For those of you interested, I am posting my final project website for you to view here. The site focuses on using comics and graphic novels to help teach English Language Learners (ELLs for short). Currently in my school district our ELL population for grades Pre-K through 8 is at 64%, with the majority of students being of Hispanic descent. After working with these students for three years now, I realize how important it is to reach out to these student populations. It was through this class that I have come to recognize the awesome power of comics and the graphic novel. As an artistic person, I love the idea of learning visually through this medium. I frankly am surprised that I was never lured in before. Through my research, I have learned a great deal about how this literary format can be used to help teach students learning a second language. I hope that you will visit my site and share in my new enlightenment.
Also, I would like to give a special shout out to Ruth S. as her websites in previous classes have inspired me to use Wix.com to create my own website (mostly because they put my previous efforts to shame!). Again, as an artistic person the visual element of a website is very important to me and Wix allows you to make a very snazzy looking site!
I am truly shocked at how far I have come this year in terms of my technology ability. This graduate program has had me working on wikis, social networking sites, creating websites and by God, even blogging! It's fantastic being so connected to this technological world! Thank you all for a fantastic semester, I feel that I have learned a great deal and enjoyed the ride.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
You need to be able to log in as a GSLIS student to see this, but this is a website my group and I created for our Youth Services Librarianship class back in 2008. It might give you some other ideas for working with your students! (I especially like the Earphone English program on the Successful Programs page!)
ReplyDeleteLibrary Services to Linguistically Diverse Youth
https://courseweb.lis.uiuc.edu/~porritt1/506/index.html
Thanks for the link. It looks like there is a lot of useful information. I will definitely look into these resources for next year.
ReplyDeleteI just got a chance to really look at your site, too...awesome work!
ReplyDeleteThis is really awesome, Sarah. My department is applying for a grant for our collection, and some of the articles you found will be GREAT for arguing on the behalf of graphic novels! We've been reluctant to pinpoint them as a specific area of interest, but they're so popular among our population (which also has tons of ELL kids) that it seems like a waste not to discuss the potential benefits.
ReplyDeleteGraphic novels get a bad rap, sort of unfairly, because people associate them so strongly with comics. Of course it's unfair to denigrate comics, right, a lot of them are literature in their own right - but graphic novels are a whole different genre, really. I didn't even realize it until I started working in a library. And now, like Maggie said tonight in class - it's a lot easier to think of myself as dealing in stories rather than traditional novels.
We also have a few graphic nonfiction books, which have been really popular - we have one on the Great Chicago Fire, a few biographies...some are sort of dinky, but the kids like them.
Really, though, the best thing is the access point graphic novels create for kids who struggle with reading. My book club read the first Babymouse book a while back, and for one of my girls, it was the first time she'd made it through a book. Reading is always a frustrating experience for her - she was a sixth-grader who read at probably a second grade level - but graphic novels provide something that is at her interest level, but is easier to "get into" than a regular novel. She's now reading the Fruits Basket series - and Sammy Keyes! They've helped her become a lot more comfortable with her abilities. And even if she never becomes a prolific reader of novels, she'll be OK. There is plenty of good literature in graphic format, and it's already done loads to improve her reading ability.