TechnoLang Comic Life Project

Comic Life Resources

Add your favorite Comic Life resource sites ----

Here's one that I found helpful:

Courtis, A. (2008, October 18). Tech module: Using Comic Life in the classroom. Retrieved from Connections Website: http://cnx.org/content/m18037/1.1/

Amelia Courtis provides a succinct background and description of Comic Life, a discussion of the benefits and constraints, and links to tutorials and samples of Comic Life projects. Sample lessons cover a range of disciplines. The article's subheadings make it easy for the reader to find answers to specific concerns. The "Tips for Teachers" section lists valuable tips for first-time users.

Comic Life Article

Author of several graphic novels and the instructional book Comics in Your Curriculum, Richard Jenkins describes how he worked closely with a classroom teacher to write his book that includes standards, rubrics, and practical lesson plans for a variety of disciplines. Jenkins promotes the use of comics in the classroom saying that comics are a "medium" rather than a genre, and as such, they adapt to a variety of situations. The strong appeal of comics' format makes them an appealing way to engage students in their learning. Comics are a "dual discipline" art form, combining "visual and verbal," "image and text" because the images are presented in sequence and are adjacent to the text. Jenkins explains that the versatility of the medium makes possible a huge variety of applications.
Because Comic Life is easy to use and is relatively inexpensive, it puts the appealing medium of comics in the hands of teachers and students who can use it to enhance learning and creativity. Elementary, middle, and high school students are enjoying graphic novels, so adapting a popular medium to present content material in a fresh way seems like a wise idea.

Tingley, S. (2005). Comics in your curriculum: An interview with Richard Jenkins. Comics in the Classroom.Retrieved from http://www.comicsintheclassroom.net/oolessonplans.htm

Comic Life Reflections

Because current students are very drawn to visual media and because boys seem especially drawn to the comic strip format, I look forward to using Comic Life both for instruction and for student-based projects. By the time I've sometimes caught on to a new technology, it's not so new to students. However, I haven't YET seen the comic strip medium being used in classrooms, so I expect that students would appreciate the novelty and the effectiveness of the what Comic Life can provide. And does anybody else smile at the Comic Life sound effects?

Introduction to Comic Life "Interviewing Tips"

(page 4 of my Comic Life project.)
During the time that I was researching the benefits of students and teachers using Comic Life, I subbed at a local high school and there was one of the male tenth grade students reading a graphic novel. This brief experience reinforces one of the values of Comic Life: boys read comics. Not to be gender-biased, but after living in a household with three teenage boys, I am continually on the lookout for what I call "boy books," and both articles and life experience confirm that the comic strip format appeals to males (and females!). Because Comic Life provides an appealing learning medium for all ages and subjects, I look forward to using it in the English classroom both for instruction and for student-based projects.
I developed the Comic Life project, "Interviewing Tips," to use as a springboard for students before they choose their own interviewing tips to illustrate using Comic Life. Experts predict that today's students will change jobs multiple times during their adult working years. Having several interviewing tips firmly established in their minds will help them to make the most of the interviews in which they can expect to engage. Many of my former speech students have reported back to me that the interview unit from speech class proved to be a valuable tool for them as they encountered both college and job interviews. So, using Comic Life to further strengthen this unit in speech or English class provides students with an engaging way to think about these "real life" situations.
As a side note, I decided to include a variety of style formats in my sample project so that students could begin to consider different effects for their own projects.

VOICTHREAD Workshop via PowerPoint

TechnoLang has created a Voicethread workshop for ELL and Special Needs Educators. Zena MaNais facilitates the workshop in a PowerPoint presentation that demonstrates how to use VoiceThread as a multimedia, collaboration tool. Included in the presentation are resources for utilizing the tool in lesson planning along with sample VoiceThreads created by fellow contributors: Jane Edwards, Cliff Kicklighter, Bethany Stiefel, and Matt "The Coach" White.


Please see the following link for the video presentation (please excuse VTworkship typo; the video filing system wouldn't allow me to change it to VTworkshop):

http://martybray.net/zmanais1/7464_VTWorkship_zsm.wmv



To view the invitation flyer (created by a Word flyer template) go to link or copy paste:

http://martybray.net/zmanais1/7464_VoiceThreadflyer_zsm.pdf



To view the survey (created by Googledocs) go to link or copy paste:

http://martybray.net/zmanais1/7464_VTsurvey_zsm.htm


The rationale of creating a video for the workshop is so that the participants can take cds to review later. Sharing the cd of the workshop will be encourage so as to "spread the word" on VoiceThread.
Also, the workshop will be given live, but for purposes of sharing TechnoLang members VoiceThreads, creating a video facilitated that as well.

We hope you like it!

