In today's world, it is important to keep in mind that students truly do come from an infinitely diverse range of backgrounds and settings. Naturally, educators have preferences for media types based on their own comfort with technology or how progressive they are in terms of lesson plans and in getting the class involved with different opportunities.
One of the newer ways in which the classroom has been altered is the introduction of comics to tell stories that may be otherwise more difficult than necessary for a child to grasp. Not only can it be used to teach a lesson or to read through a challenging book, but students can also present their work to their classmates using them as a teaching tool. Rather than writing a full-fledged book report, instead a student could simply create a graphic novel or comic book to show what they grasped from the story.
If you're interested in this medium as a form of education, I highly recommend visiting http://comiclife.com/education to learn more about the process and how to implement this.
Hold tight there too, Jake. I will actually be doing my class presentation on Comic Life. I have read the chapter and found it interesting also. I was kind of hoping for something similar to MAUS by Speigelmann but the software still seems to be able to do some creative things that should keep students excited and motivated to continue their interest.
ReplyDeleteComic Life is a wonderful tool, and I am happy to see that you think it has educational value. Might you be more specific or share an example of a text/activity in which you would use it?
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