Graphic Novels Better Than Text Alone? Struggling Readers' Inferences

• In Event: Technology, Literacy, and Learning

Abstract

Using think aloud protocols, we investigated the inferences sixteen minority 6th grade struggling readers made while reading traditional text and graphic novel excerpts of the same stories. Each student participated in two think-aloud sessions, once reading an excerpt in text format and once in graphic novel form. Participants either read one sentence or one graphic panel, at a time, and talked aloud all thoughts they had about the content. The most interesting differences were that in the graphics condition, participants made a higher percentage of inferences about backward or explanatory inferences, and inferences about goals of characters. In contrast, in the text condition, participants made a higher percentage of inferences about characters’ emotions.

Authors

• Glenn Gordon Smith, University of South Florida

• Beth Jordan, University of South Florida