My 12 and 13-year-old students have gone to school together for most of their lives. They are a group of down-to-earth kids from a small, rural town in Pennsylvania. Since many of them have been together since Pre-K, the students and their families know each other well. Almost 60% of the students qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch.
Despite challenges in economic status of our students, our school district ranked 61st out of 493 schools in Pennsylvania.
Students, parents, teachers, and administrators are proud of our students' efforts academically. We are fortunate to have a student-teacher ratio of about 12:1.
We are lucky in that students have 1:1 access to technology. The students in grades 7-12 use Chromebooks. Students are extremely receptive to using technology in their learning.
Because the students and their families are so close, they do have a large influence on each other. It warms my heart to see how reading can be contagious, and I hope to bring more of that to my classroom with the use of graphic novels.
My Project
Some of the graphic novels that I have chosen will give my 7th grade students their first chance at successfully reading a classic novel...just through graphics and dialogue!
When I started offering graphic novels, I saw student interest in reading soar!
I had a parent contact me to ask me what I was doing because her son, who she had never seen reading by his own choice, couldn't put the graphic novel down! All I did differently was to offer a couple of new graphic novels that I had bought. Some students went from students who didn't want to read to students who couldn't wait to take the next one home. They couldn't believe that I would let them read a book with pictures in middle school. :)
Because I only have a few of these books in my classroom library, I just have to get my hands on more! I am amazed at how these have helped some of my reluctant readers. I am looking forward to allowing these students to feel the success that others feel through the use of the graphic novels.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Monoski and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
