final stage, applying, the teacher asks students to select a fairy tale they know in their first language. The teacher should allow students access to the library or the internet to find an English-language version of their selected tales. After selecting a tale, students are given A3 paper and coloring tools or access to a comic-creating website. They are then invited to create their own reinvented comic versions of their selected tale. At the end of the class, students share their comics in small groups. Teachers display student work on classroom walls once the unit is completed.

This unit can be adapted for beginner, intermediate, or advanced learners. Beginner learners should be encouraged to create a comic of a fairy tale covered in class, and their comics can be either wordless or explained with phrases from a word or sentence bank. Advanced learners can create longer or more complex graphic narratives.

Providing in-service teachers with a lesson plan they can try out in their classrooms, especially when asking them to give up the safety net of a textbook, can give them the confidence they need to further experiment with authentic literature independently. Asking them to share their successes and failures with this lesson plan also creates a sense of community in the university classroom.

Primary Sources

Carroll, E. (2014). Through the woods. New York, NY: Faber and Faber.

Duffy, C. (Ed.). (2013). Fairy tale comics. New York, NY: First Second.

References

Bland, J., & Lütge, C. (Eds.). (2013). Children’s literature in second language education. London, England: Bloomsbury.

Elley, W.B. (1989). Vocabulary acquisition from listening to stories. Reading Research Quarterly, 24(2), 174–187. doi:https://doi.org/10.2307/747863

Kumagai, Y., López-Sánchez, A., & Wu. S. (Eds.). (2016). Multiliteracies in world language education. New York, NY: Routledge.

Nation, P. (2015). Principles guiding vocabulary learning through extensive reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 27(1), 136–145.

Wells, G. (2009). The meaning makers: Learning to talk and talking to learn. Bristol, England: Multilingual Matters.

Appendix

Sample comic, created by J. Duggan

Jennifer Duggan is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Humanities at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. Her research interests include children’s and youth literature, fan studies, language acquisition, and comics studies. She has most recently published in International Research in Children’s Literature, Bookbird, and Nordic Journal of Modern Language Methodology.

Anna Krulatz is an associate professor of English in the Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, where she works with pre- and in-service EFL teachers. Her research focuses on multilingualism with English, pragmatic development in adult language learners, content-based instruction, and language teacher education.