From the Classroom

From the Classroom: Using Graphic Novels to Explore Transitions

By on February 24, 2025   /   Articles, From the Classroom  

Let’s face it – students in the middle grades face lots of transitions. These can be moment-to-moment transitions (i.e. we’re best friends and five minutes later we aren’t), place-to-place (i.e. moving or starting a new school), and body-to-body (i.e. what is puberty doing to my body?!). Authors Rene Rodriguez-Astacio and David Low recommend using Superhero Graphic Novels to help students navigate these transitions as the graphic novel medium, with spaces between panels, force middle grade readers to fill in the gaps which can contribute to them doing the same in their transitioning lives.  And superheroes, in particular, are super popular with this age group!  Below are some superhero graphic novel titles, how they can support middle grade readers with all the transitions they face, and how teachers might consider using them in the classroom.

Spider-Man

cover of Miles Morales Shock Waves graphic novel with miles morales running in center of the cover.

In Miles Morales Shockwaves, Miles Morales, a biracial middle grader, helps raise funds for Puerto Rico to support his mother’s lost family home after an earthquake. He organizes a block party sponsored by Harrison Snow, CEO of Serval Industries. Miles (as Spider-man) is led to uncover a conspiracy when it is revealed that Snow is providing financial support to Puerto Rico to excavate valuable crystals unearthed after the earthquake. Rodriguez-Astacio and Low recommend that teachers provide some background on the relationship between the U.S. and Puerto Rico, especially in light of the 2020 earthquakes and the 2022 devastating hurricane. This graphic novel explores the various transitions associated with identity, place, and family, something middle schoolers may be facing.

Ms. Marvel

Cover of Ms. Marvel, Stretched Thin with Ms. Marvel running away from a helmeted villain.

Ms. Marvel’s super power is her ability to contort her body, but in Ms. Marvel – Stretched Thin, Kamala Kahn wakes up with big feet and a lack of control on how to fix them. This funny image is a great metaphor for the awkwardness of puberty and the various ways middle schoolers often don’t have control over their bodies. All the various ways Kamala’s body contorts throughout the book relates to the coming-of-age themes in the book and middle schoolers accepting new responsibilities, often with great struggle. Ms. Marvel can relate as even though she may do one thing well, her inability to excel in every aspect of her life leads her to feel like a failure. Kamala feels like she is stretched “too thin” when trying to be successful at everything and she is also literally stretched thin! Teachers can use graphic novels like Ms. Marvel (or the Hulk or the X-men) to examine the literal and metaphorical representations of body change and how gender, race, class, and power create different contexts with which transitions occur and are interpreted.

Finally, Rodriguez-Astacio and Low remind us that graphic novels should be seen as more than “transition books” for reluctant or resistant readers. Graphic novels are great for interpreting deep issues and themes. In the comments below, share what types of books you use to help with all the transitions your middle grade readers face on a daily basis!

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From the Classroom – Building Knowledge with Text Sets

By on December 23, 2024   /   For Teachers, From the Classroom  

Welcome to one of our newest features – From the Classroom – sharing tips and tricks for integrating a love of middle grade books and authors into your classroom. This month we are looking at using text sets to build knowledge.

What are Text Sets?

A text set is a collection of sources that support a common theme, issue, or topic. This can include fiction of all types (books, short stories, picture books, etc.), non-fiction titles, poetry, images, newspaper articles, songs, interviews, and other primary and secondary sources. The goal is to move from a textbook or one text only classroom to a multi-text classroom where the focus becomes studying concepts more in-depth to help build knowledge rather than the content of just one text. This always reminds me of the “if you liked this book, you would enjoy reading this book” lists and infographics you might see at the library or online, but instead the goal is to be deliberate about helping our students become mini-experts on a topic!

Mary Ann Cappiello and Erika Thulin Dawes recommend the following steps to build text sets:

  • Start with the content – What do the students need to know/what concept do you need to teach? It’s great to have a middle grade text serve as your anchor for the text set.
  • Build the text set – Find all sorts of material that will support the concept you will be teaching.
  • Organize the texts – What will you read first? Second? At the same time? Why?
  • Responding to the Text  – What will you have the students do before/during/after reading?

A great place to start is with your standards to figure out what topics or concepts to teach and what students should know and be able to do with these topics and concepts.

Sample Text Sets

Below are a fiction and a non-fiction text set for any middle grade classroom.

