The document is a lesson plan for teaching history using comic books. It proposes using comic books, or "true comics", as primary sources to teach students about historical events like the Spanish-American War and Age of Imperialism. The lesson would have students closely read excerpts from comic books and compare them to excerpts from traditional history textbooks. It would also have students analyze presidential speeches from the era. The goal is to help students develop historical analysis skills and better understand the time period by comparing different source materials on the same events.

1. Nothing to Laugh About
Gregory Adler
adlersensei@gmail.com

2. Faster than a speeding bullet.
More powerful than a locomotive.
Able to leap tall buildings in a single
bound.
Look! Up in the sky!
It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Superman!
Yes, it's Superman - strange visitor from
another planet who came to Earth with
powers and abilities far beyond those of
mortal men.
Superman - who can change the course of
mighty rivers, bend steel with his bare
hands,
And who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild
mannered reporter for a great
metropolitan newspaper,
fights the never ending battle for
Truth, Justice and the American Way.

3. Fighting the battle for ….

4. Nothing to Laugh About
Gregory Adler
adlersensei@gmail.com

5. I. Comic Book History
II. True Comics: A lesson plan you can believe in!
III. Online Comic Project: Making History
IV. Comic Questions & Comic Answers (hopefully)
Are you taking notes?
Don’t worry everything’s
online !
Gregory Adler
adlersensei@gmail.com

7. 1930s
Probably a
good issue
for
teachers to
be aware of
Though they
became
known as
“dime store
novels” this
early one
was only
5¢

8. Superhero
NOPE IT’S THE
FIRST ISSUE
OF
SUPERMAN
FROM 1938 !

9. Waiting for Soup & Superman

13. 1940s
Fascism
nazism

15. As those
Sabotage
Plans on
the
table ?

17. New Trestn

18. 1950s
Senate
Hearing on
Juvenile
Delinquency
The dangers of
the Superman
Complex !

19. “…the crime is always real and the
Superman’s triumph over good is
unreal.”

21. (Comic) Book Burning

22. Government Not Far Behind

23. Comic Book Code

24. Comic Clean-up

25. Comic Clean-up (cont.)

26. COMICS MAGAZINE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, INC.
Adopted October 26, 1954
The comic-book medium, having come of age on the American
cultural scene, must measure up to its responsibilities …
…members of the industry must see to it that gains made in this
medium are not lost and that violations of standards of good
taste, will be eliminated.
Therefore, the Comics Magazine Association of America, Inc. has
adopted this code …a landmark in the history of self-regulation
for the entire communications industry.

28. Spiderman Fights Drug Use

29. 1960s


30. Approved
by “Ghost
Writers in
the Sky”

31. 1970s

32. First Issue of
Ms. Magazine
July 1972
And it was
only $1 !

33. Will the Golden
Lasso Make Her
The First
President to Tell
the Truth Too?
Though
10¢ then
it’s worth
$$$$$
today !
That meant
2042, not
1972 but at
least we’re
getting
closer

37. She’s come along way baby…

38. 1980s

39. 1990s & Beyond

40. The Comic Book Experience
“he takes no joy in reading …it will be hard for
him to develop into a life long learner…”
“The first thing he said to me when we got back
… (was) that he had read it three times already.”
Scott
(classroom teacher)

41. “To the Classroom Robin”
• Resource for teacher’s of any age group
• Attention grabber for a lot of learning styles
• Dual use as pop culture primary source for an
era and/or a secondary source on a history
• Comic books naturally use sequence and give
evidence which are CCSS themes
• There is a interesting history to comics

42. True Comics
A Lesson Plan You Can Believe In

43. True Comics
“ Truth is Stranger
and a thousand
times more
thrilling than
FICTION”

44. Levels of Historical Analysis

45. Comic Book
Textbook
Presidential Speech

46. True Comics vs.
Your Textbook:
Comparing Sources
Lesson Content:
Age of Imperialism
Spanish-American War
Courses: World or USH Social Studies
Objectives: -self-reflect on historical
reading skills
-building content knowledge of era of
imperialism
-write a reflection after close reading
Methods: close reading;
summarizing; individual & group
analysis & reflection
Materials: LHA
Chart, Textbook, Sources (True Comics
& textbook excerpts, McKinley Speech
and Aguinaldo Declaration)

50. True Comics vs.
Your Textbook:
Comparing Sources
Lesson Content:
Age of Imperialism
Spanish-American War
Courses: World or USH Social Studies
Objectives: -self-reflect on historical
reading skills
-building content knowledge of era of
imperialism
-write a reflection after close reading
Methods: close reading;
summarizing; individual & group
analysis & reflection
Materials: LHA
Chart, Textbook, Sources (True Comics
excerpt, McKinley Speech and
Aguinaldo Declaration)

51. Levels of Historical Analysis

52. Comic Book: True Comics
Textbook: U.S. or World
Presidential Speeches :
McKinley & Aguinaldo

53. Online Comic Projects:
Making History

54. Comics & the Web

57. Humble Comics by Mr.Yang

59. Global Medium

61. Thank you !
adlersensei@gmail.com
@Tweets2Teach
Q&A