My 3ºA students have made the following pieces of writing. To do so, they have used "Pixton".
Let´s have a look at some final products.
The first one, created by José Antonio, Juan Jesús and Beato
Andrea, Mª José and Verónica have also made their own comic:
Miriam, Triana and Julia set their stripes at the airport
2. Write a post for your blog and use the codes generated by Storyjumper or Pixton to link to the work created in your class. Remember: you don´t have to upload all the finished products; you may choose the best examples to share.
How did you organise the groups?
I didn´t arrange any groups, actually, the groupings were organized beforehand, as students were assigned a specific position in the computers’ lab back in September. I told them that they could swap places but they refused to do it.
What was the sequence of tasks that you followed to get to the final product?
I gave them a few instructions to carry out:
Sign up.
Review some strips on Pixton so that they could identify characters, setting, dialogue, and plot
Think of characters, plot and a setting and draft ideas in paper.
Use Pixton for their comic strips.
Email their links to me.
What were the specific learning objectives for this activity? How did the use of the tool help the learners achieve these objectives? Please be specific and give concrete examples.
1. Analyze comic strips to identify characters, setting, dialogue, and plot.
2. Draft events from a story.
3. Organize ideas on how to combine pictures, captions, and dialogue to tell a short story.
4. Develop comic strips.
In what ways (be specific) was creativity and the use of imagination encouraged in your students?
I did not brief them regarding the story-related events. As soon as they were given the basic instructions and got together, they went through samples once they signed up and started brainstorming.
What did your students enjoy most / least about this activity?
Most said that the creative process was amusing especially devising the panel strips. Drafting ideas was easy but writing the bubbles was harder.
What would you change next time?
More time is needed especially for students to overcome technical problems. Two sessions is not enough.
Despite the fact that they were told not to use Google Translator, some groups resorted to this tool. I would walk around the classroom helping and solve doubts but some got away with it.
How were the finished projects shared with the rest of the class?
All the comic strips were read in class, since they had shared the links with me previously.
What opportunities were there for students to co-evaluate and discuss the learning experience with each other?
Session 2 was actually devoted for assessment and feedback. Each group graded the other groups by means of a rubric taking into account the following criteria:
- Panel Design
- Readability
- Creativity and originality
I filled in the same rubric too.