Group Teach 2 / Violent Cases Reactions

This was my first real exposure to graphic novels, and I must admit I have never really done a lot of comic book reading in my lifetime (a few Spiderman reads I believe). I think the nature of the graphic novel is very compelling, especially when the illustrations are analyzed in conjunction with the words. These types of novels seem to be much more aesthetic, and having a class read one could be a nice change of pace from the typical novel.

I enjoyed reading the novel simply because I have never really read a graphic novel before. The illustrations were very intriguing, and I wish I could have spent more time making connections these and the print; however, I'm not sure I'm completely satisfied with its content. From the beginning I thought Violent Cases would be more about the narrator's abusive and unstable childhood. Since this was my expectation, reading through and learning that the novel focused on his fascination with gangsters, I was a little let down. This is not to say that this wasn't a brilliant idea, it's just not where I saw the novel going, so I feel this is why I was a little unsatisfied. Additionally, as Trevor alluded to in class, I don't know if I walked away from the novel with any real sense of how this character changed. The apparent static nature of the narrator left me personally with a feeling of emptiness because the novel details his specific fragmented memory, and it doesn't end with the narrator's current thoughts on the situation (although I realize this probably wasn't the goal of the novel itself).

After reading Violent Cases I was really interested to see what the group was going to do with this novel because I personally thought it would be difficult to teach for 2 1/2 hours. Well they proved me wrong! I really liked how we discussed the issue of memory and performed the activity to recall details of a well-known world event. It really engaged the classroom and made us begin to analyze the nuances of memory that are very complex. The comic activity was also very interesting, especially when the second sheet was passed out. Typically, the words do explain the pictures and there is a sequential pattern. The second sheet challenged that and made us begin to question the characteristics that are embodied by a comic. Finally, another moment that really stuck out for me, was when Cassie read that statistic of how many more words students are exposed to in comic books than typical novels. This was quite astounding and gave me enough reason to look into teaching these types of books in my classroom. The only thing I wish we could have discussed a little more was the illustrations themselves, but I know time was running short. Overall, I thought the group did a very good job in exploring Violent Cases and the graphic novel in general.