Cartoons and Comics

 

The first comic creator I used was FotoJet. I had lots of page layouts to choose and it already had the graphics and speech bubbles embedded in the layout which I like. I did find it difficult to use the photos already in the program to add to the layout and get them to format correctly. You also have to know how to send things to the front and back in order for you to be able to see the speech bubbles and text. I did like how you could use your own photos if you wanted to customize a template. The thing I liked best about this site is the whole page format rather than just the strip format. I could see students being able to use this to create their own graphic novels. 

Next, I used Make Beliefs Comix to create the strip above. I liked how it walked you step by step through creating a comic strip. You can customize the number of panels you want and it even gives ideas for prompts for the kids to use to create a comic. I liked the different cartoon offerings and that you can make the speech bubbles the size you want. I also like how the font auto-adjusted to the size of the font bubble. I think this is a great site to use with younger elementary because it has sentence starters and walks you through step by step when you are creating the comic. 

I saved Pixton for last because my students had actually introduced me to the site earlier this year. I love how customizable the strips are. You start with the background then move to the characters and you can even change their facial expressions. The possibilities are endless when it comes to this program. Just like with Make Beliefs you can change the number of frames to build longer strips. I would use this site with my 3rd-5th graders. I could see using this in the classroom to tell a summary of a book, or as a way for students to represent their information on a biography project. You could even use it in science to demonstrate a concept like food chains. Students could of course create their own stories as well. 

I would like to offer a short 1-2 hour professional development on Pixton and Make Beliefs for my teachers next semester. Also, I would like my fifth graders to use it to present the bluebonnets for the next school year. Overall I think that cartoon and comic creator sites are a great way to engage students and reach that highest level of Bloom's Taxonomy of creating.