Help me give my students access to graphic novels and comic books to allow students to connect their love of popular culture to joyful reading experiences!
My middle school students are very active, eager learners in the Bronx, NY. The vast majority of my students are black and Hispanic.
They get very excited by popular culture.
Recently in class, to demonstrate how difficult it is to summarize a long text in a few sentences, I asked them to convince me to watch their favorite TV show in 45 seconds or less. Nearly every hand in every class shot up eager to talk about a show they love.
I often wear shirts relating to Star Wars and superhero movies, and my students feel connected to me because I love what they love. I have talked to kids about video games, comic books, and movies both to connect to them on a personal basis and to help them connect the things they love to what they are learning in class.
My Project
When my students see the small collection of comics and graphic novels that I have set aside for my comic book club, they get very excited and ask to borrow them. I'd like to grow this collection not only to benefit those students in comic book club, but to allow all of my students to borrow them.
I have selected several several titles that have been specifically requested by students (Amulet, Roller Girl, more Batgirl), some titles that I believe students would enjoy reading (Shuri, Runaways, Spider-Gwen, etc),and some titles I think students would benefit from reading to connect to other subjects (March, Maus, Poe).
In comic book club, these titles will also be used as mentor texts to help students create their own short series of comics. Some students are working on adaptations or fan-works of featuring their favorite characters, and others are working on entirely original creations.
Additionally, for many students who struggle with reading, comics and graphic novels are a great way to spark an interest in reading and help them build their reading confidence.
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