How Superhero Comics Enhance Learning
My students analyze Captain America deflecting an attack while knocking out Adolf Hitler.
In Captain America: The Winter Solider, which crushed it at the box office, a brainwashed, bionic arm-wielding “Bucky” squares off against the titular hero.
As fate would have it, last week I spoke to another Bucky. But other than a shared name, this Bucky resembles not at all the villain portrayed on the silver screen.
Then again, perhaps that’s not entirely true. Both are very involved with comics.
Prof. James Bucky Carter has written extensively about how comics can enhance education. “A substantial, expanding body of evidence asserts that using graphic novels and comics in the classroom produces effective learning opportunities over a wide range of subjects and benefits various student populations, from hesitant readers to gifted students,” Carter writes in Building Literacy Connections with Graphic Novels.
When teaching American history, I love using comics to heighten engagement. In fact, when covering World War II, I ask my students to analyze the inaugural March 1941 cover of Captain America, depicting super-soldier Steve Rogers…
