Cartoons and Comics

Comics are a form of storytelling by expressing ideas with images and texts.  While early in history, comics were slandered to be just entertainment for children and immature adults. Today comics are very popular for all age group of people not just children. Comics are so enjoyable to read, they even catch the attention of reluctant readers.  Technology today have made it easy for anyone to create comics as well.  I explored and created comics with the three following comic sites: ToonDoo, Pixton, and MakeBeliefsComix.  

I felt like Pixton was an easy to create an account, navigate through, and create a comic strip.  It took me the least amount of time to create my comic strip compared to the other sites.  I had the option to create character, while I did play around with it, I did not use my own character.  It gave many options of characters to choose from.  There is a variety of colorful backgrounds,converstion bubbles, and other objects as well.  You can even choose a themed background.  Saving it was very easy and simple.  You can publish it, share it with friends, email it, and share it on social media.  I liked Pixton the best and feel like my students would be able to manipulate it easily. 

By monica1116 | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

To create an account with Toondoo is easy.  However, I feel like I had a more difficult time manipulating this site.  I looked at a YouTube tutorial video to get more familiarized with it.  This site does offer a variety of backgrounds, props, clip art, and conversation bubbles.  This site is very colorful and eye-catching.  The save button was a little difficult to find as well, and  I had to YouTube that as well.  Although, it did offer a good selection of things to use, I prefer Pixton.  Once you figure it, it is easier to manipulate through, and students would enjoy using it as well.

In Make Belief Comix, there is no registration required.  It includes a video demo that highlights the main steps to create your own comic.  Although it gave a demo video, I still found this one difficult to use.  I did not enjoy it as much as the others.  It had a variety of characters, backgrounds, conversation bubbles, colors, words, and other objects to choose from.  The comics were  plain and did not have as much color as the other sites and  were mostly black and white.  It give the option of flipping the characters, which I liked.  It also allows you to change the language on the comic strip.  To save it, you can either print, email it, or save your comic in a word document.  It does offer information like lesson plans and tips for teachers.  After manipulating the site, I got the hang of it.  I feel like students would like to use this site as well, but feel like the others will catch their attention more because of the colors.

I enjoyed learning how to make comic strip, and I am already thinking of way I can implement them throughout the school year.  Comics can be incorporated into the classroom many ways.  You can teach sequencing, students can create a setting, tell a story by developing their own characters, and they can create an interview by having the characters ask each other questions.  You can have them retell a folktale, fairytale, or just a regular story into a comic strip.  These are just a few ideas.  There are so many more that can be incorporated with students.  

Tellagami is a mobile app that lets you create quick Gami videos.  You can customize a character by changing is outfit and hair, and you can record your voice or dialogue for 30 seconds.  My Tellagami is on the a cute children’s picture book,  The Day the Crayons Quit.  

I really enjoyed using this app. Here are a few way you can incorporate in the classroom:  having students pretend they are someone is history and tell a short biography on them, have a character tell a story, recite a poem or speech, or have students practice a different language by telling a story or explaining something.