The Value of GNs To Students

GNs cater for the different learning needs of students

As resources for curriculum support need to cater to a range of learning styles, visual learners will benefit from carefully selected GNs to support their needs (Frey & Fisher, 2008, p.170) as long as the students have the necessary visual and text literacy skills to access the information (Goldsmith, 2010, p.4). For those students whose strength is ‘linguistic intelligence’ the GNs’ extensive vocabularies can feed their imaginations (Laycock, 2011, p.7).

Good communicators and empathetic students who are considered to have interpersonal strengths find GNs appealing because of the visual communication component of the GN (Laycock, 2011, p.7). GNs could also be used as a teaching tool to help students lacking interpersonal intelligence to learn to read facial cues and body language. I wonder if anyone has actually tried to do this? It could be useful I think in this area. 

GNs and Reading Access

One big advantage to GNs according to Laycock (2011, p.8) is that they have many layers (polysemic) so a GN can be accessed at different levels. I like the idea that GNs are polysemic, but I wonder if anyone has actually done the research to establish the benefits to the polysemic aspect of GNs. Children might be accessing GNs at different levels, but we should be teaching children how to get maximum access to GNs - not just be content that students access them according to their ability or existing skill set. 

Hansen & Fink (2012, p.2) and Frey & Fisher (2008, p. 32) believe graphics support the text, making GNs more accessible to struggling readers.  However, it could be argued these students must have the necessary visual literacy skills and the GN would first have to be evaluated to ensure the language level met students’ needs (Goldsmith, 2010, p.4).

GNs and The Reluctant Reader

One of the most important reasons for including GNs in a school library’s fiction collection is that the format of the GN appeals to reluctant readers, motivating them to read (Hansen &Fink, 2012, p.2). It is the comic format which has most led many people to become life-long readers (La Marca and Macintyre, 2006, p. 124) and this is reason alone to include GNs in library fiction collections. I know in the assignment we weren't supposed to dwell on reading, but this point is so monumentally important I just had to include it. If GNs lead even one child in my library to become a life-long reader I will consider the money spent on the collection to be well spent. Libraries and reading have always been an important part of my life and I can't imagine my life without them - it would be terrible! Whenever I think about when we finally return to Australia to live, I always think about how happy I will be to be able to go to Waverley library regularly. I also want to volunteer there to help  deliver books to the people in the community who are unable to make it to the library. 

GNs and Gifted and Talented Students

GNs can challenge Gifted and Talented students as they expand their skills of analysis (Hansen &Fink, 2012, p.2) through the complexity of the interplay of graphics and text. According to Lyga, (2006, p.1) GNs make the brain work harder than any other type of media, including books. Using GNs as the inspiration for a creative activity can also be valuable to Gifted and Talented Students. GNs can be a source of inspiration for children to write their own GNs - that would really extend the skills of G and T children as the intricacies of working between text and graphics to keep the plot moving is extremely complex.  

GNs and Boys

It is a difficulty for many boys that what they like to read - humour, magazines, GNs - are often considered inferior literature by adults (Newkirk, as cited in Laycock, 2007, p.1) de-motivating those boys to read and therefore affecting their learning. Adding quality GNs to the fiction collection and educating the school community to raise the credibility of GNs will benefit those boys who prefer to read GNs. We must do everything we can to be more open to what boys want to read. We want them to read, we want them to become lifelong readers and learners. If they want to read nothing but Geronimo Stilton for their fiction reads, that's fine by me. Boys get a raw deal I think - they know what they want to read - so we should respect their wishes as long as it's not harmful in any way! 

References: See September 7th Post