Digital writing… graphically speaking

This is part 3 of a ‘Digital writing‘ series of posts. I have looked at authentic digital writing projects, as well as digital storybook tools.  This post will focus on a different genre: comic book, graphic writing.  Graphic novels have become hugely popular in the last five years with all age students, especially middle and high school students.

Process: After text tapping some graphic novel excerpts and other graphic writing pieces, create a list of characteristics of this writing format. The current belief is that the difference between a graphic novel and a comic strip is that a novel has a complete story, with a beginning, middle and an end. It is in a comic format, but is usually bound together in a more permanent binding. Comics also use graphics to tell a story, but exist in a series of strips, not a complete story in one bound edition. Although graphic novels are written in a sequential format using images and words, they can be many different genres, including adventure, mystery, science fiction, romance, comedy, and even non-fiction.

For more information about graphic novels:

CCBC Graphic Novels Great resource with links to more information about graphic novels
ipl2 for teens This resource has great graphic novel information, including the history and many more details about this format.

Once students understand the comic format and characteristics of a graphic novel have them write their own. They should create a draft of their story in a writer’s notebook, but when they have their story written have them use a digital tool for creating professional looking graphic novels.

There are many web tools available for students to create graphic stories, here are three I explored, plus other resources that have more.

toondooToonDoo is a great tool with many backgrounds, characters, speech bubbles, clipart,  and props. After selecting your layout (number of scenes) you can start adding your content. After creating you can publish, share via email, print, save as png, get embed code to share on blog, or you can share via url. You can also add your toondoos into a book, or digital graphic novel. It also has ToonDoo Spaces especially designed for teachers and classrooms. There is a free trail of this so you can check it out. Looks like it is very affordable and offers a safe, private environment for students to log in and work on Toondoos.

pixtonPixton is another comic creating tool that has a school fee based version. It has a variety of formats to choose, including 1, 2, or up to 12 rows to work with. The free version is limited but they do have a Pixton for Schools that allows teachers and students to have a safe, protected environment and more graphics, as well as the ability to upload images. This school version is ‘as low as .12 a day per user’ and an overview can be found here.

goanimateGo!Animate: Students can create their own animations using scenes. Different themes include willie nelson, star trek, street fighter, happy bunny, custom world, goanimate originals, stick figure, Saturday morning TV, and AKON. Once you select your theme you can go create. Characters that you can use are limited, unless you collect gopoints, which allow you to add more characters. After saving you can share, or download your finished project as a video (but this costs money or gopoints). You can also share the url and embed code. (10.00 buys 1000 gopoints) Because of the cost for gopoints, and the limited amount of content without it, this may not be your best choice for use with students.

For more information about comic tools and integration:

Cartoons and Comics Creation This is a great post that highlights some tools, but more importantly gives some great ideas on how to integrate comic creation into math, english, science, social studies, and foreign language.

7 Resources for Creating Cartoons and Comics This post reviews Pixton, Artisan Cam, PikiKids, Comiqs, Be Funky, Make Beliefs, and Art Pad.

Chogger- Create a comic strip

Related posts:

Digital writing

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