Presentation at the Networked Learning Community (NLC) Symposium on 2 Nov 2015. Pedagogical value of cartoons in the History Classroom by Lloyd Yeo (St Gabriel's School), Ezal (Fairfield Methodist) and Joseph Tham (Crescent Girls)

1. The Pedagogical Value of
Comics in the History
Classroom:
An Exploratory Case-Study
Presenters:
Mr Lloyd Yeo, SGSS
Mr Joseph Tham, CGS
Mr Ezal, FMSS
NLC Symposium 2015
1230pm to 115pm
Uploaded on:
http://www.slideshare.net/Lloyd
Yeo/pedagogical-value-of-
cartoons-in-the-history-
classroom

2. Introduction: The Problem with Comics
in Literature
“They are thrice damned: damned as a culture, as a medium and
as a genre”.
Purpose: “Damned as culture, being popular not ‘high”
People: At best suitable only for children (and retarded adults)
Process/ Approach: Outlandish fantasy involving absurd
characters acting in the most bizarre fashion – the very
antithesis, one might think, of plausibility.”
Impact: positively harmful at worst….a perverse hybrid
Locke, (2005)

3. Introduction: The Problem with Comics
in Literature
They are thrice damned
“Damned as culture, being popular not ‘high’
“Damned as a medium, being neither art nor literature but some perverse
hybrid, at best suitable only for children (and retarded adults), at worst
positively harmful
“Damned as a genre, being the most outlandish fantasy involving absurd
characters acting in the most bizarre fashion – the very antithesis, one might
think, of plausibility.”

4. Our Failed Classroom Experiments
How to Use Comics in Class
Student-generated SBQs
General literacy, specific
medium literacy, metacognition,
reading and writing vs. specific
history use
Comic List

5. Methods & Theory
Expressive Constructivism (Millwood & Riley, 1988)
a. Knowledge is a mental
representation.
b. It is not passively received but is
actively built up.
c. The function of cognition is
adaptive. Does it fit? Is it viable?
Is it right? This is frequently
experienced. Its expression is not
necessarily linguistically…
d. Cognition organizes the person’s
experiential world and vice versa.
It is not about the discovery of an
objective ontological reality.

6. This is what we did in our classroom
Area of Focus School By
Using cartoons to
enhance Historical
empathy
Fairfield
Methodist
Ezal
Using cartoons to
enhance Historical
creativity
St Gabriel’s Lloyd
Yeo
Using cartoons to
understand Historical
reliability
Crescent
Girls
Joseph
Tham

7. FAIRFIELD METHODIST SCHOOL (SECONDARY)
1. Using Cartoons to Enhance
Historical Empathy

8.  Research Question : How does the use of cartoons
increase Historical Empathy among students?
 Methodology: Using 2 graphic novels (excerpts) as
triggers and source-based activities in the teaching of the
Outbreak of WWII in Asia Pacific / Reasons for Defeat of
Japan. Also to watch the Anime to reinforce what they
have read.
 Sample size/description: Sec 3 Express (34 students)
 Students took survey (Created by Middle Tennessee
State University – Psychology Department)
Using Cartoons to Enhance Historical
Empathy

9.  ‘Historical Empathy’
involves understanding
how people from the past
thought, felt, made
decisions, acted and faced
consequences within a
specific historical and social
context (Endacott and
Brooks, 2013)
Using Cartoons to Enhance Historical
Empathy
Gen! Are you
running away?
You Rat!
Stop Crying! Go
with your
mother!
• Use of Macro History as
Backdrop
• Comparison and
Contrast to hook them
in
(Relationships/feelings/
plots/ character
development)

10.  Students have
grown with TV,
Games, Computers
and they need
graphics to help
them understand
messages
(McTarggart, 2008)
 Inference on
reasons as to why
Japan went to war
Using Cartoons to Enhance Historical
Empathy
They had their feet
together and jumped
into the ocean!
I saw a suicide!
Some kids don’t
even have money
for lunch!

