With the popularity of comic adaptations on television and at the movies, these current topics can be a great way to engage students by bringing characters and stories they connect with into the classroom to help them build the skills that they need to be successful. Comic Connections: Reflecting on Women in Popular Culture is designed to help teachers from middle school through college find exciting new strategies that they can use right away as part of their curricular goals. Each chapter has three pieces: comic relevance, classroom connections, and concluding thoughts; this format allows a reader to pick-and-choose where to start. Some readers might want to delve into the history of a comic to better understand characters and their usefulness, while other readers might want to pick up an activity, presentation, or project that they can fold into that day's lesson. This volume in Comic Connections series focuses on female characters-Wonder Woman, Peggy Carter, and Lois Lane, to name a few-with each chapter deconstructing a specific character to help students engage in meaningful conversations, writing projects, and other activities that will complement and enhance their literacy skills.
Preface: The Importance of the Female Character Acknowledgements Introduction: Reflecting on Women in Popular Culture Sandra Eckard Chapter 1: Stepping into the Role of Dynamic Protagonist: The Evolution of Peggy Carter from Romantic Interest to Covert Operative Mary T. Christel Chapter 2: Wonder Woman: Reading and Teaching Feminism with an Amazonian Princess in an Era of Jessica Jones P. L. Thomas Chapter 3: Ms. Marvel as a New Kind of Superheroine: Analyzing Identity, Race, and Gender with Comics Slimane Aboulkacem Christopher Foster Hannah R. Gerber Ana Marcela Montenegro Chapter 4: Who Am I? A Discovery of Self Through Comics with Buffy, the Vampire Slayer Jennifer Marmo Chapter 5: Elektra's Cultural Power and Contradictions for Our Times Michael D. Kennedy Chapter 6: The Power of Potts and Pens: Women's Roles in Iron Man and Superman Sandra Eckard Chapter 7: A Hero's Journey for Diverse Women in Comics: Teaching Critical Visual Literacy Skills through Serenity and Parallel Texts Ms. Marvel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Gotham Margaret A. Robbins Chapter 8: "I Think About That Story A Lot, Actually:" V for Vendetta and Philosophy in a Community College Reading Course Joaquin Munoz
