Art By Elio
I Really Have to Go!
Enjoy a mini graphic novel about asking for help.
By Katie Mach
From the September 2025 Issue
Learning Objective: Students will decode short o CVC words and understand the sequence of events in a story.
About the Story
English Language Arts Focus
Genres of literature
Social and Life Skills Focus
Relationship skills
Self-management
Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
Implementation
- Whole group
Pairings and Text Connections
- Suggested book: Giraffe Asks for Help by Nyasha Chikowore
Before-Reading Resources
- Video: What Is a Comic? (5 minutes) Explore how comics use pictures, thoughts, and dialogue to tell a story.
Suggested Reading Focus
Relationship skills/self-management (20 minutes)
- Ask students to think about why we need to ask for help. Why can it be hard to ask for help sometimes?
- Read the comic with expression. Check children’s comprehension after each panel. Children can also turn and talk to discuss.
- Using the Talk It Out questions, discuss the comic. Encourage children to make personal connections. Can you think of a time when you had to ask for help? Was it hard? How do you know when you need to ask for help?
After-Reading Skills Practice
- Skills: text-to-self connections (15 minutes)
Text-to-Speech