Click here to watch a video of students at City College, New York, talking about how MakeBeliefsComix.com helps them learn English. Their instructor, Tamara Kirson, was named The New York Times 2009 ESOL Teacher of the Year. To see her lesson plan click here.
Download "WAYS TO USE MAKEBELIEFSCOMIX IN THE CLASSROOM" and print it out!
1. CREATE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL COMIX
At the beginning of each new school year have students create an autobiographical comic strip talking about themselves and their families or summarizing the most important things about their lives, including their goals both in school and in life.
Let each student select a cartoon character as a surrogate to represent her or him. After students complete their strips, encourage them to exchange their comics with classmates to learn more about each other. Students can also create strips that summarize what their individual interests are to help a teacher to learn more about them. These autobiographical comic strips can become the opening pages of a daily comix diary that students can be encouraged to keep throughout the school year. For more information about the concept of a daily comix diary, go to MakeBeliefsComix.com Daily Comix Diary.
2. PRACTICE NEW VOCABULARY WORDS
Have students create a comic strip story using new vocabulary words that are being taught. Having students fill in talk or thought balloons for different cartoon characters also helps students practice conversation and language structure in a meaningful context. And what a fun way for students to improve their writing, reading and storytelling skills! Try our new GIVE ME WORDS! feature as a way to encourage your students, including English Language Learners, to practice their new vocabulary by writing dialogues for their comix stories.
3. PROMOTE TEAM COLLABORATION
Have students break up into pairs or group teams to create their comic strips together. This approach encourages teamwork and cooperation, with students complementing the skills of their colleagues. The site also provides a structure for students to work individually as they create their own cartoon worlds using their imaginations. Look upon the site as a resource for literacy development and to reach out to engage reluctant writers and readers.
4. PRACTICE CONVERSATION SKILLS FOR ESOL STUDENTS
Having students in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes fill in talk or thought balloons for different cartoon characters helps them practice conversation and offers a way to experiment with language, sentence structure and vocabulary in a meaningful context. Try our new ESOL/LITERACY section for a variety of class activities and ideas which you can use with English language learners.
5. SOCIAL SKILLS TRAINING
Create comic scenarios, scripts, or stories for children with autism as a way to teach them different kinds of social behavior and to read emotions by observing the faces of the different characters selected for the cartoons. Says one teacher who works with high-functioning students with autism, "I used the comic strips to create social stories focusing on behaviors we want to modify." Creating cartoons in which the characters speak for the creator also provides a way to help autistic and deaf students to communicate. For more information on how to use MakeBeliefsComix for children with autism as well as with those with other disabilities, see our Special Needs section at https://makebeliefscomix.com/Special-Needs/. MakeBeliefsComix has also added a new Autism/Spectrum category in our printables section. Its intent is to help children with autism identify different emotions as well as draw them on faces.
6. DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP LESSONS AND SOCIAL MEDIA ETIQUETTE
Create comic strips teaching do’s and don’ts of using the Internet and social media. Teachers and students can create comic posters on responsible behavior related to technology use, including what not to post, digital literacy, ethics, etiquette and security. Subjects might include: email etiquette, online privacy, sexting, cyberbullying and copyright rules.
7. FOREIGN LANGUAGE PRACTICE
Have students who are learning new foreign languages write their text in languages they are studying. In addition to English, the site accepts characters and accent marks from languages such as Spanish, French, Latin, German, Italian and Portuguese. Additional languages will be added to the site in the future.
8. PRINT, DOWNLOAD OR EMAIL: VALIDATE STUDENT EFFORTS
Have students email or download to their desktop their completed comics. Doing so validates the efforts they put into creating the strips and gives them a sense of ownership. The printed cartoons represent their hard-earned efforts and they can add the completed work to their school portfolios or share with friends and family. Think of the student sharing her cartoon with someone important to her and the smile this brings to the face of the recipient. Wouldn't such an experience reinforce learning?
9. INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING
Use the cartoon strips to introduce students to the world of creative writing and the pleasure of using their imaginations more fully. When students create a comic strip, they are also honing their reading and writing skills in addition to tapping into their creativity. The act of creating cartoons allows students to learn in a pleasurable way. You can use our new Comic Strip Starters Page, to help get your students started.
10. CREATE DAILY COMIX DIARIES
Consider having students create daily comix diaries. These provide a way for students to digest and integrate what they are taught each day as well as to reflect on their lives and experiences. Encourage students to use the comic characters as surrogates for them to talk about and examine their lives, their problems, their challenges and their anxieties. In effect, students can see themselves in the comics they create. The comic strips also allow the students to express their feelings and thoughts about the learning that occurs in the classroom. The goal here can be to encourage students to compile over the school year a portfolio highlighting their educational and personal development. For more guidance on creating daily comix diaries, go to: www.makebeliefscomix.com/Daily-Comix-Diary. Students will also love our new "ALL ABOUT ME!" comic diary feature.
11. CREATE SERIALIZED COMIC STRIPS
Create comic books based on the strips that the students complete. Let the students serialize their comics by creating a new strip each day as part of a continuing story. They can print and color them, too.
12. LIFE SKILLS PRACTICE
Create comic strips in which students can practice real-life, practical scenarios, such as looking for a job, or learning how to deal with a school bully, or interacting with a difficult boss or fellow worker or classmate. As an example, create a comic in which a student applies for a job. What kinds of questions is the interviewer likely to ask her and what kinds of responses might be appropriate? An individual going to visit a doctor or emergency room can practice vocabulary that will be needed for such an encounter -- this can be particularly helpful to those students who are learning English as a second language.
Dear Teachers,
During this school year so many of you have given us great feedback and told us about some of the exciting things you and your students have been doing in creating comic strips at MakeBeliefsComix.com. From science, to math, to history, to reading to storytelling, you have shown much creativity in harnessing comic strips to reinforce the subjects you teach. We want to improve our Lesson Plans section and ask you to send us the lesson plan that worked best for you in using our comic creation site, along with (if possible) a comic strip to illustrate the lesson. For those selected we will credit you and your school and send you a gift copy of our book, MakeBeliefs: A Gift for Your Imagination. Please consider this request and send to billz@makebeliefscomix.com. As always thank you so much for your support.
Please send your own creative ideas and comics to billz@makebeliefscomix.com - View our Comix Gallery