What's Your Fandom? | Carrie Rogers-Whitehead | TEDxSaltLakeCity
The speaker argues that utilizing graphic novels and fandoms, rather than traditional book clubs, is a more effective educational tool for at-risk youth because the combination of words and images supports cognitive learning principles and fosters deep engagement. She provides evidence by recounting how the manga *Death Note* revitalized a previously disengaged unit, and personal anecdotes regarding superhero identification and finding self within fictional characters strengthen this claim.
## Speakers & Context
- Speaker: Worked coordinating book clubs for youth in detention.
- Initial difficulty: Reaching teens in detention units with varied ages, reading levels, cultural backgrounds, and for whom reading was not a top priority.
- Problem observed: Glazed over faces, disinterest, and declining book club attendance when using traditional book club models.
## Theses & Positions
- Traditional book club models are ineffective for diverse groups of at-risk youth because literacy is not one-size-fits-all.
- Graphic novels and fandoms are powerful educational tools that facilitate learning by providing both textual and visual information.
- The most critical element of learning is engagement, and graphic novels achieve this by tapping into pre-existing passion (fandoms).
- Graphic novels and fandoms offer a path not just to academic literacy but to self-creation, leading students to writing, software skills, and tangible community building.
## Concepts & Definitions
- **Graphic Novel:** A type of manga/comic book that is sequential art in novel form; can cover fiction or non-fiction across many genres and ages.
- **Fandom:** The emotional attachment or deep interest in a specific book, TV show, or movie that generates excitement and anticipation for future installments.
- **Multimedia Principle (Richard Mayer):** The principle that people learn better from combining words and images rather than from words alone.
- **Auditory and Visual Channels:** Theoretical separate channels in the brain for processing information, both with limited capacity.
## Mechanisms & Processes
- **Death Note mechanism:** Used manga (*Death Note* by Light Yagami, featuring a black notebook that kills whoever is written in) to engage students, shifting discussion beyond mere plot summary to topics of morality and social issues.
- **Graphic Novel mechanism:** Works with the multimedia principle by stimulating both the word-based and image-based channels of the brain, reinforcing concepts through dual sensory input.
- **Hulk identification:** The Hulk represents a flawed character (mild-mannered scientist turning into a destructive Hulk) that the student found comforting and relatable.
- **Refugee identification:** Refugee students immediately understood the universal symbol of Superman, linking art to shared experiences of displacement.
## Named Entities
- **Light Yagami:** Character from the *Death Note* manga who possesses the titular notebook.
- **Bilbo Baggins:** Character from *The Hobbit*; the speaker identified with him due to her own feelings of having "no power as a kid."
- **The Hulk:** Character described as a mild-mannered scientist by day, transforming into a destructive being when angry.
- **Superman:** Character whose universal symbol was recognizable to refugee students despite English not being their first language.
## Numbers & Data
- The speaker's experience: Coordination of book clubs for youth in detention.
- Improvement metric: Unit reading gains increased compared to other units after implementing *Death Note*.
- Units expansion: Two book clubs expanded to six.
## Examples & Cases
- **Initial failure:** Book club discussions failed due to mixed reading levels, cultural backgrounds, and low reading priority among teens.
- **Success Case 1 (Death Note):** Reading *Death Note* revitalized students, shifting discussions to morality and social issues.
- **Success Case 2 (Superhero Teen):** A student struggling in school immersed himself in comics, finding comfort in flawed, yet capable, heroes like the Hulk.
- **Success Case 3 (Refugees):** Refugee students using graphic novels instantly recognized the Superman symbol, while also connecting to Superman's own history as a refugee.
- **Personal Connection:** The speaker related to Bilbo Baggins because she felt she was "smaller" and lacked power at a difficult age.
- **Student Creation:** Students have utilized skills learned through fandoms to write novels on fanfiction.net and teach themselves software to illustrate characters.
## Tools, Tech & Products
- **Death Note:** A manga/graphic novel about Light Yagami possessing a black notebook.
- **Graphic Novels:** Medium described as sequential art in novel form, adaptable for fiction or non-fiction.
- **Fanfiction.net:** Platform where students have written novels.
- **Software:** Students have taught themselves software to illustrate favorite characters.
## References Cited
- **Richard Mayer's multimedia principle:** Academic theory regarding superior learning retention from combining words and images.
- **The Hobbit:** Novel featuring Bilbo Baggins.
## Counterarguments & Caveats
- The stereotype that graphic novels are "not real literature" or "not hard enough."
- The initial difficulty in reaching students who had low reading prioritization.
## Methodology
- **Initial approach:** Traditional, standardized book discussion model.
- **Revised approach:** Shift to fandom-based engagement via graphic novels, leveraging the dual-channel processing strength of combining visual and textual data.
- **Learning confirmation:** Measuring increased reading gains and sustained interest ("The kids continue to read").
## Implications & Consequences
- Learning is fundamentally an active process, and engagement is the most important component of that process.
- The value of fandoms extends beyond entertainment into tangible skill acquisition (writing, coding, artistic illustration) and community building.
## Verbatim Moments
- *"Literacy is not onesizefits all."*
- *"Soon, life came back into these students faces."*
- *"I never read until I came here, but I sure will read once I get out."*
- *"I doubt many of you have read them in school. I know I was never assigned any."*
- *"Everyone has a fandom. You might just not call it that."*
- *"graphic novels and the fandoms they described aren't just fun, they're a tool for learning."*
- *"When you see them, your brain retrieves the concept of a dog both as a word and an image, you know what it is both ways."*
- *"What character do you identify with? What's your fandom?"*
- *"What you find fun, you stay with."*
- *"Don't dismiss graphic novels and fandoms. Instead, when you're working with students, don't just ask them what their favorite subject in school is. Ask them, 'What's your fandom?'"*