Comic Strip Fun

Comics in the classroom can be an awesome tool to get students to be creatively thinking and writing.  There are four sites below that I checked out on using comics in the classroom or library.

The Make Beliefs Comix was very easy to use.  I believe I could use this with kindergarten students and up.  You don't need an account for this one and everything is right there, using pictures for the directions.  For the teacher or librarian there are links to click on that will give you writing prompts, lesson plans and even some free downloadable pictures.  Click on this link and it will take you to my comic, http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/?comix_id=48695308C1344693.

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

The next one I looked at was Toondoo.  I was able to do more creative things in this one.  Right now the only thing I don't like is that I made my comic strip this morning around 10:30 and I still can't view it.  So hopefully it will be up and running soon.  This one I was able to create a character and change the features, hair and clothes on it.  I was able to put a backdrop in each box and add single words or pictures, speech bubbles and thought bubbles.  I would be able to use this one with second grade and up. Toondoo does have an area for schools to use but it does cost about $79.00 a month for 300 students.   http://www.toondoo.com/UPDATE:  I was able to add this one.

Next I got on to Pixton.  Wow, what a difference.  On this site I did have to do the little help videos, I wanted to see all that you could do in a comic strip.  When I was working on mine at first I couldn't do all that it said you could and then I realized you had to take it off of Beginners Mode and then I was able to go to town.  Like I said this is the only one that I could embed into my blog, which makes it kind of fun to think of all the possibilities one could do.  Pixton also has a link for schools to use, the cost is about $170 for two months for 300 students.  It is a little more than Toondoo, but Pixton has more to offer.  On their site they have examples of students work, a tutorial on how to use comics in the classroom and rubrics to help grade student's work.  Pixton can also be used on a Interactive White boards.  You can either click on my comic or just slide it to see the entire comic.

This last one is done on the iPad and it was pretty neat.  The only thing I don't like is recording my voice.  The free app is very limited on what your character can look like and the backgrounds you can have.  You are able to purchase additional items but not necessary.  I did purchase the teacher and school backgrounds, but after I looked at them it really wasn't worth the price.  You can take pictures and use them as your background, which I think the students would like that more than the pictures they have.  I also believe students would like to record their voices to hear what they sound like.  This could be used when students want to talk about a book that they just read or a student could give directions on how to do a project.  I did mine for Open House, to play as parents came into the library.  I am hoping I can loop it so I don't have to go and restart it each time.    https://tellagami.com/gami/P3327S/

All these sites are good to use in the classroom, students can work together to create a comic that reviews a book, that explains how to do a project, how to explain math problems, and how to tell a story from beginning to end.  These are not the only reason to use comics in the classroom room, but it gives you an idea of where to start.