This presentation offers several pedagogical strategies to add variety in the language classroom using literary texts. These strategies include changing the chronological sequences of literary periods, building thematic syllabi, creating intertextual syllabi, and using comics. In this case ?comics? refers to book length comics, generally called graphic novels and at times drawn novels or drawn books. Though comic strips from the newspaper can offer interesting drill-type or workbook style exercises, my main interest in literary studies is story-structure and narratology or narrative study. So, I will not be discussing Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbs, Mafalda, or those ?comics? which readily come to mind. Another difference in terminology is my use of ?language classroom.? As the majority of the subjects I teach are content subjects, I see most all classes in a professional foreign language program as ?language classes.? In this way a literature course is also a language course. Though many of the strategies presented today are geared towards literature courses, several of the strategies can be applied to language classes as well. Some other pedagogical variations which I will discuss, include reader response journals, film and non-canonical works.
