Negotiating Graphic Novels: An Analysis of Expert Readers’ Metacognitive Strategies

• In Event: Metacognition, Collaboration, and Response: Innovative Approaches to Building Literacy

Abstract

This study complicates assumptions about reading graphic novels by observing expert-print dominant readers and expert graphic novel readers. This qualitative study analyses the think-alouds of eight expert adolescent readers’ metacognitive strategies used when reading a graphic novel. The video data was analyzed for the occurrence and sequence of metacognitive reading strategies.
Findings showed all readers used individualized patterns of strategy use but the patterns varied greatly depending on reader’s prior graphic novel experiences. Graphic novel readers were adept at chunking and synthesizing illustrations and written text whereas expert print-dominant readers tended to rely on written text alone. These results suggest that graphic novels may not be less cognitively taxing, and instead require different reading strategies from print-dominant texts.

Author

• Laura M. Jimenez, Boston University