Graphic Novels For The Classroom

Funded Sep 20, 2015

I can not thank you all enough for your donation to this project. Today was our last day reading Maus, and my students loved it. Having this beautiful graphic novel in the classroom provided a deep level of engagement in reading that I have not seen out of my students before.

The students had to work very hard to learn how to not only read the text of the book but also how to analyze the artwork. Analyzing both at the same time pushed the students to think more deeply about the literature than they had ever had to before. The students completed Dialectical Journals for each chapter in which they had to pick three significant moments from the chapter and analyze the moment for both its textual and artistic elements.

Along with learning new deep reading skills, we also learned a lot about prejudice and discrimination both from reading about the Holocaust and learning about how minor acts of prejudice led up to such an event through the use of the "Ladder of Prejudice". Using the "Ladder of Prejudice", the students worked in groups to create informational posters that informed the class about three different current prejudicial events happening in the United States or across the world to show that prejudice and discrimination are not simply issues of the past.

Next, the students will be creating a multi-genre project that will address current domestic issues of prejudice and discrimination through writing and other creative means like creating informational videos and infographics.

My students really enjoyed the book and all of the important lessons learned from it. Thank you so much for providing this amazing book and amazing experience for my kids. I am looking forward to using the books with my next set of students next year.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Cote