Adventures in Graphica: A Self-Study Guide for Teachers and Coaches on Improving Math Discussions - Softcover

Thompson, Terry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1571107126 ISBN 13: 9781571107121

Publisher: Routledge, 2008

Synopsis

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."

About this title

About the Author

Terry likes to help people. That's why he became a teacher, a consultant, and a psychotherapist. "I'm a helper. It's what I do, and it's the core of my personality. It makes sense, then, that I would gravitate toward a career that would allow me to help others. I see potential in children and do my best to help them believe in and cultivate that potential."

Never far from a classroom, 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 United States consulting with classroom teachers and literacy specialists.

Terry loves the connections he makes with children when they are actively engaged in the learning process and motivated to learn more. "I'm energized by the laughter, the quizzical looks, the conversations, and the sense of wonder we share as a community as we move from one topic to another. I take pride in the fact that I am an agent of change in the lives of children every day, and that when it's all said and done, I can honestly say that I made a difference in the life of a child."

When it comes to teaching teachers, Terry believes that instruction in a PD setting should be just as differentiated as in the classroom. "Adult learners deserve the same intentionality and reflection in planning that we use with our students. Teachers are busy. They don't have time for fluff, and I try to keep this in mind when I'm planning presentations. Workshops should be fun, fast-paced, engaging, and interesting. We learn best when we feel safe enough to take risks, so my presentations are casual and respect the fact that we're all in different places in our learning." 

Terry is the author of Adventures in Graphica: Using Comics and Graphic Novels to Teach Comprehension (2007) and The Construction Zone: Building Scaffolds for Readers and Writers (2015). In his free time, he is an avid reader and likes to travel, especially with friends and family. 

Terry continues to work in classrooms as a literacy interventionist in San Antonio. He's also recently joined the Stenhouse Publishers team as a part-time literacy editor. Connect with Terry on Twitter (@TerryTreads) or through his website.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1571107126
• ISBN 13: 9781571107121
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 200