Five Benefits to Using Graphic Novels As a Tool to Improve Literacy
1. Including graphics with texts helps students encode information more readily, improving their reading comprehension.
(Photo by byronv2)
When images are used alongside the text, students can more easily decipher the meaning of the text, as well as retain elements of the story. Often, students’ self-esteem can be brought down by low test scores in reading and writing, which can be a factor in deciding to drop out of school: “By providing students with tools to increase their reading and writing ability, teachers can promote student success” (Mannion, 2008)
2. Vocabulary development among students with language and learning disabilities can be aided by the use of graphic novels.
Students who identify as having learning disabilities have self-reported that graphic novels motivated them to read and aided their comprehension. As part of a recent study, several students with learning disabilities at Avon High School in Indianapolis, IN, were asked to read graphic novels in their free time over the course of a year. Of the 20 students in the study, 16 reported liking and reading the books, with many saying the pictures helped them better understand the text.
3. Bringing youth culture, including graphic novels, into the classroom can motivate and engage youth.
Utilizing popular cultural elements of contemporary students demonstrates to the students that their lives and interests are respected by their teachers. This demonstration of respect can help students to be more receptive to other curriculum content. “We’re not talking about co-opting superficial trappings of youth,” says Nancy Frey, herself a teacher and author of Using Graphic Novels, Anime, and the Internet in an Urban High School. “What we are talking about is acknowledging to our students that we care about their interests and recognize the value of their contributions to the classroom community.”
4. Graphic novels used for pleasure reading help improve literacy among second language learners and reluctant readers.
Pleasure reading is critical in the development of literacy among second language learners. According to Collen MacDonnell’s Making the Case for Pleasure Reading, many English learners (ELs) choose graphic novels for pleasure reading. Kay Hones, a high school librarian, has seen firsthand how otherwise reluctant readers have been drawn to graphic novels. “My students love graphic novels,” she says. “I display them near the periodicals and new books, grouping them with comics and drawing books, forming a magnet area for reluctant readers.”
5. Graphic novels can be used to improve “traditional” literacy, as well as be valued as its own form of reading, with its own benefits.
Although the popularity of graphic novels—and the use of them as a learning tool—has been steadily increasing, there still remains a certain level of “snobbery” when it comes to the value of graphic novels as its own form of literature. Despite the endorsement by many librarians, many teachers have been reluctant to include graphic novels in their curricula, according to this article. However, the combination of traditional and visual literacies in which graphic novels have been shown to aid can “teach students new perspectives on better grasping plot, character, theme and other story elements through visual cues that aid comprehension.”
What are the youth you work or live with reading? If they are reading graphic novels, what graphic novels seem to interest them most?
How do you work to incorporate youth culture into your programming or interactions with youth?
Healthy Teen Network is in the process of developing a graphic novel with award-winning author/illustrator Jonathon Scott Fuqua. The graphic novel will explore important issues of bullying, self-esteem, and peer relationships. This week, we will launch a crowdfunding campaign on WeDidIt to support the distribution of the book—and a Teacher’s Guide—to Baltimore City Middle School age students this fall. We’ve set a goal to raise $10,000 in six weeks to make this happen and we’ll need your help. Can we count on you?
About the Author
Kelly Connelly previously served as Healthy Teen Network Senior Marketing and Communications Manager. Kelly is a graphic designer, photographer, and videographer, and she is experienced at developing skills-building workshops and programs, for professionals as well as youth.
Dyslexia Myths
Myth 1: Dyslexia is a visual problem.
Truth: Many children reverse their letters when learning to write, regardless of whether or not they have dyslexia. However, reversing letters is not a sure sign of dyslexia.
Myth 2: Dyslexia only affects boys.
Truth: Both males and females can be dyslexic.
Myth 3: If you perform well in school, you can't be dyslexic.
Truth: Some students with dyslexia perform very well in school. Students with dyslexia can be highly motivated and work incredibly hard, but many students with dyslexia have the necessary accommodations to help them to demonstrate their knowledge.
Myth 4: Smart people can't be dyslexic.
Truth: Dyslexia occurs in students with average, above average, and highly gifted intelligence. Many people with dyslexia are at the top of their fields.
Myth 5: There are no clues to dyslexia before a child enters school.
Truth: Since reading is based on spoken language, clues to dyslexia can be found before a child enters school. Often, children with dyslexia have slightly delayed speech, have trouble with rhyming words, and many have a family history of reading difficulties.
