#8 Sept 11th and comics, pop culture as history, writing norms
#8 Sept 11th and comics, pop culture as history, writing norms
As Stephen King would always say – welcome, dear reader. Seriously – thank you so much for reading my randomness and I hope it brings some helpful information for you. As I write this, I am exhausted. We just had our back-to-school professional development week and it was… not super helpful. So much information and expectations keep being put onto teachers’ plates and nothing is ever taken off. We had very little time in our classrooms, so I put in extra time on my day off and my entire weekend so that I am ready for what is important – our students on Monday. I CANNOT wait to meet my new students and to do what I am good at and love to do.
Before I get into this week’s blog – I wanted to share again that I will be presenting at the National WW2 Museum in New Orleans on September 19th and just can’t wait! It’d be awesome to see you there…. But the great news is that if you can’t make it, we will be doing a shorter version of it ONLINE on September 23, 2026, 6:00-7:00 PM eastern time. The session is described as: “Bring the art and history of editorial cartoons into your classroom with this free educator webinar inspired by the special exhibit Drawn to Combat: Bill Mauldin & The Art of War. Explore the life and work of World War II cartoonist Bill Mauldin and discover engaging strategies for using editorial cartoons, comics, and other visual sources in the classroom. Through interactive activities and classroom-ready resources, educators will explore practical approaches for analyzing historical context, perspective, symbolism, satire, and visual storytelling with their students.”
PLEASE share: The link to register for the free seminar is https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8Ka5G8eQSDOoBs6KtTT8eA#/registration
9/11 – this is always a tough topic for those of us who lived through the events of this day. It’s been odd seeing it sort of fade a bit as our students weren’t even born yet. It is so important to not overwhelm our students with the emotional toll of this day – I have cringed in some classrooms when teachers dump their emotional baggage on the kids. Not saying that I don’t understand these feelings – I really do. But I remember my daughter coming home from elementary school visibly shook s she told me about what was done in her class that day – it really traumatized her. I use The Amazing Spider-Man #36 comic (the Black issue) to bring in my high school students in a way that I don’t think I could without it. It also opens the conversation in class about what “history” really is and what “artifacts” are. Yes, comics and pop culture really are artifacts and can teach us a lot about the time period and its society. You can find this issue for $.99 or even free on Amazon in their digital reader. You can also buy a copy from eBay for maybe $50 or so. I have several print copies. I wrote an article for PBS Newshour on how I use the comic - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/classroom/lesson-plans/2025/09/lesson-plan-teaching-9-11-through-comics , but the entire lesson I use is not in the article. I wrote a lot about this lesson in my book, Teaching with Comics and Graphic Novels.., but seeing as you are reading my blog, I thought I’d include my entire lesson here if you are interested in using it.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/182BvQ3WslBxAupoQ-y4UJlqtrQbx20wemB1whS9AOZU/edit?usp=sharing
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out – historycomicsguy@gmail.com
On the second day of school, I present a lesson to introduce the concept of what we will learn about in social studies. That history is all around us and not just about George Washington, etc. I give the students a worksheet (see below) to fill out as I give the PowerPoint presentation. They are to write down if they think these slides contain history/subjects that can be taught in social studies. After we review them, I explain that the only correct answer is YES for each one.
You can access the presentation here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gIYxfR97xYl0KYx7mwrB_p3z-rOv1q8WqmMgRUMS05A/edit?usp=sharing
The worksheet is here:
1. Quietly define/explain what you think the term Social Studies means in 3-5 sentences. How would you explain what is done/learned in a social studies course? Imagine you are explaining this to someone who has never been in a social studies classroom before. GIVE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES. There are NO WRONG ANSWERS – your opinion
2. Now explain what social studies is NOT – what are things you would not expect to do/learn in social studies? GIVE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES
As we go through the PowerPoint, write down “yes or no” – would you learn about this in a social studies classroom? Briefly describe/explain why or why not in two sentences or so.
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16. What is something that YOU would want to learn about in social studies class? Maybe something you haven’t learned about yet. Briefly explain why.
17. If you were a social studies teacher, what is a lesson you would want to do? Briefly describe it.
18. Table Talk – pair/share your answers. What is something that stood out to you in your conversations?
*On the second day of school, I have now engaged and hooked the kids, made history more relevant to their daily lives, AND established reading and writing norms in the classroom. Not too shabby!* AND we have a conversation about always needing to back up answers with textual or visual evidence.
Well… that’s a lot for week 8! I hope you found some things in here that you can use in your classroom. Please share my blog and leave me a comment. As always – if you can use me at a convention or your institution – contact me at historycomicsguy@gmail.com