Hello, I am new to this forum, so this may not be the place to ask this. However, I would like to get opinions regarding a gifted 7th-8th grade English Language Arts classroom in which most of the school year so far has been spent on superhero novels and graphic novels. In fact, very little has been spent reading, and a lot of time has been spent on drawing and coloring. The students have been reading and creating superhero graphic novels for weeks now. I don't feel my daughter is getting a good basis in ELA with this at all. Any opinions? Thank you.

Is she not having to write on a regular basis? If not, I would be pretty concerned. Graphic novels can certainly be used in an LA program, but I would be hoping they would have to write about them after reading them.

This may be a case of good idea taken too far, to the point where the teacher loses sight of balancing innovation with traditional learning. Graphic novels are valid and interesting works of literature as well as art, and studying the genre, then creating it themselves is an excellent idea. If the teacher has come up with a way to really engage the kids in learning with a focus on creating something real, that's commendable...but not to the exclusion of covering the basics. These kids need to be prepared for high school level scholastic writing. They should have a thorough understanding of grammar, and should be able to critically evaluate works of literature and discuss underlying themes. Your child's class sounds like it would be better as an elective taken in addition to traditional Language Arts.
(Maybe that's what's going on. Some school districts require the Honors classes to use the same textbooks as the regular classes, but they cover the work more quickly and discuss it at a higher level, then add enrichment assignments to challenge the students.)