It’s so easy, it’s FUNNY!!!

What is Comic Life?

• A software tool used to create comic strips

• Teachers & students can create comic strips using images and text of their

choosing

• A fun and innovative way to demonstrate learning and mastery

Why Comic Life?

• Engagement in higher-level thinking.

• Application of technology, an invaluable skill in today’s world

• Engagement & motivation through the use of a highly interesting tool

• Forces students to focus on the essential information

• Taps into students’ creativity

“Literacy has always meant being able to consume and produce the media forms of the day, whatever they may be. For centuries this has meant writing essays and reports filled with words and paragraphs.

Now it means blending words with images, sounds, music, video, and other media to create the new communication default: the multimedia collage, in the form of web pages, digital stories, YouTube creations and much more.

It is up to us to help digital kids migrate from text centrism to media collage literacy in creative, thoughtful, ways. We need to help them cultivate their new media talents, adopt art as the 4th R and use storytelling to convey their ideas in rich, compelling ways. We need to help them create media, stories and projects that are articulate and transformative. And we need to help them collaborate and share their work and talents within the collaborative community of the social web.”

Dr. Jason Ohler, Professor of Educational Technology, University of Alaska

What do we know about comic books?

• Story is mostly told in pictures• They use speech bubbles to show when

someone is talking• They use thought bubbles to show what

someone is thinking• They use boxes within the storyboard to

tell us about other things happening or more information i.e. MEANWHILE IN THE HALL

Let’s look at some

examples!

Enhance a Word Wall

Language Arts• Grammar• Dialogue• Literary devices• Vocabulary use• Spelling• Riddles, puns, idioms• Poetry interpretation

• Recreate the dialogue from a book or movie.

• Change the ending of a story

• Give words to picture books• Original Storytelling• Biography/Autobiography• Map out a novel/story:

characters, problem, solution

Creative Arts

• Analysis• Comparisons• Historical context• Periods• An artist’s growth &

change• Reproduce a drama• Procedures to follow• Classroom rules

Social Studies• Period newspaper• Create a visitor’s guide to your

class, public library, fire station, etc.

• Recreate a key moment in history• Conversation/Debate between key

figures in history• Interview a famous historical figure• Timelines• Historical figures biography• A travel guide• Illustrate how an invention has

effected people, our world, other discoveries

• Explanation of a law• Explanation of specialized words

What are the delegates thinking?

Science• Recreate eureka

moments in science. • Give a voice to

electrons, leaves, planets, etc.

• Weather stories• Illustrate a cycle• Generalize an

observation• Share discoveries• Communicate

understanding of a concept

• Record experiences

Math•Introduce an authentic problem

•Explain a concept

•Demonstrate a process

•Summarize a math lesson or a skill

•Step by Step Problem Solving

•Identification of Math Terms

World Languages

• Illustrate a conversation or dialogue

• Vocabulary

Other Ideas…

• KWL charts• Cause and Effect• How to Guides• Newsletter• Reports• Invitations• Graphic Organizers• Interviews• Worksheets• Review Sheets• Flash Cards • Before…After• Yesterday…Today…Tomorrow

Whole Class Collaboration

Images for Comic Life

•Photos you take•Photos the kids take•Hyperstudio/Paint drawings•Legos•Clay figures•Toys•Paper dioramas•Copyright free images from the Internet

•Scanned drawings

Types of Shots• Close UpClose Up

Where you can see a lot of emotion or information – often a close-up of someone’s face or an object

• Mid ShotMid ShotWith some information or emotion but also some background detail

• Long ShotLong ShotWhere the background detail or surroundings are more important than the individual people or objects in the shot

• Point of View Shot (POV)Point of View Shot (POV)Where the camera is the “eyes” of the person in the story i.e. looking in the mirror/looking down at their own shoes

Close-Up

Mid-Shots

Long Shots

Point Of View Shots

Planning • Plan all of your photos before you take them

then go to each location needed in turn – even if this means taking photos out of the order they will be in. This will save you time

• Try and only take one photo for each one you need – get it right first time by following your planning sheet

• It helps if someone in your group has the role of “Director” – this person holds the planning sheet and tells the “actors” what to do in the shot and tells the “photographer” what type of shot you need