Image created by Robyn Douglas on October 11, 2009 using screen capture.
Makebeliefscomix.com
As an educator I often struggle to find interesting ways to help struggling students learn vocabulary in science. As a middle school teacher, I also sometimes struggle to keep the students who think they are not “good” at science interested in learning more, when they could just draw or doodle in their notebook instead of taking notes. I think that makebeliefscomix.com is an awesome tool that could help to change my struggling students into shining stars. This web tool is a free application that allows users to design their own comic, print it and share it with others. As fun as this tool can be for children of all ages, it can also be used as an educational tool for teachers.
When I taught language arts I went to a writing conference and purchased Vocabulary Cartoon of the Day: 180 Reproducible Cartoons That Help Kids Build a Robust and Prodigious Vocabulary (Paperback) by Marc Tyler Nobleman. When I used this book, the students loved not only reading the cartoons, but also creating their own. The book was a great resource, but it was hard to implement because it used a large amount of paper for each student to get a copy of the cartoon as well as have space to draw his or her own cartoon. It was also difficult to apply this to other vocabulary for a student that did not like to, or was not “good” at drawing and to share the students’ work with others.
According to William Zimmerman (2009), the creator of makebeliefscomix.com, and Tamara Kirson, an ESOL teacher at City College in New York creating online comic strips help to improve immigrant students English language skills. This site could help the English language learners I have to apply science vocabulary terms in a more engaging environment and share the creations with classmates. I could also use this to differentiate instruction by selecting specific vocabulary for the level of the students. I could also use the comics to introduce vocabulary by creating a comic for the students or to review vocabulary by creating a comic and taking out key terms and have students choose the vocabulary term or science concept that best completes the comic.
Zimmerman, W., (March 4, 2009). ESOL Students Use MakeBeliefsComix.com to Improve Language Skills. Retrieved on October 11, 2009 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRhIhYvDhEU.
As an educator I often struggle to find interesting ways to help struggling students learn vocabulary in science. As a middle school teacher, I also sometimes struggle to keep the students who think they are not “good” at science interested in learning more, when they could just draw or doodle in their notebook instead of taking notes. I think that makebeliefscomix.com is an awesome tool that could help to change my struggling students into shining stars. This web tool is a free application that allows users to design their own comic, print it and share it with others. As fun as this tool can be for children of all ages, it can also be used as an educational tool for teachers.
When I taught language arts I went to a writing conference and purchased Vocabulary Cartoon of the Day: 180 Reproducible Cartoons That Help Kids Build a Robust and Prodigious Vocabulary (Paperback) by Marc Tyler Nobleman. When I used this book, the students loved not only reading the cartoons, but also creating their own. The book was a great resource, but it was hard to implement because it used a large amount of paper for each student to get a copy of the cartoon as well as have space to draw his or her own cartoon. It was also difficult to apply this to other vocabulary for a student that did not like to, or was not “good” at drawing and to share the students’ work with others.
According to William Zimmerman (2009), the creator of makebeliefscomix.com, and Tamara Kirson, an ESOL teacher at City College in New York creating online comic strips help to improve immigrant students English language skills. This site could help the English language learners I have to apply science vocabulary terms in a more engaging environment and share the creations with classmates. I could also use this to differentiate instruction by selecting specific vocabulary for the level of the students. I could also use the comics to introduce vocabulary by creating a comic for the students or to review vocabulary by creating a comic and taking out key terms and have students choose the vocabulary term or science concept that best completes the comic.
Zimmerman, W., (March 4, 2009). ESOL Students Use MakeBeliefsComix.com to Improve Language Skills. Retrieved on October 11, 2009 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRhIhYvDhEU.
Several of you visited this and each has new uses. Great post. I love the idea of using in for science concepts. They would have to understand it to develop the scenarios. Great!
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