11. Using Cartoons to Enhance Historical
Empathy

12. Using Cartoons to Enhance Historical
Empathy

13. Using Cartoons to Enhance Historical
Empathy
What do you like about studying history through
Anime / Comics?
it helps me to understand how the people in the past felt during that period of time as
well as to understand their current plight. it makes it easier to understand concepts in
history textbooks.
I get to see different people's perspective and views on certain history happenings.
It shows a diff perspective of matters
it is more interesting to read comics than a whole chunk of words in the textbook
it is easier to visualise what happens to them and understand how they felt.

14. Using Cartoons to Enhance Historical
Empathy
What do you like about studying history through
Anime / Comics?
it helps me to understand how the people in the past felt during that period of time as
well as to understand their current plight. it makes it easier to understand concepts in
history textbooks.
I get to see different people's perspective and views on certain history happenings.
It shows a diff perspective of matters
it is more interesting to read comics than a whole chunk of words in the textbook
it is easier to visualise what happens to them and understand how they felt.

15. ST GABRIEL’S SECONDARY SCHOOL (SECONDARY)
2. Using Cartoons to Enhance
Historical Creativity

16.  Research Question : How do students design their own
historical cartoons? What is its pedagogical value? How do
students experience it?
 Methodology: (Next slide)
 Sample size/description: 6 Sec 1 classes (240 students)
 Semi-structured interviews & student group and individual
work
Using Cartoons to Enhance Historical
Creativity

17. Adapted from interpretations of Argyris's writings:
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/argyris.htm and http://bsix12.com/double-loop-
learning/
Pre-Intro/ Cartoon
Schema
 Elements of
cartoons
 Local history
examples
 Punchlines
 Prior knowledge
Group Work
 Inquiry question
 Scaffolds
 Avatar Creation
 Sources
 Problem/ Resolution
 Freedom (Drawn vs
electronic
 Templated cartoons
and scripts
 Tr feedback and
comments Individual Work
Using Cartoons to Enhance Historical
Creativity/ Methodology

18. Importance of prior knowledge & avatar creation
In P5 and P6 social studies. They talk a lot
about coolies.
Internet: I was on the internet and some people
claim to see weird things like UFOs. It could be
fake but I thought I would include that just for fun.
History Book: For the background I was like
looking at the sources in the history book.
I noticed certain styles that I could take note of
like the building having like curves.
Literature: We got some inspiration from the
Street of the Night Market because it was our
Literature text and set around this …People
struggling to get jobs and money to pay rent
Group Work: I also remembered the previous
group work.
Using Cartoons to Enhance Historical
Creativity
Background
Materials Experience

19. I made up the GDM
club. I remember
Europeans and
Eurasians tend to
have their own club
and Chinese were
not allowed in. So I
added another club.
I always remember
seeing this kind of
thing around
Singapore and in
most Chinatown in
the world. So this is
the entrance to
China Town.
I got this idea from Street of the Small Night Market.
The family was struggling to pay rent for a house
which had pretty bad living conditions. That explains
why I drew like cracks all over the building to make it
pretty old and not well-maintained.

20. Role of inspiration from the moment, loose-
ness/ creativity & punchlines
Using Cartoons to Enhance Historical
Creativity
This is another comical thing that will not happen in real
life. A random piece of paper advertisement flies into his
hand. It is not logical.
I didn’t know what to draw at first. Then when I was crossing the street to
get to the MRT, I saw this taxi about jobsstreet.com. Then I realized that it
was about an application to get jobs. So, I thought maybe it’d be comical to
get a Chinese national to randomly find a piece of paper talking about jobs

