Grade 4
Independent Writing Program with Alexander Stadler (3 visits)
In a fourth grade ELL class, the range of student abilities spans from first to fourth grade level of reading and writing, including one student who is at grade level in her native language but is barely at first grade level in English. Ms. Espada, the classroom teacher, struggled to find books and writing assignments that would challenge and engage her diverse class. Behind the Book worked with this class during their unit on independent writing by implementing a series of graphic novel workshops with author-illustrator Alexander Stadler. Students read the first two books in Mr. Stadler’s graphic novel series Julian Rodriguez. Mr. Stadler then led the students in creating, writing and illustrating their own graphic stories, which Behind the Book compiled into a class book. Read our blog post about this program: http://behindthebook.wordpress.com/2011/06/20/a-comic-is-like-a-box-of-chocolates-you-never-know-what-youre-going-to-get/ .
Mr. Stadler and the class connected via skype to celebrate the unveiling of their finished book.
