Let's Get Graphic!

My Students

Do you know what it's like to be a struggling reader? Have you ever felt the angst of watching other students around you effortlessly engage in books, while you struggle? Imagine finally finding a text that engages that struggling or alliterate reader. In my room, that text genre is graphic novels.

I work in a public school that services a diverse population of students.

Approximately half of my students are reading below grade level as we begin this school year. Many of them have poor images of themselves as readers. They are a highly motivated and hardworking group of children and there is nothing more frustrating than seeing their struggles in reading. These first few weeks of school though I have noticed a phenomenon begin in my room with graphic novels. My readers from the lowest to highest have all flocked to the library for more and more graphic novels. They are checking them out, until the library (which has a limited collection-as it is a start up library) has no more copies available. They are carrying these books onto the playground to read and talking about them at lunch. This enthusiasm for learning is what my class has; we just don't have enough resources to maintain the enthusiasm for reading that this genre is creating for my struggling and alliterate readers.

My Project

Why graphic novels? Graphic novels tell the same stories with the same characters as traditional novels, but graphic novels are an integration of pictures and words. They are a great transition for some struggling intermediate readers that desire the complexities of more advances story-lines but still need the picture support provided in the primary image-centric texts. Graphic novels require readers to constantly think and infer as they move from panel to panel and therefore engage the reader in complex tasks as they progress through the novel. By providing our classroom with a set of diverse graphic novels, I will be able to provide my class with books that engage and motivate them to take on what is for many an arduous task. Students of all reading levels will be able to engage in conversations about texts that have complex characters and plots. Research suggests that student engagement and motivation in older readers is as important in reading skills and strategies knowledge.

These kids need these books.

We can turn around lives here, by showing these students that reading can be enjoyable and engaging to them. By providing them with books they want to read, I can help them learn how to read them. With the right books, I can get these students where they need to be to be successful in reading and subsequently in life.