Use Garfield to teach students to read! : an honors thesis (HONRS 499)

Abstract

By creating a partnership between my 4th-grade student teaching classroom and a Business Fellows project with PAWS, Inc., I explored ways to use comic strips to help students learn fundamental reading skills. Feedback from the students was gained to help the Professor Garfield Foundation know the wants and needs of their target audience. No child complains about having to read comics and their text provides a constant source of interesting humor and ample educational opportunities to make reading FUN!The purpose of the Professor Garfield Business Fellows project is to assist the Professor Garfield Foundation with the launching of a dynamic free interactive educational web site at www.professorgarfield.com. As a participant in this program, I played a crucial role in the creation, development, and ongoing improvement and enhancement of the Professor Garfield web site. For my thesis, I developed ways for teachers to link and use the Professor Garfield web site in their classroom. I created a feedback response booklet in which the students explore and critique the web site by completing a series of challenges. Student responses will aide the Professor Garfield foundation as they continue to improve upon current activities and develop future ones.