Diction Discovery Voice Thread

Introduction to Diction Discovery Voice Thread

My Voice Thread project, "Diction Discovery," targets 4th and 5th grade Language Arts students and challenges them to select creative diction for a poem. Careful, deliberate word choice sits at the heart of all effective communication. Because of the nature of the Voice Thread program, students of various abilities will be able to participate. ELL can suggest words both in their primary language and in English. Students do not have to suggest words for every blank.

Students will
1. carefully read each stanza of the poem and look at the pictures to note details before contributing
creative, appropriate diction to fill in the blanks;
2. consider structural details in order to use correct parts of speech for the blanks;
3. consider the sounds, syllables, and connotations of their word choices;
4. comment on others' contributions and use others' ideas to spark their own creativity;
5. read aloud (to themselves if they choose to type their comments) to hear the rhythm of their word
choices;
6. participate in a collaborative project;
7. use technology to participate;
8. have an opportunity to use their vocabulary creatively.
Closure: After providing time and opportunity for all students to contribute to the poem, the students and teacher could select their favorite diction choices. The teacher can share her original poem and compare how her original choices compare to the students' choices. Students may then choose to write their own pet poems.
Diction Discovery addresses the following Georgia Performance Standards for fifth graders and NETS standards for elementary students. The teacher will evaluate each student's contributions as they relate to these standards. The teacher will construct and use a rubric to reflect each student's mastery of the listed objectives.

(See Georgia Performance Standards and NETS Standards listed in comments.)

Voice Thread reflections

Voice Thread Resources

Integrating Voice Thread in the Curriculum

Egbert's focus on integration, blog 2

Stephen Covey's "Beginning with the end in mind" habit is echoed in Joy Egbert's first chapter of Supporting Learning with Technology,and the end, according to Egbert, is student learning. I want to focus on student learning and have technology supplement or partner with me to accomplish that goal. Because teaching has been described as an "art," I have to realize that the way another teacher approaches a plan may not be what will work in my classroom with my students; it may be something that I admire from afar. However, dialoguing with an artful teacher may be enriching for both of us. One useful strategy for me will be to post the six "21st-century skills" in my plan book so that as I craft my own plans, I balance the emphasis I place on each of the outcomes. I like Egbert's use of the term "Principled Technology Use" to refer to thoughtful, appropriate use of technology.

Posting Requirements

Please add vivid, insightful, challenging comments in response to what you read and see.

Tech Integration Success

As part of a curriculum integration project, Simmons College student Caitlin Krauss selected Google Lit Trips, devised a lesson plan based on a student's language-based learning disability, and successfully implemented the strategies. The high school student's disabilities prevent her from easily learning vocabulary, understanding concepts, and remembering what she has read. The visual, auditory, and interactive components of Google Lit Trips provides helpful sensory components, and the content maps, images, and videos provide background information that serves as anchors for concepts in novels. Krauss supplies appropriate question samples and suggests that students with these types of disabilities use a two-column sheet of paper to record bits of information that they discover at each place on the map. Krauss notes that Google Lit Trips can be used in the general education classroom, and that pairing students with different sensory strengths would benefit all users because each student would focus in on different aspects.
Krauss' use of googlelittrips.com to aid a student with learning disabilities is an excellent example of appropriate integration of technology to benefit student learning. The site uses tools such as Google images, Google earth, maps, music, video, and web links to provide commentary on the travels of characters in novels. The information creates visual references that students may lack background to imagine, and it introduces real places in the world that provide a context for characters' adventures. The site provides interdisciplinary studies that include social studies, politics, geography, and literature. After using googlelittrips.com, advanced students could use technology to create their own lit trip. Teachers of both special and general education classes can benefit by using this resource.

Krauss, C. (2009, June). Google Lit Trips for students with language-based learning disabilities. Google lit trips home page. Retrieved September 9, 2009 from .

Edwards Technology Integration Definition

TechnoLang members share a clear vision of the technologically-integrated learning environment. Technology integration has been achieved in the secondary language arts classroom when the teacher confidently and wisely partners with technology as a natural component of achieving desired student learning and when students engage with technology in a way that also prepares them for their futures. Continual, thorough professional development that empowers the teacher will in turn empower the student. Empowered students will have the skills and discernment to access appropriate information, synthesize ideas, create, and collaborate to produce quality work that effectively demonstrates their learning.

What additional details would you add to clarify for your academic discipline?

Welcome

Welcome to TechnoLang, a collaborative group of five innovative, exciting graduate students who are seeking to promote the integration of technology with language and literature through shared resources, ideas, and experiences. Above all, the members strive to find practical, appropriate ways to enhance and motivate student learning. (See group members and their personal blogs listed on sidebar.)