Week 2--Homework Leads to Additional Research

As I was searching for podcasts this week for my homework, I came across a podcast by Dr. Stephen Krashen.  His information was really relevant to what I teach and I decided to spend a little more time finding out about Dr. Krashen.  Dr. Krashen’s website is http://www.sdkrashen.com/ and I am thoroughly intrigued by some of his thoughts, opinions, research, etc. regarding the importance of reading/literacy in education.  One of my favorite articles of Dr. Krashen is Comic Book Reading, Reading Enjoyment, and Pleasure Reading Among Middle Class and Chapter 1 Middle School Students found here http://www.sdkrashen.com/articles/comicbook/index.html.  This article discusses how comic book reading is motivational for students and can improve reading scores. 


I use a variety of media to teach my intensive reading students.  I use comics in my classroom as well and I have faced some adversity from people in regards to whether reading comic books actually constitutes reading.  I personally believe it does.  Also, in my opinion, reading something is always better than reading nothing.  Without motivation and/or enjoyment, many struggling readers will not independently pick up a book to read.  If comics provide the motivation and the enjoyment factor, then so be it.