The intent of this grant is to provide appealing reading material to my students, especially to students who are reluctant readers. Graphic novels are novels written in the style of a comic and their strength lies in the visual and sequential illustrations. Research shows that student reading growth is directly linked to time spent reading. The appealing format of the graphic novels will make students motivated to read these stories, enhancing their reading levels. That is definitely a win in the classroom!
Last year our district was fortunate to be able to participate in Read to the Final 4. My students spent a great deal of time reading and it definitely benefited them in many important ways. As they were reading, I especially noticed many of my reluctant readers struggle to find books that they were excited about. Books that were appealing to them were not on their reading level and they couldn't understand the books that their classmates were enjoying. Chapter books were just too hard. Books that they could decode were babyish and they didn't want their classmates to see them reading those books. It breaks your heart as a reading teacher to see students stare at a book and struggle to pick out familiar words and then give up in frustration. Or the student will look at the words and randomly turn the page every few minutes hoping no one notices that they aren't really reading.
I realized that my classroom library needed an update. There are so many new books out there that these students would be excited about reading. We just need to give them the opportunity to fall in love with books. According to diamondbookshelf.com: "The presence of graphic novels or comics in a school library resulted in a dramatic 82% increase in library traffic and a 30% increase in circulation of non-comic books." I'm sure the same would be true in a classroom library. Once students are hooked into reading, they will continue to come back for more. We need to do all we can to help them become confident readers, especially in these elementary grades. I can't wait to watch my struggling readers get excited about books!
This proposal is for a grant entitled Graphic Novels For the Win! It includes the purchase of 62 graphic novels on a variety of reading levels and a shelving unit for display of these novels.
Graphic novels are novels written in the style of a comic and their strength lies in the visual and sequential illustrations. They tell stories with both illustrations and words, drawing an immediate connection between the story element and the vocabulary. Graphic novels are also full of action and emotion as the illustrations depict both expressions and movements.
According to a March 2010 article "Graphic Novels for Reluctant Readers" in the School Library Journal, "Graphic narratives excel at instant feedback. Much of the plot comes via the pictures, and readers need only small increments of word learning to understand the story fully. A little reading brings a lot of understanding, and so increment by increment, vocabulary and comprehension increase."
Graphic novels can give reluctant readers the non-threatening practice and experience needed to inspire confidence to tackle more challenging texts. The reading skills improvement would be monitored by campus reading assessments, and the growth of reading levels and skills improvements would be monitored by the classroom teacher, interventions, and resource teachers.
These books would be available to students in the classroom every day. As they rotate in their daily stations they will have the opportunity to choose these books to read and the students could also visit the classroom library anytime they are finished with their assignments. These books would also be extremely helpful on testing days when the only thing students can do after they finish their test is read.
For ease of selection and promotion in the classroom library, the graphic novel collection will be shelved in an area separate from the other books. This grant also includes a shelving unit for display of the classroom's graphic novel collection.
Last year our district was fortunate to be able to participate in Read to the Final 4. My students spent a great deal of time reading and it definitely benefited them in many important ways. As they were reading, I especially noticed many of my reluctant readers struggle to find books that they were excited about. Books that were appealing to them were not on their reading level and they couldn't understand the books that their classmates were enjoying. Chapter books were just too hard. Books that they could decode were babyish and they didn't want their classmates to see them reading those books. It breaks your heart as a reading teacher to see students stare at a book and struggle to pick out familiar words and then give up in frustration. Or the student will look at the words and randomly turn the page every few minutes hoping no one notices that they aren't really reading.
I realized that my classroom library needed an update. There are so many new books out there that these students would be excited about reading. We just need to give them the opportunity to fall in love with books. According to diamondbookshelf.com: "The presence of graphic novels or comics in a school library resulted in a dramatic 82% increase in library traffic and a 30% increase in circulation of non-comic books." I'm sure the same would be true in a classroom library. Once students are hooked into reading, they will continue to come back for more. We need to do all we can to help them become confident readers, especially in these elementary grades. I can't wait to watch my struggling readers get excited about books!
This proposal is for a grant entitled Graphic Novels For the Win! It includes the purchase of 62 graphic novels on a variety of reading levels and a shelving unit for display of these novels.
Graphic novels are novels written in the style of a comic and their strength lies in the visual and sequential illustrations. They tell stories with both illustrations and words, drawing an immediate connection between the story element and the vocabulary. Graphic novels are also full of action and emotion as the illustrations depict both expressions and movements.
According to a March 2010 article "Graphic Novels for Reluctant Readers" in the School Library Journal, "Graphic narratives excel at instant feedback. Much of the plot comes via the pictures, and readers need only small increments of word learning to understand the story fully. A little reading brings a lot of understanding, and so increment by increment, vocabulary and comprehension increase."
Graphic novels can give reluctant readers the non-threatening practice and experience needed to inspire confidence to tackle more challenging texts. The reading skills improvement would be monitored by campus reading assessments, and the growth of reading levels and skills improvements would be monitored by the classroom teacher, interventions, and resource teachers.
These books would be available to students in the classroom every day. As they rotate in their daily stations they will have the opportunity to choose these books to read and the students could also visit the classroom library anytime they are finished with their assignments. These books would also be extremely helpful on testing days when the only thing students can do after they finish their test is read.
For ease of selection and promotion in the classroom library, the graphic novel collection will be shelved in an area separate from the other books. This grant also includes a shelving unit for display of the classroom's graphic novel collection.
$534
Value:
priceless