Growing Speech & Language With Great Graphic Novels!
Help me give my students graphic novels to grab their attention, a shelf for storing the novels, and a cart for transporting the books between 4th-8th grades.
The majority of students in our small school district come from low-income households and all students receive free breakfast and lunch daily. All of my students have communication impairments. Some have more severe disabilities such as Autism, Down Syndrome, or Cerebral Palsy. Despite these challenges, my students are eager to communicate!
Difficulty with reading fluency and comprehension can go hand-in-hand with a communication impairment.
My 4th to 8th graders love graphic novels because the pictures help them to understand the vocabulary in the story. Since we are faced with a limited budget for even the most essential items, funding for speech therapy materials and supplies is even more limited.
My Project
Similar to comic books, the exciting illustrations in graphic novels are highly appealing to 4th to 8th graders. Superheroes are attention-getters and graphic novels are full of them! Typically, students receive speech services in groups of 2 to 5 students, so sets of 5 novels are needed for read alouds. The cart will be used for storage and for transporting materials between grades and the shelf will be used for storing and displaying the books.
Graphic novels grab the attention of students who are reluctant to pick up traditional books.
Graphic novels are a great way to facilitate carryover of communication goals from reading to conversation. Articulation of speech sounds and speech fluency will be remediated while students are reading aloud and answering questions. Language concepts that will be addressed include: stating the main idea, inferencing/predicting, expressing definitions, and formulating correct sentences. Some of the novel selections pertain to social skills and emotions. These novels will provide scenarios for modeling social communication goals, such as greetings, turn-taking, facial expressions, and feelings. Thank you for helping my students!
Nearly all students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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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. Patti Tillman and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
