MAKEBELIEFSCOMIX.COM

BGSU

EDTL 6310

Group Project

Looney TunzAlyson TaylorChris DoddAndrew Wicks

MAKEBELIEFSCOMIX.COMCreator: Bill Zimmerman

COMIC CREATED BY 3RD GRADER: JACK C. AGE 9 GRACE EPISCOPAL DAY SCHOOL

“ I THINK THAT IT IS SO FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I ENJOYED IT BECAUSE THERE WAS AN ALIEN AND A FAT GUY.”

www.billztreasurechest.com

Bill Zimmermancreator of makebeliefscomix

Tutorial of MAKEBELIEFSCOMIX.com

The Possibilities are Endless!Educational ObjectivesLanguage Arts

• Grammar, Punctuation, Capitalization • Reluctant Writers - Storytelling, Sequencing, Story

Elements, Characterization Science• Write a How to Description of Experiments• Illustrate Life Cycles

Math• Illustrate Number Patterns and Rules• Word Problems Solving Strategies

Social Sciences -Political Cartoons - Genealogy - Timelines - Personal Interpretation of Historical Events

Language- Learn foreign languages - Idioms- Learns nuances to the language - Hearing Impaired Instruction

Adaptive Instruction- Autistic Social Stories- Language Pathology – Stuttering Issues

High School History ClassTHE ISLAMIC

REVOLUTION

Adult Learners

ESOL STUDENTS

Middle School Language Arts

Biographical DigitalStorytelling

Lesson Ideas from Educators

Click on image for an example lesson image or video.

Inquiry Based Ideas by: Drew

A program like this could be used to allow students to create their own perspective or spin on the events in history. To recreate their own interpretation of an event in they may be studying. Could use this in conjunction with a video project, creating storyboards to outline or summarize the scenes. With this type of program it would allow the students to use their imagination and ask questions to probe deeper into topics within history that they might express and interest. Then through the development of choosing the scenes or segments to create in a comic strip fashion they will ask themselves questions on what might be important for them to retell and therefore remember and share with other students.

It is a program of this nature where they start to literally draw the scene for them to see perhaps from the pages of a book or diary. The students will use their imagination to problem solve even the limits of the program to fit what it is they are trying to express. The program is unable to do a lot, like putting characters in historical outfits that make it easier to illustrate a point or event. But the limits might actually be a benefit by forcing students to think outside the box and use similes or metaphors to express a point.

I know there are other programs of this nature out there on the web that may offer more freedom to create for the students and the teacher. Two that I am aware of is www.toondo.com and http://www.comicmaster.org.uk/ , the toondo website is one that I have seen the students at our school creating some comic strips for technology class, using it to create strips on topics like bullying and how to respond. The graphic novel site would be something for history because there are graphic novels written about historical events that are being made into movies.

Character Education: What is Character?

Inquiry Based Ideas by: Alyson

This website is perfect for an elementary school classroom. The set up is perfect for young users to create their own comics with brief instructions from their teacher. Students are very savvy on the internet and with games and technology. My first introduction with them regarding the site was very positive. The students who used the site first gave a tutorial for their classmates. The process went very smoothly. As they become more advanced in their comics, I believe that they will want to find a more advanced site for creating their own characters and backgrounds.

I will using this website for my students to explore characterization. Students will be given a trait and will be required to create a comic strip where that trait is explored through surroundings, conversation, thoughts, and emotions that makebeliefscomix pro vides. Another inquiry based project that I plan to start is having my students use the comics to document a 4 day experiment conducted at home. They have decided the type of experiment that they want to conduct. I gave them the topic, “Plants”. They determined what they wanted to know ( What type of music will make plants grow the best? Does the type of liquid fed to a plant determine its growth? Are plants social living things? (will they grow best alone or with other plants) Which genre of book will help the plant grow best?) The comics will be used to show the progression of the experiment rather than journaling. I also plan to use the site as a way for students to show symbiotic relationships.

The site is a great start for inquiry based learning. I believe that as the learner develops they will need to find a site with more offerings unless makebeliefscomix extends its capabilities and features.

Vocabulary: Idioms for Elementary

Inquiry Based Ideas by: Chris

Make Beliefs Comix is a great online tool. The application in inquiry based learning is almost endless. There is an easy connection to Language arts here. You could take any short story and have the students create a summary of the story on this and share it with the class. This could even be used for an entire novel by having a comic strip for each paragraph or section, then again have the students share to the class.

In a history class you could create groups and assign them a section in your book then have each group create a comic strip summarizing the main ideas and have them teach the main ideas to the class and have copies for each classmate. For example you could use the causes of the American Revolution; all of the acts/taxes against the colonist could be a separate comic strip.

There have been uses of this site for ESL students that seem to help them explore and learn ideas in spite of their lack of language. The uses are endless for such a simple yet seemingly student friendly and interesting tool.

Vocabulary: What is telepathy?

Pros and Cons of the www.makebeliefscomix.com

PROS Cons

TEACHER FRIENDLY Writing Prompts, 21 Uses for Teachers, Story Ideas

FUN, FUN, FUN

User Friendly for All Ages

Printable Resources

MULTILINGUAL English, French, Italian, German, Latin, Spanish, and Portuguese

Limited Characters and Emotion

20 characters X 4 emotions=

80 Possibilities of Characters

Limited Number of Slides

Storage/Save Limitations

Pros and Cons of Online Comics in the Classroom

Pros Cons

Creative Outlet

Multilingual

Cross-curricular Potential

Time Consuming

Not Enough Slides

EVALUATIONS OF MAKEBELIEFSCOMIX

CHRIS WILSON

creator of The Graphic Classroom

Winner of Top Children’s Book Blog 2010

AwardsGoogle, UNESCO and LitCam

selected MakeBeliefsComix as one of the world's most innovative web sites in fostering literacy and reading more >>and featured it in "The Literacy Project”.

American Library Association selected MakeBeliefsComix.com for

inclusion in its 2010 Great Web Sites for Kids, more http://www.ala.org/greatsites). "Great Web Sites for Kids are those considered the best web sites for ages birth to 14, outstanding in both content and conception... 'great' should be thought to include sites of especially commendable quality, sites that reflect and encourage young people's interests in exemplary ways.Click on his image to read his evaluation!

EVALUATIONS OF MAKEBELIEFSCOMIX

Site ComparisonMake Beliefs ComixCreator generated characters and 4 emotions per character

Toon DoCreator generated multiple templates for user to create their own character and its

own emotions

LOONEY TOONZ

DREW CHRIS ALYSON