Tech Tool Box
Comics in the Classroom
Why use comics in the classroom?
Growing up, most kids could not wait to get the Sunday paper. Was it for the ads, the classifieds, or the news? No! It was for the comics. As a kid, we all loved to read the Sunday comics. It was a way to learn what Archie and Jughead had going on that week, or we got to see how Odie was making Garfield even grumpier than normal. In three small frames, you could gain a wealth of knowledge about what has been going on in your favorite characters life.
In the age of LOL and BRB, student's like information that is brief and to the point. Now students can use cartoons to convey information in much the same way in their assignments. Students can create cartoons that explain different situations in a way that they can easily express.
Key benefits of using comics in education
- A great visual representation of knowledge
- Presents what is essential
- Easier to remember a visual graphic containing key information
- Engaging through thinking, creating and writing
- Perfect avenue for writing dialogue
- Incites students with low interest in writing
- Helps organization through storytelling and storyboarding
- Using visual images to convey meaning to a story or topic
- Develops creative and higher level thought processes
- Enriches reading, writing, and thinking
- Serves as an assessment and evaluation tool
- Sequencing promotes understanding
Classroom Uses
- An alternative book report: Students recreate a number of important scenes from a novel. See this link for more ideas from ReadWriteThink.
- Problem solving: To help students devise a story, start with a problem that the characters need to solve and then have the characters resolve it.
- Parts of a novel: Focus on character, setting and plot. Tell students: "Due to its condensed format, a comic strip highlights only the most important elements of its targeted topic. In this session, you will use character, setting and plot to retell and make up your own version of story events using a comic strip format."
- Plot: Students learn and demonstrate that stories have a beginning, middle and end.
- Understanding quotations: Student read a portion of a novel and put the quote in the bubbles showing who said what.
- Prediction: Ask students: "What do you think might happen next in the story?
- Tour guide: Students create comic strips in which characters ask questions and a tour guide answers, as they travel from place to place. Imagine exploring various countries around the world, ecosystems or biomes.
- Sequencing: Students draw a cartoon on a key event from history.
- Government/History: Students explain a process like how a bill becomes a law or the presidential election process in cartoon format.
- Current events: Ask your students to show their understanding of current events by creating a cartoon or comic strip.
- Art: Ask students to design their own character, such as a superhero, or to make a cartoon character of themselves.
Toondoo
An educational comic strip creator that allows teachers/students to create more professional looking cartoons for their class. It is free to use.
Makebeliefs Comix
An educational comic strip creator that allows students to create, print, and email comics that are created.Creates fairly basic cartoons. It is free to use.
Storyboard That
An online storyboard creator that lets students create and communicate ideas in the form of a comic strip. Teachers and students can create a free account and create 2 storyboards a week.
Comic Creator
This easy, online comic creation tool allows students to communicate their story using characters, speech bubbles, and props. Students begin by selecting how many panels for their comic layout. After adding characters, props, and text, students can print their comic. Consider printing to PDF driver to keep a copy of the comic.
Pixton
Pixton is a great tools which student can use to create comics strips. What is really cool about this tools is that it allows for collaborative cartoon creation and when using Team Comics, this can be done in the same time.
Witty Comics
This is a great web tool that allows students to create your own comics using some pre-drawn characters, backgrounds, and dialogue boxes.
Toontastic
Toontastic provides a easy way to create student animated films. Students choose the characters and setting for each scene, then just move the pieces around like they were playing with action figures, providing their own dialogue as the iPad records it all. They can then add a musical score with the appropriate emotional tone. The app doesn't just allow students to make their own cartoons, it also teaches the fundamentals of storytelling.
Superlame
Upload your photo and add comic balloons and text to share your information. No sign-up required. Save final image as .jpg format.
Comic Master
Students can create their own comic or short graphic novel. The site's drag-and-drop functionality lets them select visual elements from a limited number of backgrounds, posed superhero characters, props, and other elements.
AS ALWAYS, I WOULD LOVE TO SUPPORT YOU AS YOU IMPLEMENT DIGITAL LEARNING INTO YOUR CLASSROOM!
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