Cartoons & Comics

Children and adults alike have enjoyed comic strips for generations. Comics are written for all age levels, but most recently new variations have become increasingly popular. The style has taken on new forms through graphic novels and have utilized multiple genres including fantasy, science fiction, realistic fiction, historical fiction, memoir, biography and autobiography to name a few. Teaching and exciting students about writing can be a daunting task, but allowing them the option to create cartoons and comics in order to write creatively, share knowledge or process information will ignite enthusiasm. Although they are great for students to use, teachers can create their own to communicate and teach as well.

Ø  Here are some great sites for you to explore:

MakeBeliefsComix

This site requires no registration, so it is ready to use. The comics are very simple to create. Characters, props, backgrounds and speech bubbles are added with just a click. They can then me moved, flipped and resized. The style of the site reminds me of the comics I used to read in the Sunday morning newspaper. The site offers lesson plan ideas, writing prompts, resources for ESL and special needs students and free e-books. After completing a comic strip you have the option to print it and/or email it. It is a bit of a negative in that it cannot be saved and accessed later. So, I decided to take a screenshot of my comic and save it to my computer. It can’t be edited, but I can save the finished product this way. I used MakeBeliefsComix to create a beginning of school introduction. Students can create these the first week of school to introduce themselves to the class and the teacher.

Pixton

This comic strip site does require registration, but it is free. This allows you to save creations and revisit them at a later time. This site also allows you to publish, copy, print and share your strips. Pixton’s realistic style and look is similar to a Marvel comic. The site allows you to choose a basic or advanced level of creating to fit the needs of the user. The options are endless with a multitude of backgrounds, colors, characters, expressions and props. Everything can be resized, moved, altered, flipped and rotated. The sky is the limit with this site and the more I played with it, the more I discovered. I used Pixton to practice the reading skill of summarizing. Summarizing is a skill my students feel to be a chore, so this will be a great way to get students to practice in an engaging way.

ToonDoo

Cartoons come alive with ToonDoo. Registration is required for this site, but it is free. The site is bright, playful and fun. You begin by choosing a layout and then add in background, characters, text and props. There are not an abundance of options, but there are enough to choose from to meet the user’s needs. All items can be flipped, sized, rotated and cloned. Unique to this site is the ability to create your own doodles and save them. You can even upload an image to the site to reference as an assistant in creating your own character called a “TraitR”. Other features include making books, viewing other people’s work and rating published work. ToonDoo would be great for elementary and middle school age kids. I created an example of how it could be used to teach and practice vocabulary words and parts of speech. It is a fun way process and reinforce skills.

* In the future I will use comics and cartoons with students to teach technology skills, to share information, to encourage reinforcement of academic skills and to show teachers how to utilize them in the classroom. I can see myself using all three in the future. They all have unique qualities. I think the choice of which one to use depends upon the the user's needs and personality.