A Review Activity by Leanne Baur of Teaching Tales!
I've discovered that struggling readers like comic books for a couple of reasons. The text isn't intimidating. The pictures catch their eyes. They don't seem as long as a book.
When I introduce my struggling readers to Calvin and Hobbes, they fall in love with it. {So Do I}
It's a fun and friendly text they relate to. Calvin and Hobbes have all kinds of imagination adventures in everyday situations.
I especially like Calvin and Hobbes because the author and illustrator Bill Watterson uses language that is above where my students are. But because it's a comic book, they are willing to jump in and try those insanely big words. My 3rd grade student took a stab at the word "dictatorial impunity". The other plus is all of the grunts and groans and yells that require the student to access their phonics when they yell out, "WAARRGH!"
If you have a student that continues to struggle with reading, consider getting some comic books into their hands. It just may change the way they feel about reading.
Writing this blog post got me so excited about comics that I decided to make a freebie to share with all of you at Innovative Connections. It's got comic resources to help you find some great reads to share and a mini lesson where the students get to make their own comic strip. I can see the smiles now coming across your faces.... click here to download it right now.
Adrianne Meldrum has a degree in Elementary Education. She currently tutors struggling readers and middle school math students. She is the author of Kidscogworks.com and creator of Brain Tower . Adrianne is the wife of an engineer and a mother to three very handsome boys.
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UP
Read until the end ... you'll laugh...
This two-letter word in English has
more meanings than any other
two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.'
It is listed in the dictionary as an
[adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v].
It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends, brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and fix UP the old car.
At other times, this little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.
To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.
And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.
We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out, we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it soaks UP the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.
One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now . . . my time is UP!
Oh . . . one more thing: What is the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night?
Did that one crack you UP?
Now I'll shut UP!
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