Adventures in Graphica: Using Comics and Graphic Novels to Teach Comprehension, 2-6

Terry Thompson

Stenhouse Publishers, 2008 - Education - 188 pages

Comic books and graphic novels, known collectively as "graphica," have long been popular with teenagers and adults. Recently graphica has grown in popularity with younger readers as well, motivating and engaging some of our most reluctant readers who often shun traditional texts. While some teachers have become curious about graphica's potential, many are confused by the overwhelming number of new titles and series, in both fiction and nonfiction, and are unsure of its suitability and function in their classrooms.

Drawing on his own success using graphica with elementary students, literacy coach Terry Thompson introduces reading teachers to this popular medium and suggests sources of appropriate graphica for the classroom and for particular students. Taking cues from research that supports the use of graphica with students, Terry shows how this exciting medium fits into the literacy framework and correlates with best practices in comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency instruction. Adventures in Graphica contains numerous, easy-to-replicate, instructional strategies, including examples of how graphic texts can be used to create a bridge as students transfer abstract comprehension strategies learned through comics and graphic novels to traditional texts.

Adventures in Graphica provides a roadmap for teachers to the medium that the New York Times recently hailed as possibly "the next new literary form."

Contents

• 1 You Got Comics?: 1
• 2 The Lure of Graphica: 15
• 3 A Word About the Research: 23
• 4 Introducing the Conventions of Graphica: 27
• 5 Endless Possibilities for Using Graphica: 39
• 6 Comprehension Comically: 49
• Making Mental Images and Inferring: 71
• 8 Vocabulary Visually: 91
• 9 Fluency in the Funnies: 103
• 10 Making the Right Choices: 115
• 11 Troubleshooting: 119
• Afterword: 131
• Appendixes: 133
• References: 177
• Index: 183

About the author

Terry Thompson is an author, teacher, and consultant living in San Antonio, Texas. He trains teachers of readers and writers in grades K-8. Currently a reading interventionist, Terry has served as a classroom teacher, basic skills teacher, Reading Recovery teacher, and literacy coach. He holds a master's degree in psychotherapy and cognitive coaching and travels throughout the country consulting with classroom teachers and literacy specialists. Terry is the author of Adventures in Graphica (Stenhouse, 2008).

Bibliographic information

• Title: Adventures in Graphica: Using Comics and Graphic Novels to Teach Comprehension, 2-6
• Author: Terry Thompson
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Stenhouse Publishers, 2008
• ISBN: 1571107126, 9781571107121
• Length: 188 pages
• Subjects: Education / Arts in Education; Education / Educational Policy & Reform / General; Education / General; Education / Language Experience Approach; Education / Professional Development; Education / Schools / Levels / Elementary; Education / Teacher Training & Certification; Education / Teaching / General; Education / Teaching / Methods & Strategies; Education / Teaching / Subjects / Reading & Phonics; Language Arts & Disciplines / Reading Skills