I Hate Writing: Making a Case for the Creation of Graphic Novels in the Caribbean English Classroom to Develop Students’ Creative Writing Skills

ABSTRACT

Caribbean students are repeatedly engaged in rigid forms of writing to meet the requirements of external exams, which often leads to negative attitudes to writing. With current shifts to multimodal and multi-literate texts to engage students’ multiple literacies in learning, students’ creation of graphic novels in Caribbean English classrooms can enable their engagement in meaningful creative writing. To illustrate this, I draw on my recent experiences with four inner-city boys at a Jamaican high school who showed marked improvement in their attitudes and their creative writing skills after creating graphic novels. The preliminary findings from my research suggest a need for more personalised learning strategies and for more opportunities for students to use their home language in Caribbean classrooms.

KEYWORDS:

• Graphic novels
• Caribbean
• English
• creative writing skills
• multimodal
• multiliteracies

Acknowledgments

Thanks to my husband, Peter, for his remarkable support throughout this writing process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tanya Manning-Lewis

Tanya Manning-Lewis is a 3rd year PhD student and sessional instructor at the University of Victoria, Canada in the department of Curriculum and Instruction. Her research interests include language and identity in schools, ESL learners’ success in English classrooms and Caribbean Masculinities. She was a teacher and youth advocate in Jamaica for over 14 years where she worked to develop a number of programmes for at risk youths.