In summer 2025, Carnegie Corporation of New York commissioned NCTE to lead the creation of resources that would bring the philanthropic foundation’s Great Immigrants, Great Americans comic series into classrooms nationwide. Two cohorts of middle and secondary educators created and peer reviewed 16 lesson plans using the philanthropic foundation’s 2025 comic book.
These resources have broad application to teaching comics within ELA and in cross-disciplinary ways, can be used alone or in conjunction with other resources, and can be applied to the teaching of these comics specifically or comics generally. They include state standards connections, supplementary materials, and strategies for meeting student needs.
The Major Impact of Minor Characters in the Lives of Immigrant Heroes
This lesson allows the use of a graphic novel and independent research to help students identify and analyze the major influences of a real-life immigrant hero, whether in childhood or adulthood, that propelled them to be a major contributor to American innovation.
Students will read Great Immigrants, Great Americans: The Comic Book with a focus on analyzing the influence that one of…
Picture an American
While reading Great Immigrants, Great Americans: The Comic Book, students will be able to think critically about the types of stories we are told through history lessons and media, focusing on explicit and implicit biases. Students will explore ideas around identity and privilege in what we tell each other as both fact and fiction and how we tell as Americans.
This lesson is designed for…
From Verse to Visual: Translating Poetry into Comics
Students explore the creative process of translating between poetry and comics in both directions. Using Jason Reynolds’s Long Way Down (verse novel and graphic novel adaptation) as a mentor text, students first see how poetry can be transformed into a visual comic format. Then, using Mona Hanna’s story from Great Immigrants, Great Americans—or another immigrant story from the same anthology—they…
Create a Comic Book Vignette of Immigration to the US
Through a series of lessons, students will analytically read Great Immigrants, Great Americans and then research specific waves of immigration to the United States. Students will then craft historical expository vignettes in comic-book format.
Students often read, watch, or hear individual stories of immigrants to this country and learn of their experiences, struggles, and achievements. But a…
Write an Illustrated “I Am” Poem in Comic-Book Style
Students will read Great Immigrants, Great Americans: The Comic Book and will then conduct research on immigrants to the United States who have had a positive impact on US history and society. Students will then craft focused “I Am” poems in an illustrated, comic-book format.
Thousands of students across the United States write “I Am” poems about themselves. In this series of lessons, students…
Show, Don’t Tell: Implied Meaning and Subtext with Evidence
Students will critically read Great Immigrants, Great Americans: The Comic Book to analyze how authors use implied meaning and subtext to develop a story, and students will be able to cite evidence.
This lesson is designed for classrooms and teachers with very limited resources and time in under-resourced areas or districts with strict pacing guides. This lesson is also suitable for…
A Different Point of View for a Comic
Students will demonstrate proficiency in making inferences, constructing character analysis, and determining point of view. After reading Great Immigrants, Great Americans text, students will choose a comic (of their choice) and revise its story from another character’s point of view. The new narrator will provide his/her perspective on plot and other characters with visuals to supplement the…
Understanding Immigrants Through Comics: Great Immigrants, Great Americans Unit
Using Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics (1994) as a theoretical foundation, students will learn about how the comics medium works cognitively; analyze the Carnegie Corporation’s Great Immigrants, Great Americans: The Comic Book; and produce their own short comics about great immigrants in their own families (or any other important person in their lives).
Week 1: Learn the theories and…
Character Traits: Character Analysis through Comics: Digging Into Body Biography
Students will analyze Great Immigrants, Great Americans: The Comic Book featuring the story of Raj Panjabi using the STEAL (Speech, Thoughts, Effects on Others, Actions, and Looks) method, explore personal influences and present findings through a body biography.
Teachers can front load vocabulary from the comic and explore homonyms—like “settle,” “condition,” “service,” and “challenge”—to…
Comics as a Gateway to Stronger Writing
Explore how student choices (e.g., vaping) impact health, discipline, and future opportunities. Analyze consequences through real-world examples to promote informed, responsible decision making.
This lesson uses Great Immigrants, Great Americans: The Comic Book featuring Jean Claude Brizard to explore how personal choices shape the future. Through discussion, argumentative…
The Value that Immigrants Bring to Our Community: A Socratic Seminar
Having read stories from Great Immigrants, Great Americans: The Comic Book, students discuss the richness and diversity of the immigrant experience and the value that immigrants bring to our communities.
In this lesson activity, teachers will facilitate a Socratic seminar in which students discuss the denotation and connotation of the word “immigrant.” Having read stories from Great…
Dear Great Immigrant, Dear Great American Comic Letter
Students analyze Palestinian American stand-up comedian and actor Mo Amer’s comic from Great Immigrants, Great Americans and create their own comic letter to an immigrant figure.
This lesson invites students to explore themes of identity, immigration, and belonging by analyzing Mo Amer’s two-page comic in Great Immigrants, Great Americans. Students will then create a personal response in the…
Multimodal Text Sets Strategy Guide
Teachers have been building text sets for classroom use for quite some time, but as our students’ world expands to include new types of media, we need to evolve by adopting a broader definition of text and adding new forms of texts to our classroom practice. Traditional text sets can gain new life by adding comics, film, or other media. Multimodal text sets allow teachers to differentiate for…
Questions All Around: A Collection of Questions for Graphic Novel Stories from Great Immigrants, Great Americans
The following resource contains two sections: The first section is a list of ten questions and discussion prompts that can be used in conjunction with the reading and analysis of any comic/graphic novel; the second resource is a list of three discussion questions for each of the stories in Great Immigrants, Great Americans.
The resource is designed to support thoughtful engagement with…
Connecting to the Past through Interviews: A Comics Project
After reading the Great Immigrants, Great Americans short comic about Jim Lee, students will conduct an oral history interview with an older person (grandparent, parent, neighbor, etc.) to identify a significant historical moment that person experienced. Students will research that event with 3–4 credible sources, and then they will write a two-page comic script depicting the story. (A later…