Gone are the days of children sneaking comics past diligent parents and teachers watching out for sub-par literature. The comics of today not only have plenty to offer, they are gaining well-deserved recognition and awards. Take advantage of the natural affinity children have for comics and use them as a powerful teaching tool in your classroom. The following tips, tools, and resources will get you started.
"Creating cartoons and comic strips can be a good way to get reluctant writers writing. While creating comics you and your students can work through the elements of fiction in a context that is fun and familiar to them. "
A teacher asked me to recommend a comic strip program that will allow the students to add a few sentences of text and have a number of panes. I hadn't looked at comic strip programs since last year, so I decided to see what I could find. Here is a summary of my research.
Create and share a comic using any combination of your own drawings,
photos and ready-to-use artwork. Can't draw? Not a problem. Simply
choose from our library of backgrounds, characters and speech
balloons, add your own text or captions… and you're done!
A comic in minutes! Sign up now and share the fun
Wikispace that is an excellent resource for anyone using Comic Life. Includes tips and resources on: Use in Schools, Learn to Use, Templates and Publishing
A wikispace presentation for Comic Life complete with ties into NETS, integration ideas, teacher productivity ideas, project examples, resources and more.
Create your own comics without having to draw. Share and remix with your friends. For all ages. Over 150 countries, 30 languages, and growing every day. Sign up now, it's free!
Wiki full of comics that can be used in the social studies classroom and beyond! This wiki is an attempt to help us share resources and ideas - it has taken me a lot of research to find these titles - I have not been able to find any sort of complete "list" of titles that would make it easy - so here we go!