We decided to add a little more fun to our creative writing by creating some comics. I have been sharing a variety of comics. We now have a comic collection in the classroom that consists of books, newspapers, and some online versions. We have talked about what types of things you find in comics like speech and thought bubbles. Each of my students decided on a setting and some characters, a problem and a solution. I printed off a few different strip designs and they were off. Talk about students engaged and on-task!
The second step involved animating the comics using Toontastic. Students used their comic to create an animated 'movie' version. Toontastic directs students to create a scene and characters, then think of a problem and solution. It takes students step-by-step through this process.
While the program is very easy, students still seem to need a lot of support. I have no specific concerns or things to make other teachers aware of. Like most technology, it really just takes time to become familiar with the program.
There is a great online teacher/parent guide that comes with this app (available online). The cartoon can be uploaded to a ToonTube account and viewed online.
Complaint = I can't save it and export it anywhere :( I want to save it to students' Evernote accounts but there is no option to do that...? I am going to do some online research on this one. Does anyone have any suggestions???? It looks like cartoons can only be uploaded to an online viewing platform.
