Analyzing Text Complexity

Introduction: The text I will be analyzing in my inquiry blog will be appropriate for my current placement. To that extent, my current placement is at a middle school working with eighth-graders who have disabilities. What I hope to accomplish with my text set is to develop a conversation about disability through analyzing the mediums of anime, manga, and comics. While I have an idea of where the discussion could go, I would love to see where my students would take it. The topic of disability is one that is hardly broached in schools, and hopefully, these texts could help students learn more about their peers and maybe even themselves.

Print-Based Text:

• Disability Visibility in Comics & Manga

IWANTEDWINGS. (2014, March 10). Disability Visibility in Comics & Manga. Retrieved September 11, 2017, from https://iwantedwings.com/2014/03/10/disability-visibility-in-comics-manga/

Summary: The first piece, “Disability Visibility in Comics & Manga,” demonstrates the basic ideas I wish to convey. It discusses different portrayals of characters with disabilities in manga and comics, contrasting strong, believable characters against ones simply included for representation. This is accomplished through going over various examples from the mediums. Simply including characters for representation is when creator just shoe-horns a character with a disability into s series to say, "Hey, look! My series has a diverse set of characters!" These 'inclusions' are then forced to the sideline as their non-disabled peers save the day and steal the spotlight; this all occurs because the author never had any intention to have these characters be anything but their disability. The article also takes time to define what good representation through the example of Nic from Gangsta. Nic is deaf but that does not define him as a person. In fact, the series only once even brings up the fact once. The reader would only know about his deafness from the different colored speech bubbles the author uses for him.

Qualitative: The text structure seems moderately complex. Throughout the text, multiple characters and stories are addressed, which may be slightly confusing, but it is aided by the use of graphics. The organization is also very standard for a blog article, and most kids should have some experience with this type of literature. The language features would also be moderately complex. While there are a few challenging vocabulary words scattered here and there, the article is generally written quite casually. The way it is written similar to a conversation should actually help most students work their way through it. The meaning would likely be slightly complex. The theme of disability representation is clear throughout; nothing is presented subtlety at all, so the ideas should not be too difficult to grasp. Finally, the knowledge demand would have to be moderately complex. The author introduces quite a few characters, and while he does not expect the readers to know who these characters are, background knowledge would still be useful. The text also delves a little into mental disorders, which many students may not know much about. It appears appropriate to assign this text a moderately complex rating.

Vocabulary:

expositional

detriment

impairment

allegorical

embodiment
mental disorder

Quantitative: Plugging the article into StoryToolz elicited an average grade level of 9.9. This seems reasonable to me; although, I would argue that this text could still be used as low as eighth-grade with appropriate vocabulary support. The article is longer, though, so perhaps it may be appropriate to assign/read it in smaller chunks.

Reader and Task: This article would be a great introductory text to the topic of disability representation. There is a whole bunch of room for teaching about the variety of disabilities the introductory section introduces. The article also takes a look at mental disorders, which many people seem to neglect mentioning or educating themselves about. More than that, the text does a great job of differentiating between including for representation and actual representation, which is a key component for students to recognize. Through all the various examples this text is a great starting point to these two forms of media as well. It begins to demonstrate the differences in how our culture and Japanese culture see and write about people with disabilities. Beyond all that, it also summarizes quite a few stories that will hopefully peek the students’ interest, so they will read some of them and bring those texts to the discussion.

Multimedia Text:

• Disabled children and their parents discuss disability representation in literature

Scope. (2017, February 08). Disabled children and their parents discuss disability representation in literature - Scope. Retrieved October 15, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E9xYFTwrF0

Summary: A wonderful video about disability representation in literature (and other forms of media). It features children with disabilities and their parents talking about the lack of relevant characters. One of the parents actually creates a comic book, with his daughter, where the characters’ disabilities are their superpowers. This gives the kids at the comic convention relatable heroes to look up to and inspiration to create their own.

Qualitative: The text structure of a video is difficult to determine, but it may be beneficial for some students if I transcribe the video and give them a text they can refer to. Either way, I would place it at moderately complex because while it may be easier for some students to watch a video, it may also make it more difficult for others. The whole ‘text’ is obviously entirely visual too, so certain learners should benefit from this aspect. The language features would be slightly complex since only the three vocabulary words below would be hard for some students. Otherwise, the sentence structure and conventionality are all contemporary and steeped in everyday conversation. Likely, the purpose is slightly complex because the video never strays from its purpose of needing more representation of people with disabilities in literature. Finally, the knowledge demand is slightly complex. This video does not expect the audience to know much about the subject matter. In fact, they explicitly state in the description that “lots of people either don't know much about disability or only have a limited view.” For the intertextuality component, the video does not make references to anything that students would need to know. In the end, this multimedia text would be slightly complex and could be used in a variety of classroom and contexts.

Vocabulary:

paramount

spina bifida

“relevant”

Quantitative: I transcribed the first 100 words of the video and put it into StoryToolz, which came back with a grade level 5.6. That score makes sense, considering the vocabulary is simple. Since the multimedia text keeps the theme straightforward, grades 5 and up should be able to glean the appropriate message.  All the personal anecdotes should make it more meaningful and will help students better understand why this inclusion is so important. It’s also quite short, which means even students with short attention spans should be able to view the video in its entirety.

