One of the main affordances that Robot Dreams offers its readers is the opportunity to explore annotation. This wordless graphic novel allows students to 'create the narrative' behind the story of the Robot and its dreams. This is one of the best engagement strategies for this book to pull striving readers into the world of literacy. 

Some of the best spreads in Robot Dreams, in my opinion, are during the lonely times that the Robot spends on the beach, alone. Sara Varon changes the shapes of the panels, changes the color hues, and creates an 'alternate reality' in which the Robot and the Dog's day on the beach went different. As a teacher, I know that striving readers will love this emotional, wordless, graphic novel.  This graphic novel provides the perfect introduction to a shared/guided reading experience amongst teachers and students. 

Dogman is one of my favorite books that I read throughout this semester. This is due to the different affordances that this book has to offer. From appearing to be authored by an 8 -year-old (based on the font of the book) to the funny humor this book has it all. One of the most important affordances of this book is how the book is sectioned off into chapters-- the concept of chapter books is typically reserved for more developed readers, so offering chapter books to striving readers is a way to increase internal motivation. This book is also filled with around 10 books in the series and has another similar series: CatKid. If a child reads this book, falls in love with it, there are so many more books that the student can read to stay engaged. This book also offers different text features that physically engage striving readers while reading: The Flip-O-Ramas and the how-To's" for drawing. Engaging students socially and emotionally is the best way to keep students engaged. This book focuses on artifactual sharing and creating which promotes higher-order thinking skills. 

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Moreover, as previously mentioned, this book is episodic, so students that might have shorter attention spans will be able to obtain comprehension in shorter amounts of time compared to a book that is not separated into chapters. 

Talk about girl power! From the beginning of Zita the Spacegirl the main character, Zita is on a mission to save her friend, Joseph, from an alternate dimension. This book combines fantasy and reality, which is a valuable representation in graphic novels that are often looked past. The main affordance in this book is the female main character, Zita. Often in graphic novels and comics, girls and women are portrayed as 'side-kicks or as sexual symbols. Therefore, Zita changes that narrative and shows girls that they can be heroes too. There is a lack of respectful representation of women in the comics world, so having this option in your classroom makes ALL the difference. Plus, it allows girls the opportunity to explore graphic novels while seeing themselves represented in a story. 

Zita often faces challenges throughout the book where she initially looks extremely frightened, but she pulls herself together and becomes a strong, independent, girl. 

This graphic novel also has elements of onomatopoeia and story-telling elements which will keep your students engaged. 




 

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My Favorite Graphic Novel! There are SO many affordances in this graphic novel... that must be why it is my favorite! This book heavily relies on the schemas and background knowledge that all kids have. However, the background knowledge stems from stories, movies, and animals that we are all familiar with. These include Jaws (shark), Big Bad Wolf (Wolf), Snappy Pirhana, and a slithery-snake. All of these animals and stories fuse the characters together into the category of Bad Guys, whether we realize it or not. Therefore, the author uses our schema to change the narrative... the Bad Guys want to be Good Guys! 

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Not only is this book filled with past knowledge, but there are also elements of a LOTE (language other than English), violence, and inappropriate words (wee)  used throughout this novel. 

IN CLASS ACTIVITY

Have students create predictions about this book. What will happen next? 

 

The Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) is a comprehension strategy that guides students in asking questions about a text, making predictions, and then reading to confirm or refute their predictions. The DRTA process encourages students to be active and thoughtful readers, enhancing their comprehension.

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Check out the different text features and teacher thinking notes listed below! They directly correlate with the Acess Lens analysis tool for graphic novels. 

This is another one of my favorite books because of the cognitive and emotional disabilities represented. In this book one of the main characters Wyatt is "different"-- he doesn't have many friends, because easily overwhelmed, and has social-emotional difficulties. He is not diagnosed with a disability in the graphic novel, but his characteristics align with that of someone with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). Often times when kids with ASD become overstimulated or have a sensory overload they start to panic in what appears to be an anxiety attack. This is represented on pages 15 and 16 as well as later in the graphic novel. One of the affordances of this novel is the visual representation of anxiety. Many kids often struggle with anxiety or may have a physical/ cognitive disability, which is not represented in kids' books enough. 

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There are other affordances in this novel as well such as flashbacks. Flashbacks are frequently injected within the conscious streams of thoughts that the main character has. 

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CLASS ENGAGEMENT

Have students analyze the differences in panels, gutter space, color hues, panel shape, etc. to understand how the author portrays a 'flashback' to the reader. 

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Have the students analyze the facial expressions and wordless moment on 41. What emotion is portrayed? How does the author portray this? What other moments in your life have you felt like how the main characters are feeling right now?

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There are many affordances in the crossover. The first is the concept of a verse novel mixed with the form of a graphic novel. Originally this book was written as a verse novel (which I enjoyed), but transforming this book into a graphic novel changed the reading experience that I had. This graphic novel truly embodies the 'Get the Picture' element of the Modified Protocol-- the illustrations bring the story to life. 

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Even though this book was transformed into a verse novel, the entire 'verse novel' element is still present. The visual representation does not take away from the original form of the verse novel but adds to it. It completely disrupts the typical way that poetry is represented. 

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CLASS ACTIVITY

Have students compare and contrast the graphic novel vs. the verse novel versions of The Crossover. Which version do they prefer? Why? Give students the opportunity to discuss the different visual elements that The Crossover offers. Also, have students check out the Ah-Ha moment on page 164. What makes this an Aha-Ha moment?

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Moreover, I think that a major affordance in this book is the representation of young black boys. Literature LACKS stories that positively embrace the black culture-- The Crossover does just that. Rappers, basketball players, the importance of hair, and more are a few elements that are mentioned throughout this book that help incorporate the Black culture.

The last affordance I want to mention is the emotional affordance of grief that is mentioned in The Crossover. Many students deal with grief throughout their lives, so having it represented in literature is A BIG DEAL.  

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One of my favorite affordances about this book is the cinematic appeal that it offers. From the beginning of the book, the reader is drawn into The Nameless City.  The illustrator uses a focal point to help achieve her goal. In the PDF listed below. I have drawn arrows inside my novel that show how the illustrator used this focal point. 

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CLASS ACTIVITY:

Before showing students your drawing of the arrows, ask students how the illustrator invites the reader into the book. Have students draw their own arrows on a printout of the first page. 

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Affordance: One of the strongest affordances is the social-emotional pull that this book has to offer. In one of the most influential pages in the book the main character, Kaidu, visits the city and is able to see the hunger that stricken the city.  In this wordless moment, which is included in the PDF's below, Kaidu goes through a 'Bump-Up'; he has an internal conflict within himself. This truly gives a strong emotional pull to the book, no words are exchanged between Kaidu and the hungry kids-- and there are no words exchanged from author to reader. 

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