Make your own COMICS

The other day I had to create a test for my year 7 LOTE class.

I have some extremely disengaged students in the class who much prefer to pass around little comics they've made them learn Japanese.

So the thought of a test probably bores them to tears.

As I was required to write a test in the traditional format, I decided to add some sort of comic to it.
I wanted to find a comic on the internet which I was able to edit or print out and add captions to.
On the way I found something better.

www.makebeliefscomix.com/

Top website!

You use the characters, caption bubbles, props and backgrounds that they have created for you to create your own mini comic. You can then change their size, direction, emotion etc.

Using the macroskills of reading and writing, these comics could be used for:

 

                      Assessment

                - Tests (students add text to speech bubbles)

                - Drafted projects (students create cartoon and captions) 

           Engagement 

     - To present new syntax and lexis

      - To practice and produce new syntax and lexis 

 

              Creativity and ICT skills

                - To involve students who do not view themselves as particularly ‘creative’.

           Motivation

                 -To cater to different preferences in the class and incorporate aspects of 'novelty, authenticity, relevance, fastasy' into the task (Boekaerts, 2010, p. 105)

                 - To make the learning environment positive for the students as the eighth motivation principle from Monique Boekaerts states that 'students are more motivated to engage in learning and use motivation regulation strategies when they perceive the environment as favourable for learning' (2010, p. 105).

Though creating a comic is not a particularly social activity in the general 'talking to others' sense - it is within a communicative approach to learning languages, as the students are communicating meaning through the comic. 
 

You can only have 2 - 4 panels in your comic and must print it out straight away or send it to your email - which always sends perfectly. 

You cannot save your half-finished comic to work on later. 

Also you can only type in the panels in romanized characters (no Japanese or Chinese for example) and so to make it work for me I've had to print them out, write in Japanese then scan them in again to print. A little bit of work but I think the test below came out well.

So in terms of features it's a little limited - but all the same, it's fun and simple. Simple for kids, simple for teachers.

Check it out.

Chao!

Boekaerts, M. (2010). The crucial role of motivation and emotion in classroom learning. In H. Dumont, D. Istance & F. Benavides (Eds.), The nature of learning: Using research to inspire practice (pp.91-111). Paris, France: OECD Publishing.