I’ve mentioned my fondness for TOON Books’ comics for emergent readers before herehere and here. They are doing terrific work making comics/graphic fiction that is age-apppropriate and suited to the reading levels of our youngest patrons. Their online work continues to grow, too. The Benny and Penny blog and the online full-text access that reads aloud to students in multiple languages give our students online destinations that meet students where they are.

Today I learned about TOON Books’ online CarTOON Maker, which lets kids create their own one-panel comics featuring characters from the TOON Books list. This could be a great way to help students create dialogue, use computers in elementary fixed schedule as literacy centers, or much more.

TOON Books - Easy to Read Comics via kwout

Last week’s blog post about the National Archives (featuring Dorothea Lange’s photo of a migrant worker) reminded me of the Dorothea Lange photos collected by Calisphere showing the Japanese relocation to Manzanar, California during World War II.

I knew Lange best for this image:

We Are California - The Great Internal Migrations via kwout

So when I stumbled on the Lange/Manzanar photos a few months ago, I was really surprised.   The Japanese internment experience is rarely discussed during World War II, but when it is, it adds a powerful dimension and can provoke conversations about who is “really” American at a time when anti-immigration policies are ramping up again. The photos show folks who do what “we Americans” do, challenging the anti-Asian racism of the time.

As I browsed the images again, I realized that there is huge power in the juxtaposition of images.  One thing we can do with students regardless of age is tap into their visual learning preference by asking them to comment not just on one image but on two juxtaposed images.  For example, here are screenshots of two wash lines.  If you showed one and asked students to comment on the owners, then showed the other and asked the same question, how would the student responses differ? What if they were the same laundry line? What can we learn about citizens whose clothelines contain both Eastern and Western clothing? How could this connect them to a conversation about Japanese internment, pride in Japanese heritage, or the historical setting of Farewell to Manzanar?

Source: Calisphere

Source: Calisphere

You can view more of the Dorothea Lange photodocumentation of Japanese internment on the Calisphere Web site.

Prezi! Glogster! Museum Box! and more! All part of AASL’s 2010 update to the Best Websites for Teaching and Learning list. Check out the new list here:

ALA | Top 25 | Best Websites for Teaching and Learning via kwout