More Than Mere Motivation: Learning Specific Content Through Multimodal Narratives

This study explores the possibilities for learning content that might accompany the use of an historically accurate graphic novel as part of a language arts instructional unit. During a 6-day unit, 16 sixth grade students engaged in graphic novels in ways that support comprehension, both in the context of a graphic novel text set and a specific novel, One Dead Spy. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis, we evaluated student learning of content related to the topic of the American Revolution. Results indicate that engaging students in instruction around the novel built the background knowledge on the topic, as well as increasing their understanding of the topic as measured by a free-recall assessment. In addition, the unit posttest indicated significant learning around conceptual ideas.