Normal Sucks by Jonathan Mooney
Confessional and often hilarious, in Normal Sucks a neuro-diverse writer, advocate, and father meditates on his life, offering the radical message that we should stop trying to fix people and start empowering them to succeed
Jonathan Mooney blends anecdote, expertise, and memoir to present a new mode of thinking about how we live and learn—individually, uniquely, and with advantages and upshots to every type of brain and body. As a neuro-diverse kid diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD who didn't learn to read until he was twelve, the realization that he wasn’t the problem—the system and the concept of normal were—saved Mooney’s life and fundamentally changed his outlook. Here he explores the toll that being not normal takes on kids and adults when they’re trapped in environments that label them, shame them, and tell them, even in subtle ways, that they are the problem. But, he argues, if we can reorient the ways in which we think about diversity, abilities, and disabilities, we can start a revolution.
A highly sought after public speaker, Mooney has been inspiring audiences with his story and his message for nearly two decades. Now he’s ready to share what he’s learned from parents, educators, researchers, and kids in a book that is as much a survival guide as it is a call to action. Whip-smart, insightful, and utterly inspiring—and movingly framed as a letter to his own young sons, as they work to find their ways in the world—this book will upend what we call normal and empower us all.
Knees: The Mixed-up World of a Boy with Dyslexia by Vanita Oelschlager
We cover dyslexia’s symptoms and the reasons school can be hard for dyslexics. We talk about some famous people who had or have dyslexia.
The book is endorsed by the headmaster of a school where many of the children have dyslexia. He has dyslexia himself.
Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz, M.D.
Clear, practical, science-based information and advice for successful results
One in five American children has trouble reading. But they are not stupid or lazy. In Overcoming Dyslexia, Dr. Sally Shaywitz, co-director of the Yale Center for the Study of Learning and Attention and a leader in the new research into how the brain works, offers the latest information about reading problems and proven, practical techniques that, along with hard work and the right help, can enable anyone to overcome them. Here are the tools that parents and teachers need to help the dyslexic child, age by age, grade by grade, step by step.
--What dyslexia is and why some intelligent, gifted people read slowly and painfully
--How to identify dyslexia in preschoolers, schoolchildren, young adults, and adults
--How to find the best school and how to work productively with your child’s teacher
--Exercises to help children use the parts of the brain that control reading
--A 20-minute nightly home program to enhance reading
--The 150 most common problem words–a list that can give your child a head start
--Ways to raise and preserve a child’s self-esteem and reveal his strengths
--Stories of successful men and women who are dyslexic
Homework Connection
Homework can become a huge struggle for your student. Sometimes the hardest part is getting started.
1. Divide homework into manageable chunks.
2. Go over homework requirements, read instructions aloud and if needed practice the first problem with them.
3. For writing assignments help your student generate ideas before writing
Another key to success for homework is organization. You can consider making a “Toolbox” and keep it near the area they study or do homework so that they have everything they need. It limits the need for distraction and constantly having to get up and down. Ideas for the toolbox could be a tackle box, craft box, caboodle, etc.
- sticky notes
- highlighters
- pencils
- pencil sharpener
- paper clips
- small stapler
- colored pencils
- erasers
- markers
- scissors
- glue stick
- mirror (to watch mouth when spelling)
- crayons
- index cards
- hole puncher
- rubber bands
- erasable pens
- paper
Categories:
Children:
Grades 3rd to 7th
Grade 8th to 12th
Adults: 18 years and older
Entries must be received no later than 5:00 pm CST, November 30, 2019.
Entries must include:
1. An original photograph in a digital format or a digital representation of your artwork (high-resolution JPEGs preferred). Submissions must be created or taken by the artist;
2. A brief statement (3-5 sentences) written or recorded by the artist explaining how their submission relates to the theme;
3. A completed submission release form.
Spark the Change!
Kick-off Dyslexia Awareness Month by joining Dallas IDA and Richardson ISD for a dyslexia simulation. This is a hands-on experience of the difficulties and frustrations that people with dyslexia encounter daily. You will be guided through four to six simulations containing language-based tasks. A general discussion and questions and answer session will complete the experience. Dallas IDA board members and
representatives will also be available to answer questions.
Arrive early to learn more from our community partners. You can
register for the event below:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/experience-dyslexia-tickets-65810343509