Comics and the Excitement of Reading!

My Students

The poor, neglected book. It has so much competition for the hearts and minds of kids now that it's hard to find a student who would even consider reading to be a form of entertainment.

I teach English Language Arts to inner-city 10th and 11th grade students.

Students who attend my school enroll in one of several building trade- or horticulture-related shops. While my students are usually enthusiastic about getting their hands on the work in their chosen fields, that enthusiasm does not always translate to the academic portion of their day. Reading seems to be an especially tough sticking point. Many of my students do not read at all unless they are forced to. They find books boring, difficult, and unrelated to their own lives. As an English teacher I do everything I can to battle with this disinterest in my students. Part of my job is to help them to change their attitudes towards the act of reading, and to teach them that there is plenty to read which is interesting, fun, and relevant to their daily lives.

My Project

One of the best tools I have found to turn non-readers into reader is the comic book. Simply put, students don't view comic books through the same lens as they do traditional books, and so they don't apply their negative opinions to them. Comics are "easy" and "interesting" in their minds. In reality they require the same cognitive skills to decode that traditional books do,and help to develop the same habits that make for lifetime readers. Because of the recent popularity of comic book related films I have selected a series of comic book collections for this proposal that have been or will be turned into major motion pictures, with the expectation that this will further entice my students to pick them up and read them. I am a "traveling" teacher in my building, holding class in five different rooms during the day and moving all of my materials on a large metal cart. It is important to me that I have materials for leisure reading in every classroom. This selection will help.

If students do not grow to love reading in school, then they will probably never make that change.

With your help more students will be exposed to reading which they find fun and engaging. Having this exposure can make all the difference.