21. 1. Historical visualization through stories
Sometimes teacher will say, “Can you try and visualize what their life is like?”. And
then you realize that that’s all you can think of. But when we did this, this opened our
mind . So this really help (us) visualize a lot.
2. Historical agency/ ownership through creativity
“Historical agency brings out the relationship between structural forces and the
historical actors to the forefront of the historical event. … That is, human beings as
autonomous agents with abilities to affect change, yet there are social structures
that constrain and limit what individuals can do” (Damico, Baildon & Greenstone, 2010)
3. Affective/ Motivation value"
“It was vey fun. After doing it, I was very proud of what I had done. I kept looking
through it. It makes me real proud that I had created and something and it is something
I have never done before.”
4. Means to An End
Micro-History:
Technology
Context
Jigsaw
Using Cartoons to Enhance Historical
Creativity

22. 3. Using Cartoons to Understand
Historical Reliability
Crescent Girl’s Secondary School
 Research Question : How can you use
graphic novels to teach historical
reliability? (part of a larger project)
 Methodology: Using graphic novels
(excerpts) and ICT platforms to elicit
student understanding of historical
reliability.
 Sample size/description: Sec 3 Express
(20 students)
 Student online responses and survey
 Definition of Historical reliability:
Event/ Macro history

23. Using Cartoons to Understand
Historical Reliability
 Comics/Graphic Novel as alternative
text (Historical biography)
 Generation of more interest
 Teaching of historical concepts –
Reliability, Empathy, Perspective
 Deepening of contextual knowledge
 Self-directed learning
 21st Century Competencies –
Knowledge construction &
Collaboration

24.  Lesson Package:
- Out of classroom
- Online portal: Spectrum
- Bite-sized lesson activities
- Longitudinal lesson package
(stretched over 4 weeks)
- Submission of students’
responses, completed works,
etc. online
Student Instructions:
 Students divided into groups
• Each group in charge of 1-2
selected pages from the
graphic novel
• They first examined the
reliability of the content of
the given page(s)
• Proceeded to verify the
validity of the page(s) using
other sources like books &
online websites
Using Cartoons to Understand
Historical Reliability

25. Using Cartoons to Understand
Historical Reliability
Spectrum as Lesson Platform

26. Using Cartoons to Understand
Historical Reliability
Lesson Package Page

27. Sample 1 of Student’s Work

28. Sample 2 of Students’ Work
rule of Hitler, (1933-1945),

29. Group No. &
Page No.
Name 1 Name 2 Name 3 Name 4 Resource 1 Resource 2
Resourc
e 3
Resource 4
1 (p. 34-35) Yijun Wenxin Venetia Minetta
http://www.ushmm.o
rg/outreach/en/articl
e.php?ModuleId=100
07697
http://www.garethjones.org/g
erman_articles/under_hitler_1.
htm
https://muse.jhu.
edu/login?auth=0
&type=summary
&url=/journals/pr
ooftexts/v021/21.
3budick.html
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/s/spiegelman.htm
2 (p. 38-39) Angelene Kathleen Kai Wen Natalie
http://www.history.c
om/this-day-in-
history/germans-
invade-poland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I
nvasion_of_Poland#Phase_1:_
German_invasion
http://www.pola
ndinexile.com/ar
my1.htm
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaic
a/ejud_0002_0019_0_18918.html
3 (p. 80-81) Amirah Indira Sue Hin Yu Han
http://www.historypl
ace.com/
worldwar2/holocaust
/timeline.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne
ws/article-2298027/
The-little-ones-got-away-
Incredible-stories-Jewish-
children-survived-Nazi-
holocaust.html
http://www.ush
mm.org/
outreach/en/artic
le.
php?ModuleId=1
0007704
http://www.ushmm.org/
exhibition/hidden-children/insideX/
4 (p.82-83) Gek Chi Olivia Theresa Su Ning
John Boyne,The Boy
in the Striped
Pyjamas,Vintage,2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne
ws/article-2298027/
The-little-ones-got-away-
Incredible-stories-Jewish-
children-survived-Nazi-
holocaust.html
Website-
http://www.histo
ryplace.com/worl
dhistory/genocid
e/holocaust.htm
website-
http://knowledgenuts.com/2013/10/02/hitlers-late-
night-television/
Student Reference for Research

