Psychiatric Tales Handout

Psychiatric Tales

  1. Please include a detailed description of the text. Take into consideration that your colleagues might not be familiar with the text that you have chosen. A detailed description will include everything necessary for your classmates to gain an understanding of the text without reading it. Your job is to introduce the text in a complete way so that it is possible for others to decide when, where, and how this text might be appropriate.
Psychiatric Tales by Darryl Cunningham is a graphic novel that follows his time working in a Psychiatric Hospital. There he works with patients dealing with, dementia, schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder. There are 11 different stories all focusing on one issue. A long with that the author writes two stories about his own hardships with mental health.
  2. Please explain why you chose this text. What was your rationale? How does your understanding of this text influence your thinking about your teaching.
I chose this text because mental health is an issue I believe to be important. I believe that mental health is not talked about enough in today's society. As a Secondary educator there is a chance a student will suffer from a mental illness. 
  1. Please include some teaching ideas. How do you envision employing this text in a secondary English language arts classroom? Provide at least 3 specific ideas for what is possible with this text.
    1. Place a panel on the board and ask questions like,"What do you see", "What is happening", and "why does it matter".
    2. Make 4-5 groups and assign a specific chapter to each, then students will identify the plot of the story.
    3. Create pairs, each pair will identify their favorite 2-3 panels and 1 least favorite panel. That group will join another pair and discuss their choices.

  1. Please consider some challenges to using strategies from this text. What are the potential issues that may arise from using these strategies? Predict students’ responses. How will you address these challenges?
Psychiatric Tales goes into great detail on what it is like to work in a mental hospital. There are incidents in this book that would probably not be appropriate in the classroom. Also, some of these mental illnesses might be something kids will not want to talk about. Along with that this book probably would not fit into any ELA curriculum.
  1. Anything else you think is important for us to know and understand about this text and its use with student
Whether it be Depression, Anxiety, Dementia, Self- Harm we need to be there for people who are dealing with these issues. In the classroom I feel that it is important for educators to speak on these issues to inform students. For example, depression symptoms do not only include sadness. There is a stigma that those who suffer from depression are just sad. However, it is more than that. These people could be less motivated, not find interest in activities they used to. Educating students on topics like these could potentially save the life of a classmate, family member, etc.

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