FIGURE ONE
FIGURE ONE
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Laura Robb
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There are vetted and high-quality resources available to help choose appropriate read alouds and instr
superintendent who released funds for classroom libraries with 300 to 350 books in each one. Besides including books on a range of reading levels, teachers ordered a variety of genres, including graphic novels for both grades. I suggested teachers include graphic series such BabyMouse, Amulet, and I Survived as students who read series boost their volume and can develop the stamina to concentrate on reading for twenty to thirty minutes. Teachers modeled how to choose a “good fit” book, and students had choice of books they could and wanted to read. All students gravitated to graphic novels, but for the six students that I worked with, graphic novels developed their reading identities and brought them into the reading life.
Graphic Novels and Reading Growth
In a study of graphic novels completed for The Bank Street School of Education, Brittany Rosenberg cited four ways graphic novels support growth in reading (2018). (1) Students find graphic novels motivating and engaging. (2)
Graphic novels are multimodal and support visual and textual literacy. (3) Teachers can use them to teach and practice high order strategies such as inferring, visualizing, and comparing and contrasting. (4) Math, science, and history teachers can find a variety of graphic novels relating to their subject, allowing students to read widely throughout the school day.
Students loved having series and looking forward to the next book kept them engaged in reading. Oscar summed it up this way: “When I’m reading one BabyMouse, I thinking of the next one.” Graphic series not only motivated students to read, but it also improved their fluency, enlarged their vocabulary, and increased their recall and comprehension. Often, pairs decided to read the same book and discuss the pictures and text that in turn sparked their thinking and connections.
By the middle of sixth grade in addition to reading graphic novels, two of the students in my group were reading novels in verse and nonfiction books. Near the end of the school year every student had read a verse novel or an informational text. Along with continuing word work to improve their decoding, the six students read dozens of graphic novels in grades five and six and developed the stamina to concentrate on reading. They also read different genres and experienced pleasure in reading to learn and for enjoyment.
Takeaways for Reflection
My work with developing readers has taught me that there is no single recipe for success. However, there are five general areas that consistently need attention:
· increasing reading volume
· enlarging vocabulary and background knowledge
· word study, decoding, and fluency
· recall and comprehension
· formative assessment
I’ve also found that there are a handful of teaching and learning practices that can contribute to students’ success in reading:
· modeling and thinking aloud to make your process visible
· providing choices for students
· improving fluency through practice and performance of poetry and readers’ theater scripts
· writing about reading in readers’ notebooks
· conferring with students
· using flexible grouping to support students
· advocating for all students
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