Fiction

Studying fictional characters in class? Why not change it up and study villains instead of the usual boring, goody two-shoes heroes! Think of all the conversations you could have about villain character motivations, villain character’s impacting the plot, irony, and more. You could probably build a villain text set around anything, but since it’s the holiday season, I thought a great picture book tie-in would be How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Use that in conjunction with a clip of Scar’s song “Be prepared” from the Lion King and examine the lyrics, specifically. Finally, read any great middle grade novel with a great villain (I chose Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer), and you have a high-interest text set about villains!

cover of How the grinch stole christmas by Dr. Suess

 

cover of artemis fowl by eoin colfer

Non-Fiction

I recently picked up Dan Sasuweh Jone’s latest Stealing Little Moon: The Legacy of the American Boarding Schools. What’s great about middle grade non-fiction books is they come complete with a well-researched bibliography which are perfect for creating text sets. Taking from this bibliography, a great text set could include reading portions if not all of the book, examining a picture of a student before and after they entered a school, and reading a newspaper article about the federal government’s response.

cover of Stealing little moon by Dan Sasuweh Jones

Main Text

picture of Hastiin To-Haali before he entered school and then tom torlino after being in schol

Picture of Hastiin To-Haali before entering school and as Tom Torlino after being in school

picture of chemawa cemetery in Oregon

Article: Interior Department leaders decry traumatic legacy of federal boarding schools for Native American children by Rob Manning

Don’t forget to check out the National Park Service’s amazing article for teaching ideas (complete with standards, objectives, and activities) about this topic!

Bonus: Need help with students who might not be reading at grade level? Check out the Middle School TopicReads at TextProject.org

Where to Start?

Take a look at some of the many books recommended here on the Mixed Up Files and then start finding other texts, resources, poetry, images, and primary and secondary sources to support your topic and standards.

In the comments, share your favorite text sets you already use in the classroom or are thinking about using in the future!

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From the Classroom – First Chapter Friday

By on October 28, 2024   /   For Teachers, From the Classroom  

First Chapter Friday listing for Alone by Megan Freeman, showing the book cover and a photo of the author

Welcome to our newest feature – From the Classroom – sharing tips and tricks for integrating a love of middle grade books and authors into your classroom. First up: First Chapter Friday!

First Chapter Friday is a super-easy way to introduce your students to a wide range of books. It can be a weekly feature (like it is in my classroom) or an occasional add-on. All you need is a book with a great hook and 5-10 minutes to read aloud the first chapter.

What is First Chapter Friday?

First Chapter Friday is exactly what it sounds like – read aloud the first chapter of a book… on Fridays. Really, you can choose any day of the week, but it’s hard to pass up the alliteration and rhythm of First Chapter Friday. (On weeks when we miss a Friday, we have taken to also having First Chapter FThursday and First Chapter FWednesday. The week before Thanksgiving is our only First Chapter FTuesday!)

I make a Google Slides page for each First Chapter Friday book we read that features the title, the book cover, and a photograph of the author. The photograph is a key way to remind kids that authors are real, actual people. If an author has many middle grade books I usually make a second slide highlighting those titles, and I might read a blurb or two from those.

My students have a “Books To Read” list in their classroom notebooks, so they can jot down titles and authors that interest them. This is a great way to counteract the “I don’t know what to read” whining. My more industrious students often take their notebooks home and request a bunch of books from the public library to bypass the classroom wait list. Smart!

If you can, it helps to have read the chapter aloud to yourself beforehand. The more fluent and dramatic your read aloud, the more likely you are to hook a range of readers. After you finish the chapter, have an easy way for students to indicate they are interested in the book. In my classroom, everyone just jots their name on a sticky note, and I use a deck of cards with students’ names on them to choose.

List of circles and checkmarks for keeping track of First Chapter Friday books

It helps to have a system to track who has which books, as First Chapter Friday books often stay in demand for weeks and months. I use a simple spreadsheet with student names in one column and book titles in the rest of the columns. Circles indicate who wants to read a book, and I write in the date when I hand out a book.

What Makes a Great First Chapter Friday Book?

First up, you want a book with a great opener. You only get one chapter, so you need to make it count. Some books are more of a slow burn, and while those are often awesome titles, they aren’t the best choice here. Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling is a riot right from the start, and Ghost by Jason Reynolds shifts tone mid-chapter and absolutely grips you.

Cliffhangers are another popular choice. Any book that makes your class audibly groan when you read the end of the chapter is a winner for sure! Battle Dragons by Alex London has such a dramatic cliffhanger (err, apartment-balcony hanger) that I usually have to read the first page of chapter two so everyone can catch their breath.

You also want to vary the books that you share: different genres, different formats, different lengths, authors and characters of different backgrounds, beliefs, religions, gender expression, etc. etc. Students who might never pick up a novel-in-verse might after the first few poems of Alone by Megan Freeman or Starfish by Lisa Fipps. I do a whole series on spooky stories around October, which is always a big hit.

First Chapter Friday - Scary Middle Grade. Includes: Scary Stories for Young Foxes, The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street, This Appearing House, and The Jumbies

Give it a go!

Take a look at some of the many books recommended here on the Mixed Up Files. Grab a few favorites, a pack of sticky notes, and start reading! You’ll be amazed how fast it builds up your community of readers.

In the comments, please share your favorite middle grade books with thrilling first chapters!

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