For some children, words are enough. For others, words and images are better.
Back to Howard Gardner and those visual learners. For them, seeing the images and words together makes for a fuller reading/artistic experience.
Some of my students have had a lot of fun coming up with characters – name, physical attributes, activities – and settings, then deciding what the story is. Then they try their hand at drawing those characters in their story.
And graphic novels make for great summer reading:
“Here are three more reasons you should encourage your kids to read graphic novels this summer:
1. Graphic novels are full of text. Sure, they have drawings, illustrations, and sometimes photos, but they also have text that readers must actually decode, analyze, and comprehend. With graphic novels, kids still must follow plots and character development. They must understand cause and effect, and they must learn about perspective. All of these things will improve their reading comprehension.
2. Graphic novels are engaging. Often, especially for reluctant readers, graphic novels add the extra support kids need to help them through a text. They tend to be particularly captivating for kids, and the combination of text and pictures provides context for stories that they may otherwise not completely understand.
3. Graphic novels are high-quality reading material. Just like traditional novels, graphic novels have exciting and complex plots, characters, and conflicts. The plots have twists and turns. Characters are developed and dynamic. Conflicts are presented, unwound, and resolved like they are in other texts. The only difference is that graphic novels have more images to support the development.” – Scholastic.com