Cartoons & Comics

I just recently learned about pretty cool websites and apps that allow you to make teaching,just about anything, more fun and engaging for students! In the article "25 Ways to Use Makebeliefs.com in the Classroom" Zimmerman offers ways to bring vocabulary, autobiographies, diaries and many more things to life with makebeliefscomix! He also has a plethora of resources and ways to implement and incorporate comix in homeschool lessons,  for different student populations such as autistic children, deaf and hearing impaired, special needs, and resources for parents as well. You will absolutely love it and so will your students!!

Just another way to change things up in your day-to-day teaching. I will definitely be implementing these practical, yet genius ideas in my classroom. I plan on using and assigning  comic strips based on their SAT voc. word lists, explaining the plot of a story, and definitely writing a mini-autobiography or memoir, as I am currently teaching about expository texts.

You will definitely appreciate these alternative ways of teaching, learning, and creating as opposed to the traditional methods of delivering instruction and assessing their knowledge on a particular topic! Check out the comic strips I created and learn about their pros and cons, and don't forget to give one a try! ***Click on the hyperlinks for a larger view of my comic strips.

My Toondoo Comic Strip

I found Toondoo to be a bit self explanatory. With its limited features due to a basic, free account wasn't to bad. It had a limited variety of characters and features you could do in each panel. Some difficulties I ran into was the text size and trying to get all the text to fit in without overlapping the characters in the scene. I also had a bit of a problem getting to the Home page and retrieving my saved Toondoo. Student might encounter difficulty as well. Overall, it was ok and not too shabby considering the options in creating a basic one. I'm assuming purchasing an upgraded version will allow for more of an elaborate cartoon strip.

My Pixton Comic Strip

Pixtoon was a lot better for creating a comic strip. It had a lot more options and features than Toondoo did. Although it took some practice, trial & error I was soon able to create a really net comic strip with multiple character offerings, props, backdrops, and editing features that Toondoo did not have. Students would definitely be able to use this one. Choosing between Toondoo and this one, I would definitely pick this one. Great website! I give it a big thumbs up!

My Makebeliefs Comic Strip

This one was rather easy to create after some playing around with the features and some tinkering. I loved that it had several options and features to add in order to create awesome animated comic strips! Students would enjoy using this site.The only downfall...you can't save, but you can email or print it. If I assigned one to my students, they'd have to email me theirs.

References

 Zimmerman, B. (n.d.). How to Play with MakeBeliefsComix.com. Retrieved November 06, 2016, from http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/How-to-Play/Educators/