Reader and Task: While this video does not directly relate to anime, manga, or comic books, it directly relates to the topic. To this extent, showing this video at the very start of the unit could get students thinking about why it matters. Hopefully, this would prevent or answer the relevancy of this topic to their lives. Another benefit is the sheer amount of pre-reading activities this video could lend itself to like creating their own superheroes with disabilities, a discussion, or a writing activity. Overall, this multimedia text would serve as a powerful start to a new lesson.

Culturally Relevant Text:

• Daredevil: The Man Without Fear (Vol. 2, Episode 9)

Mack , D. (1999). Daredevil: The Man Without Fear (Vol. 2, Episode 9).

Summary: There are so many different texts I believe could have gone here, but if I had to just pick one I would say Daredevil (1999-2003) would be fantastic for most of the class. It used to be one of my favorite comic books and features both a strong female and male lead. Daredevil is left blind from an accident and learns to navigate his way through the world without his sight; Echo, on the other hand, deals with being born deaf, as well as dealing with the prejudice from being the daughter of a Native-American gangster and Hispanic mother. The series deals with more than the fanfare of having superpowers. It delves directly into their disabilities/race and the associated prejudices with them. For example, just within volume 2.9 alone, it shows the bullying Echo endured at school and the Non-24 Hour Sleep-Wake Disorder that Daredevil experiences.

Qualitative: For this analysis, I utilized volume 2.9 since that is the volume in which Echo first appears. Across this span of the series, the language and style never really change so this analysis is appropriate for Daredevil in general. The text structure is slightly complex because almost everything is written in speech bubbles. Everything is fairly clear and there are no complex themes to decipher. All the pictures of the progressing plot will definitely assist the students in following the story as well. Language features would fall under slightly complex also. Neither the conventionality or vocabulary is complex or removed from everyday life. The meaning of the text is to entertain; however, I would argue its purpose is slightly more complex than that. This comic also deals with disabilities of its main characters in a realistic manner, but some of the dealings (seeing the beauty in music, for example) are subtler. For this reason, I would rate the meaning between moderately and slightly complex. The experiences portrayed in this story should be very familiar or relatable for the majority of the students in my class. To this extent, I believe the knowledge demands would be moderately complex. There are multiple themes explored in the text including disability, race, and bullying. There is also a cultural allusion in the text about Echo’s Native American background that some students may not understand.

Vocabulary: N/A

Quantitative: StoryToolz rated this story at an average grade level of 2.6, which is quite appropriate. The comic book is extremely short and perfect for hesitant readers or struggling readers to begin building confidence. There really are not any difficult words that would trip students up either.

Reader and Task: This would be a great text to get students reading! I would love to use it as some kind of outside reading project since I feel it would be interesting enough that students would want to read on their own. The main reason I choose this book, though, is because I believe many of the students could connect to the characters. This comic book is more about superpowers, it is about Matt Murdock—the civilian side of Daredevil. Students should be able to relate to his struggles of balancing work, relationships, and his life in the slums of New York City. Even though, the text is slightly dated, the characters talk similar the way my students do. Finally, I truly believe the unique intrigue and focus of this comic book will draw students in and allow for meaningful learning/discussion. Furthermore, as suggested in the comment section, if the students truly love this series perhaps they would be interested in reading his origin stories based on his struggles as a child coming to terms with his blindness. Hopefully, they are inspired to further venture and find more reading materials by themselves too. 

Other Sources

Print-Based Text: 

• Anime and the Disabled

Anime Historian. (2015). Anime and the Disabled. Retrieved September 15, 2017, from http://animehistorian.weebly.com/uploads/4/4/4/5/44452295/disabled_characters_in_anime.pdf

Summary: This text is extremely detailed on the representation of characters with disabilities in anime. I would only since use this text with a junior or senior class, though, because the content is mature and difficult to discuss.

Multimedia Text: 

• A Silent Voice: The Movie

Kyoto Animation. (2017, March 03). A Silent Voice - Koe No Katachi - Official Trailer (FULL HD). Retrieved September 16, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watchtime_continue=102&v=Ivrq1ZwsRps

Summary: This movie boasts an impressive number of accolades. On top of that, it tackles tons of important themes like bullying, disability, depression, and suicide. Again, I would only use this multimedia source with a high-school class because of the mature themes.

Culturally Relevant Text: 

• Student's attitudes to the inclusion of people with disabilities in the community

Schwartz, C., & Armony-Sivan, R. (2001). Students' attitudes to the inclusion of people with disabilities in the community. Disability & Society, 16(3), 403-413.

Summary: This article delves into the reason why communities sometime exclude those with disabilities. My last placement used portions of this articles to address tough issues and the students were able to work through tough situations this way. I think this is a piece that could also be extremely relevant to my students, and even though it is extremely difficult, certain parts could be useful to this topic and their lives in general.