Blog #3 Reflections on Visual Art and Graphic Novels

After reading Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese, I was struck by all the elements that can be used for teaching in an English classroom.  The symbol of the transformer (for personal transformation) jumped out to me, but it was only after reading the entire book and reflecting on it that I realized the monkey king is also a symbol for Jin.  I must say that Yang's way of using stories from Chinese culture surprised me.  For example, the figure of Tze-Yo-Tzuh, who is apparently a Chinese holy man or philosopher, was treated very disrespectfully by the monkey king.  Perhaps this is because I have thought of graphic art as a use of comedy and an American convention, but in its use here it causes me to recognize there are legitimate teachable elements in it.  The theme of searching out one's identity and need to belong is universal, but would a critic say it is an Asian American text?  The other thing I thought about is the way that Chin-Kee was a comic figure who humiliated Danny and eventually turned out to have another identity.  But, would a critic say that Chin-Kee was too much of a stereotype or portrayed too negatively?  Given that Yang used the Ha-Ha-Ha to underline all of Chin-Kee's section, I took it to mean he meant it as a humorous portrayal.
Moving on to the coventions of comics, I was struck how the conventions in Dr. Mortimore-Smith's paper were employed throughout the book and were used effectively.  When the monkey king reached the end of all time it was represented with an entire page (73-76).  These made a very strong statement that it was important moment that transcended time.  The other technique I noticed throughout the book was the way Yang used bold type in the dialogue, for me it really made the dialogue come alive.  After Jin kissed Wei-Chen's girlfriend, I felt I could hear Wei-Chen when he was confronting Jin about it.
In class, we haven't yet discussed multicultural texts, but in some of our discussion we have considered the usefulness of comparing texts.  This book certainly makes use of and confronts stereotypes, I'm wondering could this book be successfully used with a book such as To Kill A Mockingbird?  Or would it be suitable for use as an alternate if you had student's similar to Kae, Walter, and Tommy that Wilhelm writes about?
In considering Wilhelm's chapter five and the Frey and Fisher reading, I thought about how they each used visual arts successfully to achieve student success.  While Frey and Fisher's focus was on writing, it stood out to me that use of visual arts and graphic novels brought about a level of engagement and learning that had not been reached using more traditional methods.  The factor that concerns me is time.  In a public school classroom, in which you have a certain amount of ground to cover, how do you handle it if you feel that you can't work in the time involved in Wilhelm's SRI?  I believe there are ways to do it, it just seems daunting when considering all the needs in a typical classroom.
In Wilhelm's introduction of Kae, Tommy, and Walter, he was voicing his concern and frustration at effectively engaging or reaching these students.  In speaking of arts education he quoted a study by Eisner (1992) who identified three aims of arts education.  They are:  "to increase the variety and depth of meaning people can secure in their lives, to develop cognitive potential, which is achieved only through the exercise of various opportunities, and to achieve educational equity" (Wilhelm 162).  Wilhelm further laments that these students were short-changed by the educational system which did not allow them to reach their potential, nor was it educationally equal.  This passage caught my attention in a new way.  In the public school system, it is not acceptable to simply label a student as "unreachable" and give up on them.  We owe it to both ourselves and the student to do everything possible to give them and education equal to that of other students and that always strives to help them reach their full potential.  In Wilhelm's notes about these students he said that they seemed to have no memory of parent's reading to them or little memory of reading illustrated children's books.  I think that is what first made this jump out to me.   These student's are possibly struggling because of an early deficit in visual development.  That is not their fault.  We definitely owe them a fair chance in learning to read.  That being said, I hope Wilhelm's successes can be a model for me in the future.