Cartoons and Comics

Salutations, y'all! Just finished up a hectic weekend of bridal shower preparation and execution! With my sister getting married in December, life has been very hectic. I did, however, have a little bit of time to explore some new resources you could use in your classroom or library! Drawing, comics, graphic novels... let's face it... kids love them! Why not use them to teach them something? I poked around the Interwebs and found some awesome websites that will help you do just that.

Let's begin with Pixton.

I really liked the simplicity and ease of use of the Pixton website, and it was really easy to sign up.  It had a really great tutorial when I first signed up that took me through all the options and how to use them. This program has a lot of options for characters, backgrounds, and positions. You can add as many panels as you want and you can change the facial features on them to show a big range of emotion. The website also allows students to get subscriptions via their teacher. They can turn in comic assignments which is a great way for students to create products that you can evaluate. There are lots of options for sharing and saving the comic and if you get lost, the help option is well... helpful!

The other website that you should check out is ToonDoo.

By myloki | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Signing up is a breeze. When you create your comic, you are first given an option for how you want to set up your comic. There is not much by way of tutorials and it is definitely a "go ahead and play with me" type program. This website also has many options for characters, props, texts, special effects and backgrounds to choose from. I found this program a little more difficult to work with, but not impossible. If you invest a little bit of time working with it, it is easy enough.

Last but not least, Make Beliefs Comix.

This program was my least favorite. You are very limited with what can be done. The characters, backgrounds and options are very few. I found it difficult to use and a little bit annoying really. I think it would take much longer to work with this program than the others. There is no need to have an account with this site, but that also means you cannot save it to their server. Your options are to print, save or email the picture. In a pinch, you can definitely use this to make a quick and simple comic for your lesson.

There are so many ways you can use comics in your lessons. You can use them as a hook for your lesson. Oddly enough students are more likely to pay attention and read information in comic form. You can also have students use these websites. They can create comics centered around vocabulary practice. ESL students can use it to practice their english. You can use it as a different way to present a writing prompt. There are so many different ways to use comics in education. Check out this article for even more ideas.

Thanks for listening folks. I would love for you to comment and share how you have used or will use comics in your lessons. Tootles!