Scaffolding comprehension across grade levels: The Arrival Literature Cyberlesson

1. Scaffolding comprehension across grade levels: The Arrival Literature Cyberlesson CREC Language Arts Council April 16, 2010, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM Catherine Kurkjian. Ed.D, professor Maureen Billlings, M.Ed. grade 2 Susan Lynch, M.Ed, Sixth year, grade 7 Department of Reading and Language Arts Central Connecticut State University

2. PRESENTATION AGENDA Project Overview What is a Literature Cyberlesson? How does it support comprehension? Comprehension and the Graphic Novel What about the book? How was the Literature Cyberlesson mediated across grade levels? GRADUATE LITERACY/LITERATURE COURSES GRADE 7 REMEDIAL READING CLASSROOM GRADE 2 CLASSOOM What was learned in the process?

3. Goals for class • Heightening students’ sensitivity to diverse groups of people in our global society and to experience the common bonds of humanity we have with immigrant populations through the vehicle of Shaun Tan’s graphic novel The Arrival.(IRA elements) • Increasing students’ awareness of reading strategies involved in making sense of a graphic novel (IRA element) • Enhancing understanding of the impact of a Literature Cyberlesson on reading comprehension by providing students with the experience of participating in this technology-based framework prior to developing and/or implementing a Literature Cyberlesson with their students. (IRA elements) • Sharing and pooling professional resources to a professional community (IRA elements) • Multiple Standards: • Aligned with many of the standards for the 21st Century Learner • http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/AASL_LearningStandards.pdf • Many overlapping IRA teaching standards on which our program is based and by which our graduate students are evaluated.

4. WHAT IS A LITERATURE CYBERLESSON ? • Cyberlesson Template • Coined by Dr. Susan Tancock, Ball State, Indiana, definition modified to Literature Cyberlesson (Kurkjian & Kara-Soteriou) • Internet Comprehension Methods Framework to guide readers through text BEFORE, DURING, AFTER comprehension strategies to guide students through text • Draws on Internet Technology and multiple sources of information • Literature Cyberlesson conveys that there is a focus on children’s literature (fiction and nonfiction) • Used in a variety of group settings • Used with varying levels of teacher support. • Internet Project Literature Cyberlessons: • http://www.reading.ccsu.edu/Kurkjian/Internet%20Project/new_page_1.htm

5. CYBERLESSON GUIDELINES FOR EACH SLIDES OR WEBPAGES Introduction SLIDE 1. Short INTRODUCTION lets audience know what is coming and generates interest. Builds an anticipatory set. Materials SLIDE 2. The list of RESOURCES AND MATERIALS needed for the cyber lesson is complete. Materials are provided along the way such as websites, graphic organizers, etc. Websites are appropriate to the book, age of the child and activity. Before Reading SLIDE 3. THE BEFORE READING Select relevant information to activate/build conceptual ( and vocabulary) knowledge and knowledge of literary conventions through affordances of the Internet. Prompt students to bring this knowledge to bear on text to be read. During Reading SLIDE 4. THE DURING READING Track important ideas, and generate hypotheses in light of purpose, monitor comprehension of these big ideas. May avail oneself to the use of the Internet (online organizational resources such as cause and effect graphic organizers, templates to record information that can be linked or attached) SLIDE 5. THE AFTER READING Revisit a text and linger with it to put ideas together in a more comprehensive way, using evidence from the text to make generalizations and or supporting or refuting ideas by using evidence form the text (content or literary conventions) May use affordances of the Internet such as interactive story element charts, character graphic organizers, letter writing tools and resources, blogs, wikis etc) After Reading

6. SLIDE 6. THE BEYOND READING Gather more information to bring to bear to text to revamp and revisit, reevaluate text and initial understanding and connections made to self and others and to world. For example more information on setting may cause reader to rethink the text in a new way. (Use of wide range of resources such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, streaming video, visuals, etc.) Beyond Reading Rubric SLIDE 7. THE RUBRIC helps the reader to assess if tasks were completed satisfactorily. The rubric identifies what the reader has to do and to what degree in order to complete the cyber lesson successfully. Credit Page SLIDE 8. CREDIT PAGE cites Internet sites and graphics and other references where applicable. Cyberlesson Template Cyberlesson Internet Showcase: http://www.reading.ccsu.edu/Kurkjian/Internet%20Project/new_page_1.htm

