Thursday, January 28, 2010

Think Twice Thursday #4 - Cartoons and Comics Creation

One of the post that I created during the early stages of this blog was a discussion of Cartoons and Comics Creation Websites that students and teachers can use in their classrooms for various activities.  You can visit that original post here, and see my discussion on sites such as GoAnimate, ToonDoo, and Pixton.  I also provided links to other comic strip sites such as BitStrips, Comiqs, StripCreator, and Strip Generator.  Recently I discovered a new site, DoInk.

With so many different types of websites for creating comics and cartoons, it is a resource that many teachers with little technology background could implement in their classroom and allow their students to use them for projects.  A good thing about the Comic Strips and Cartoons is that they are not limited to one or two subjects, you could easily adapt them across the curriculum.

Mathmetics:
- Take a math Word Problem and turn it into a comic strip/cartoon.
- Take a math concept and create a comic strip/cartoon.
- Make a comic strip/cartoon where the theme is using math in real life.
- Create a comic strip/cartoon using Geometric shapes as the characters explaining their angles and sides.
- Create a comic strip/cartoon about how to solve a problem on a calculator
- Create a comic strip/cartoon about how to solve a math problem without a calculator

Science:
- Create a comic strip/cartoon using the elements as the main characters
- Create a comic strip/cartoon explaining the processes from an experiment
- Create a comic strip/cartoon discussing the different planets as the characters.
- Create a comic strip/cartoon showcasing the different scientific methods
-Create a comic strip/cartoon about evolution

Social Studies:
- Create a comic strip/cartoon about a historic event, person, place, speech
- Create a comic strip/cartoon timeline of events
- Create a comic strip/cartoon about a government policy or document (Bill of Rights)
- Create a comic strip/cartoon about current events
- Create a comic strip/cartoon about economic concepts (Opportunity Cost, Law of Supply and Demand, etc.)
- Create a comic strip/cartoon about countries

English:
- Take a poem or short story and create a comic strip/cartoon about them
- Take a novel or non-fiction book and create a comic strip/cartoon about the characters, plot, setting, symbolism, or a combination of all of these
- Create a comic strip/cartoon about authors
- Create a comic strip/cartoon about persuasive, speech, trans-active, etc., writing
- Create a comic strip/cartoon about parables
- Create a comic strip/cartoons relating to the stories and plays of Shakespeare

Foreign Language
- Create comic strips/cartoons in foreign languages...great way to learn vocabulary
- Recreate comic strips/cartoons  from the newspaper in their own way and translate them into foreign language being studied
- Create comic strips/cartoons in a foreign language that relate to events and history of the countries the language you are studying is spoken in.
- Create comic strips/cartoons as part of a "travel guide"

This list is just a beginning.  I am sure that there are many more out there that I have not thought of.  I suggest you think twice about how you could use Comic Strips and Cartoons to enhance your curriculum and generate creativity in your students.

Do you have ideas?  Please share.