Graphic Novels and Visual Literacy Handout

V for Vendetta 

Brief Summary: 

The book takes place in a post-war England in 1997. A fascist regime has taken over and the government is controlling of its citizens. There is relatively no privacy as the government watches, listens to, and monitors everyone. The "undesirable" people have been eliminated in "resettlement camps." The government believes in strength through unity and no individual liberties. The book centers around two main characters along with an array of other government figures. V is an anarchist who is determined to take down the fascist regime in England and restore justice to the people. Evey is a sixteen-year-old orphan who is saved by V and later becomes his protege. 

Themes:

  • Law and Justice
  • Anarchy
  • Gender
  • Surveillance and Censorship
  • Hero vs. Villain (Good vs, Evil)
  • Morality
  • Discrimination
  • Freedom and Happiness 
  • Power of Ideas
  • Terrorism 

Why I Chose This Book: 

The first reason of why I chose this book was because I fell in love with the movie many years ago. When I was researching graphic novels and visual literacy, one of the sites I found mentioned V for Vendetta as a graphic novel to teach in the classroom. I was a bit surprised at first because I thought that the ideas and issues in the book might be too controversial or intense for a high school E.L.A. classroom. Apparently I was not the only one who had these concerns because most of the sources for teaching V for Vendetta gave a brief defense of why it should be taught in the classroom. Students are exposed to violence, drugs, and sexual content on a daily basis. Instead of banning it from the classroom and ignoring its existence, teachers should welcome the controversial topics and use it as an opportunity to teach students what they can do when they encounter these topics. It is also an engaging way for students to explore, create, and defend their own opinions on these controversial topics. Needless to say, I was very excited to see how I could incorporate this book into a high school classroom. 

Teaching Ideas: 

1. Page analysis 
    • Students will be asked to analyze the first page, or whichever page they choose, of the graphic novel. They will take the words and graphics from the page and create their own narrative version of the story. This activity will show students just how much information there is in a single page and a single panel. 
    • Differentiation: for students who may struggle with writing or reading, the assignment could be altered in a couple of ways. The student could be given a couple panels to analyze or write their observations in bullet-points instead of paragraphs.
    2.  Four Corners 
    • In each corner of the room, there will be a poster board attached to the wall with a different question/topic on each. The class will be divided into four groups and sent to each one of the corners. In their group, they will read the topic and generate comments, ideas, questions, and conclusions about that given topic. They will write their comments on the poster. Once they have finished writing, the groups will all move clockwise to the next corner of the room. They will begin by reading the topic and the previous group's comments before adding to them or coming up with their own ideas. This will continue until the groups have been to each corner of the room. At this point, the class will come back together as a whole group and discuss the main ideas of each poster and answer any questions that came up during the activity. This activity is beneficial because it involves both intellectual and physical movement around the room. It is also a great way for teachers to formatively assess their students while the students collaborate in groups. 
    3. Analytical Essays
    • Students will choose a topic or issue that interests them from the book and write an analytical essay about it. Possible topics can be provided by the teacher for struggling students, but the students will be encouraged to pick something that interests them. This will allow for student choice and creativity. It also allows students to engage with a topic that they are passionate about or want to learn more about. 
    • This could easily be transformed into a presentation, video, handout, or other form of assessment depending on the students' interests and time allowance. 
    4. Daily Journals 
    • Have students keep a daily journal while reading V for Vendetta. Each day at the beginning of class students will be given a prompt question that correlates with their reading to get them thinking about the book and the big ideas of the book. This will help gauge where they are with certain issues in the book and lets the teacher know what they need to spend more time on. 

    Potential Issues and Challenges: 

    As previously mentioned, the graphic novel does deal with controversial topics that some may find inappropriate for a high school classroom. However, I think that the book can be a great tool if used right. Teachers need to provide a safe environment and adequate class time to discuss the controversial issues with their students. There has to be open dialogue instead of just sending your students off to read the book by themselves. Another challenge to teaching this book is the length and depth of the text. It would require a few weeks worth of class time to teach the graphic novel, but if the planning and preparation is done right, then it should not be a big problem. Just something to keep in mind. The last challenge would be the difficulty of the panels. It can be hard for some students to follow along with the panels and understand what is happening on each page with so much information. I would suggest that teachers use this as an opportunity to scaffold the reading and give extra supports to the whole class and specific students who need it. This could be guided notes, chapter summaries, book club groups to discuss what's happening in the book, and proper chunking of the book. 

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