30. Post-lesson Survey Results

31. Post-lesson Survey Results

32. Post-lesson Survey Results

33. Post-lesson Survey Results

34. Post-lesson Survey Results

35. Post-lesson Survey Results

36. Other History-based Graphic Novels

37. Conclusion
Understanding Comics, Scott
McCloud
Area of focus
and interplay
Any artist creating any
work in any medium will
always follow these six
steps whether they realize
it or not, and that their
order is innate.
All aspects of comics have
the potential for self-
expression but the more a
creator learns to
command every aspect of
their art and to
understand their
relationship to it, the
more likely they can focus
on innermost aspects.
An artist’s skill is
fundamentally related to
the depth of their
understanding in relation
to these layers.
For Historical
Empathy
For Historical
Creativity
For Historical
Reliability
Context/
Historicity
Audience/
perspective/
creativity
Impact/Form
McCloud,
1993

38. Discussion: The Pedagogical Value of Cartoons
1. Historical visualization through stories
Sometimes teacher will say, “Can you try and visualize
what their life is like?”. And then you realize that there’s
this but that’s all you can think of. But when we did this, this
open our mind to all the things that they could do. So this
really help (us) visualize a lot.

39. Discussion: The pedagogical value of cartoons
2. Historical agency/ ownership through
creativity
It s new way for history. What is the first thing you think of
when you say to him ‘History’. He will straight away say
boring people. Historian. Talk about history. Artifacts.
How about history lesson? Worksheets on history. Research.
For drawing maybe just sketches of artifacts and re-
creations of it but no one would think of comics
I thought it was an easier way to earn marks and better than
just writing PEELS all the time. It was getting a bit boring. I
thought this was really something unique that I don’t see in
Primary School.

40. 3. Historical thinking (i.e. reliablity
and empathy) through comics
Typical vs atypical vs use of various devices to measure believability/
reliability

41. * Within Schools : Scalability . Across levels.
 Crescent Girls: Action Research
 St Gabriel’s : PLC Sharing and student
publications. Online space.
 Fairfield Methodist: PLC Project
* Possibility for Workshops for 2016 (S2 Zone)
Future Plans

42. Presenter contacts:
1. Joseph Tham: tham_chin_pang@crescent.edu.sg
21st Century Learning Design: http://cradle.crescent.edu.sg/
2. Lloyd Yeo: lloyd_yeo@moe.edu.sg
Student cartoons: http://www.slideshare.net/LloydYeo/student-
interpreations-of-singapore-immigration-in-the-19th-century-54713384
3. Ezal: ezal.fmss@fairfieldsec.org
Some Quick Links…

43.  Gravett, Paul. (2005).Graphic Novels: Stories to Change Your Life. New York: HarperCollins.
 Carrye Kay Syman, Carrye Kay & Weiner, Robert G. (2013). Graphic Novels and Comics in the Classroom.
Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc.
 Damico, J.S., Baildon, M., & Greenstone, D. “Examining How Historical Agency Works in Children’s
Literature,” Social Studies Research and Practice 5, no. 1 (2010), 1-12
 Eisner, W. (1996) Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative. Florida: Poorhouse Press
 Clark, J. Spencer Clark .(2013). Encounters with Historical Agency: The Value of Nonfiction Graphic Novels in
the Classroom. The History Teacher, 46 (4).
 Tatalovic, M. (Dec, 2009.) Science comics as tools for science education and communication: a brief,
exploratory study. Journal of Science Communications. 8 (4).
 Bickford III , John H. (2010). Complicating Students’ Historical Thinking through Primary Source Reinvention.
Social Studies Research and Practice, 5,2.
 La Paz, Susan De La Paz and Felton, Mark K. (2010). Reading and writing from multiple source documents in
history. Contemporary Educational Psychology 35 (2010) 174–19
 McCloud, S. (2000). Reinventing Comics. New York: Paradox Press.
 Websites
 http://www.madehow.com/Volume-6/Comic-Book.html/
http://www.scholastic.com/graphix/scholastic_bonediscussion.pdf
Selected Readings