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The comic book assignment was a hit!
Filed Under Computers In The Classroom, Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students, Graphic Organizers, motivating students, Web 2.0 tools and technologies
The comic book assignment was a hit! I’m relieved. I think this is the most popular final evaluation assignment I’ve ever given. Thank you Toondoo.
My students, all but one, loved the idea of creating a comic book to demonstrate their knowledge and skills. Some of them, however, weren’t too thrilled about having to create a storyboard to help organize their thinking. It was definitely a good idea though. I was able to tell right away if someone needed a bit of redirection.
As I said, not all of my students liked having to do a storyboard first- surprise, surprise. They kept asking if they could create the comics as they created the storyboard. I didn’t want to dampen their enthusiasm. Some of them are pretty reluctant students, so I was delighted that they were so engaged. I thought having them create the entire storyboard first would help them do a better job on the assignment. Of course, I’m always open to negotiation if I think it will help keep my students engaged , so I agreed to let them create part of the storyboard and part of the comic book simultaneously. Bad move!!! Some of the students never did finish creating the storyboard. They just kept on creating comics planning them on the fly.
Some students didn’t care that the rubric for the assignment included a storyboard that reflected the comic book and was created before the comics were created. High marks aren’t everything for many of my students, especially at the end of the semester. (I’ve had students tell me they aced a course when their final mark in the course was 53%. Go figure.) They just want it all over with. Too bad we couldn’t have a final evaluation at the beginning of the semester when they are keener.
When I think about it, I really don’t know if not creating a storyboard made much of a difference to the quality of these kids’ work. They just kept editing and re-editing their work as they went along. Enjoying the entire process. Just ask them to edit an essay and see what happens. Perhaps someone who has had more experience using storyboards in their classes can let me know if it really does make a huge difference. I encourage students to use graphic organizers to help organize thinking, but maybe just because I find them useful doesn’t mean my students do. Maybe some students just need to get in there and muck about.
I think next time I’ll give my students a full two weeks to complete the assignment. Originally, I thought that seven classes, one for each habit, would be enough, but it turned out that some students needed more time- mostly because of poor time management. What else is new! Since many of my students have IEPs that state they are to have extra time if they need it, we negotiated a new deadline a couple of days hence. No problem. Part of me thinks that no matter how much time I give my students to complete assignments some students will still need a couple of more days. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see next time.
Some students didn’t have computer access or rather internet access at home so I told them they could come in during exams and finish the project. It must be embarrassing for these kids not to have internet access when most of their classmates do. I’ll have to remember to check about internet access with students who seem to be slow at getting Web 2.0 assignments done.
I really liked the positive energy that this assignment created in the classroom. Some students told me they went home and created their own comics to share with family and friends. A positive note is a great way to end the semester.
I just want to point out that my class was a grade 11/12 class of pretty street smart kids so I wasn’t too worried if something on the Toondoo site wasn’t totally school appropriate. Personally, I didn’t come across anything inappropriate, and my students didn’t draw anything to my attention either. But, you never know, so for younger students I might choose another cartoon generating program. Maybe some day Toondoo will have an educational part to it like other useful Web 2.0 sites so teachers can control what kids see while at the same time letting kids publish and read each other’s work.
If you have any insights to share about anything I’ve said here or have any questions, I’d appreciate hearing them.
Oh yes, remember the one student who hated the idea of creating a comic book I mentioned at the beginning of this post. His final evaluation will be an oral one as per his IEP.
Update: Amber Johnson sent me this link
Comics in the Classroom: 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teachers
Thanks, Amber
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3 Responses to “The comic book assignment was a hit!”
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Thanks for sharing your reflections — they are very valuable and insightful.
Kevin
Hi,
I also found that kids were reluctant to story board (we were creating Common Craft videos for a 7th grade project). While I felt that a few kids benefited from planning things to that degree, many more kids did not complete the story boards (even though that counted as part of their grade). What we ended up doing (and worked pretty well) was using those huge Post It sheets to do a hyrid story board-graphic organizer. I think the kids were less intimidated using the giant Post It sheets AND that helped them to plan things out before the video shoots. Of course, the other teacher in the room didn’t like having huge post its everywhere, but…:)
Would it be possible for you to post a sample piece of work that the kids created? I’m curious to see what they are capable of doing.
I’d like to know more about the comic book project. What skills were they demonstrating? What were you assessing with the rubric? The project sounds great and I’d like to help some of the teachers at my school organize something similar.