7. COMPREHENSION AND THE GRAPHIC NOVEL Theoretical Underpinnings: Louise Rosenblatt: Transaction Between Reader and Text Wolfgang Iser: Actual Reader and Implied Reader Filling in Gaps with background knowledge and knowledge of literary conventions Graphic Novels have pronounced gaps. “Comics as a form requires a substantial degree of reader participation for narrative interpretation” (Chute, 2008, p. 460) Comics present visual fragments, omitting more visual information than they include (Wolk, 2007). For the reader, knowledge of comics conventions is necessary for literacy What are the literary conventions of a graphic novel? Conventions include panels, panel borders, gutters, lettering, narration and captions, balloons, sound effects, perspective, time, and motion Readers must consider conventions because they are important to the way comics work.

8. WHAT ABOUT THE BOOK? • Graphic novel • It is the story of an immigrant’s journey leaving his home, his family behind and arriving and making his way in a very strange land. • Described as an intellectual masterpiece with both realistic and fantastical graphics along with historical and futuristic Images. Taken together the book conveys a sense of place, but is placeless, and a sense of time which is timeless. • It involves the reader in the active construction of meaning relying on the visual images, the artistic conventions and background knowledge. • Must read between the panels to understand shifts in time and place. Must read across panels and use the details artist gives, tie them together to make meaning. Must be able infer shifts in perspective to figure out the sequence events across panels. Must be able to identify patterns such as recurring images and their symbolic use. Must be able to move from specific to general and vice versa. Interpret use of color, darkness and light

9. HOW WAS THE LITERATURE CYBERLESSON MEDIATED ACROSS GRADE LEVELS? GRADUATE COURSE THE ARRIVAL LITERATURE CYBERLESSON GRADE 7 REMEDIAL READING CLASS THE ARRIVAL LITERATURE CYBERLESSON GRADE 2 CLASSROOM THE ARRIVAL LITERATURE CYBERLESSON Student Scrapbook

10. WHAT WAS LEARNED: • ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL • TEACHER KNOWLEDGE ABOUT STUDENTS AND CURRICULUM IN THE DESIGN • AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGY TOOLS AND THEIR USE • ROLE OF SOCIAL INTERACTION TO PROMOTE CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING ALL LEVELS • LEVEL OF TEACHER SUPPORT VARIES BUT STILL NEEDS TO BE THERE • BUILD IN AN ONGOING INFORMAL/FORMAL ASSESSMENT TO INTERCEDE IN A TIMELY WAY • STRATEGIES THAT HELP STUDENTS REVISION AND RETHINK THEIR INITIAL INTERPRETATION: INTERTEXTUALITY • STRATEGIES THAT BRING THE IMMIGRATION STORIES TO LIFE: REAL EXPERIENCE/TEXT TO LIFE • BENEFITS OF THIS GRAPHIC NOVEL ACROSS GRADE LEVELS • BENEFITS ACROSS ALL GRADE LEVELS • DRAWBACKS ACROSS ALL GRADE LEVELS

11. References Chute, H. (2008). Comics as literature? Reading graphic narrative. PMLA, 123 (2), 452-465. Hammond, H. (2009). Graphic novels and multimodal literacy: A reader response study. Koln, Germany: Lambert Academic. Hatfield, C. W. (2000). Graphic interventions: Form and argument in contemporary comics. Dissertation Abstracts International, 61 (4), 1386. (UMI No. 9969075). Iser, W. (1978). The act of reading: A theory of aesthetic response. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP. Rosenblatt, L. M. (1995). Literature as exploration. New York: The Modern Language Association of America. Wolk, D. (2007). Reading comics: How graphic novels work and what they mean. Cambridge, MA: DaCapo Press.