ReadWriteThink's Comic Creator

I chose NCTE's Comic Creator as a useful resource in response to my recent studies (in my Children’s Literature in the Curriculum class) on the benefits of using graphic novels in the classroom. Graphic novels are a great way to involve more reluctant readers as well as students who are very visually oriented. In today’s media-flooded society, our students are used to having stimulating images and videos accompanying language; in comparison, plain text on a page can seem boring at first. That’s where graphic novels come in. Students are still reading and comprehending and making sense of a text, but they have the added reward and challenge of interpreting images as well and making sense of the interplay between words and images. For a long time now, comics have been treated as inferior—a form of media that should be hidden in backpacks or under pillows. This taboo nature of comics can be used to further arouse student interest in reading by allowing and encouraging them to read graphic novels in class. Comics aren’t banned? You actually want us to read them?? Graphic novels can also be helpful in working with ELL’s; they allow students whose native language is one other than English to see words and dialogue in the context of images—the images support the words, and vice versa.

As an extension activity, students will enjoy working with a comic creator like this one supported by NCTE’s readwritethink.org. They can use their knowledge of comics and graphic novels, based on their studies and reading in class, to help them create their own original comic! There are several tools like this on the web, but this one is especially user-friendly. I do wish they had more images to choose from, both for characters, backgrounds, and props, but it’s a good starting point. You could even have your students use the comic creator to insert the text and bubbles they wanted, and then have them print these skeletal comic strips and add their own original artwork. I tried making one myself, and the process is very easy and very fun!