Meryl Jaffe Boeken

Comics and graphic novels reinforce traditional content-area thinking skills like memory, attention, cognition, language learning, and sequencing. Because they additionally respond to the reading strengths of diverse literacy learners, they also offer the perfect, high-quality, literary-level texts for core content-area classrooms. Using Content-Area Graphic Texts for Learning helps middle-school educators skillfully integrate the powerful print/image format into traditional subject-area studies specifically focusing on young adult graphic texts in the four primary content areas of math, language arts, social studies, and science; supplying a rich overview of the instructional value of graphic novels; and providing suggested graphic novel lists and Common Core-aligned lesson plans for each content area that illustrate two different learning approaches and demonstrate how traditional learning skills manifest in graphic texts. Jaffe and Monnin more than make the case for using graphic novels as valid young adult literary texts that engage students and meet Common Core State Standards within the content-area classroom.

Use graphic novels to teach visual and verbal literacy While our kids today are communicating outside the classroom in abbreviated text bursts with visual icons, teachers are required to teach them to critically listen, think, and read and write complex texts. Graphic novels are a uniquely poised vehicle we can use to bridge this dissonance between student communication skills and preferences with mandated educational goals. Worth a Thousand Words details how and why graphic novels are complex texts with advanced-level vocabulary, and demonstrates how to read and analyze these texts. It includes practical advice on how to integrate these books into both ELA and content-area classrooms and provides an extensive list of appropriate graphic novels for K-8 students, lesson suggestions, paired graphic/prose reading suggestions, and additional resources for taking these texts further. Provides research to back up why graphic novels are such powerful educational tools Helps you engage diverse student learners with exciting texts Shows you how to make lessons more meaningful Offers advice on implementing new literary mediums into your classroom Perfect for parents and teachers in grades K-8, Worth a Thousand Words opens up an exciting new world for teaching children visual and verbal literacy.