The medium of graphic literature has been gaining popularity as a pedagogical tool, particularly as works of literature in ELA classrooms. While many teachers see the literary value of certain works of graphic literature and acknowledge the benefits of sharing them with their students, there still remains a vast majority who consider the medium inferior to traditional prose, poetry, and drama, the mainstays of most traditional ELA curricula. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the effectiveness of graphic literature in the high school ELA classroom, both in terms of academic achievement and personal engagement and satisfaction.

This study took place from late October through late December, 2016. The participant sample for this study was comprised of one ELA teacher and one Special Education teacher, both of whom had volunteered to participate, and approximately 40 10th grade students from an upper-middle class suburban high school in western Nassau County, New York. The median household income for the district is approximately $96,923.33. The students came from two ELA classes, both of which were co-taught by the participant ELA teacher and Special Education teacher. The teachers executed a literature unit in each of the two classes spanning approximately six weeks of class time; the only substantive difference in the units was the texts' media: one unit covered Elie Wiesel's prose Holocaust memoir Night, and the other unit covered Art Spiegelman's graphic Holocaust memoir Maus.

This case study analyzed quantitative data on students' academic achievement on formal and informal assessments and student engagement and satisfaction on surveys given before, during, and after the literature units. Achievement and engagement indices were created, after which a series of paired t-tests was used to compare the means for each category. Qualitative data about student performance and engagement were also gathered from interviews with the teacher participants as well as from periodic observations of both classes conducted by the researcher to add to the data collection and reporting. Examining the differences in academic achievement and student engagement during the literature units was intended to provide insight into how well students interact with graphic literature and to offer viable alternatives to traditional literature in the high school ELA classroom, especially those that would benefit struggling and reluctant readers.