Making comic strips with Toondoo

By Valeria Mancini

TUTORIAL: TOONDOO

http://www.toondoo.com/

DESCRIPTION OF THIS AMAZING WEB 2.0 TOOL

The best online tool to create your own comic strips and cartoons is Toondoo. You just have to click a few times and drag and drop a few items and your comic strip will be ready to share with your loved ones or social network friends. This web 2.0 tool allows you to create, design and share comic strips and it provides you several cartoon characters or the possibility to create new ones.

I think it is a very useful tool because students can express themselves through their comic strips, practice their writing and reading skills and create advertising campaigns about many topics to raise awareness such as contamination, the importance of eating healthy food, harassment, the importance of rules of cohabitation, among others. Moreover, the students can become more creative and autonomous builders of their own stories.

Step 1

Go to http://www.toondoo.com/. To start creating your own comic strips, you need to sign up first, but don’t worry it is for free. Click on the red button “Sign up for free” on the right top of the site.

Step 2

When you click on sign up for free, a window will pop up with two options: public toondoo for the individual or private toondospaces. The first one is for free and the second one, the users have to pay por it, but it is for schools and educational institutions. Choose the first option.

Step 3

The site will ask you to provide your username, password and email. Once you have logged in to the site, go to the menu, where it says toons, books, dooers, tools and place the mouse on the option Toons. A drop down menu will pop up, select the option create toon.

Step 4

The site will lead you to select a horizontal or vertical layout. Choose one of the options.

Step 5

Afterwards, the site will lead you to the layout you have chosen and you can start creating your comic strip by dragging and dropping several items from the menu at the top of the site: characters, scenes, objects, speech bubbles and images saved in your computer. You can write a title for your strip just by clicking on “untitled” (above your comic strip). And below it, you’ll find many tools that help you accommodate or edit your comic strip such as the followiing:

Lock: to immobilize the object

Shrink and enlarge: to change the size of the object

Clone: to make a copy of the object

Flip: to turn over the object

Rotate: to spin the object to the left or to the right

Front: to send the object to the front

Back: to send the object to the back

Delete: to remove the object

Besides you can find in the right part of the menu, below the comic strip more tools if you want a more personal design:

Ø DoodleR: to draw a character or an object that is not available in the options

Ø TraitR: to create your own character (you can choose its physical characteristics)

Ø ImagineR: to upload images from your computer to add to your comic strip

Step 6

Once you have written the title and added the characters, speech bubbles and scenes, your comic strip will be ready to be saved. Place the mouse on “Toondoo Start here” button. It is on the left top of the site, next to all the items you can drag and drop. A small drop down menu will appear. Click on save as and then. You’ll be asked to fill in some fields: title, description and tags. You should also select a language and choose if you want to publish your comic strip for anyone to see it, share it with your friends or keep it private. Finally, you click on publish.

Lesson: Toondoo

Group: 2nd year

Age group: 14 years old

Vocabulary focus: Phrasal Verbs

Warmer

The teacher brings a hat full of phrasal verbs to the classroom. The students will make groups of three and each group will take a phrasal verb out of the hat. Some examples will be the following:

calm down
hold on
get along
grow up
chill out
make up

The whole class will discuss about their meanings and the teacher will clarify the ones the students don't know. Afterwards, she will show them a comic strip she created (by using a data projector) to represent the meaning of the phrasal verb: break up.

The teacher will read it aloud to the students and then, she will ask them:

What was the comic about?
What is the meaning of break up?
Could you get the meaning by reading this comic strip?

Web

The students will go to the computer lab and they will be briefly introduced to the webpage Toondoo. The teacher will send them the link of the tutorial by email: Toondoo Tutorial . They will have to create their own comic strip there by dragging and dropping characters, scenes, speech bubbles and objects to "act out" the phrasal verb they have taken out of the hat in the warmer. There will be three students per computer.

What's next

Once they have created their comic strip, they will save it and share it to the rest of the class. Each group will show their comic strip by using the projector and act out what their characters say. The students will have a cartoon character in the comic “acting out” the phrasal verb that they have taken out of the hat. The teacher will provide them feedback about their work. The comic strips created by each group will be shared by email, so that they can see the phrasal verbs in context. It will be easier for them to study for a test.

Evaluation criteria

Content: Landscape and props are directly related to the theme or purpose of the comic and enhance understanding of the scene. The main characters are clearly identified, and their actions and dialogue are well-matched to each other.
Organization: The students' comic strip is easy to read and all elements are clearly written and drawn. All information is organized appropriately.
Spelling, punctuation and grammar: Students should be aware of the spelling of words punctuation and grammar. Also they should use appropriate language.
Creativity: The students' comic strips should include pictures and captions that reflect an exceptional degree of student creativity. There is great attention to detail
Communicative achievement: The students' final product and their roleplay should convey the meaning of the phrasal verb given.

The SAMR model

Puentedura (2006) sees this model as a four-step ladder:

1) S for substitution (technology acts as a direct tool substitute with no functional change)

2) A for augmentation (technology acts as a direct tool substitute with functional improvement)

3) M for modification (technology allows for significant task redesign)

4) R for redefinition (technology allows for the creation of new tasks, previously inconceivable)

Applied in this lesson plan

At the beginning of this lesson plan, the teacher makes use of a data projector to show the students a comic strip and read aloud what it is about. This part of the lesson corresponds to the Substitution level since technology acts as a direct tool, with no functional change. This area tends to be teacher centric where the instructor is guiding all aspects of a lesson. However, it could have been done with printed out worksheets.

The use of Toondoo corresponds to the Augmentation level since technology acts as a direct tool, with functional improvement. There is some functional benefit here in that paper is being saved and the students become more engaged in learning because they will receive immediate feedback from the teacher once they have finished writing their comic strip.

PLANIED

Planied is a Digital Competence Framework implemented by the Ministry of Education in 2015. There were six dimensions to be taken into account regarding the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to be digitally competent:

1. Creativity and innovation

2. Communication and collaboration

3. Information and representation

4. Responsible and Soliday Participation

5. Critical thinking

6. Autonomous use of TICs

Applied in this lesson plan

Taking into account the six areas established so as to foster digital literacy in schools, the use of Toondoo will be analysed in terms of these dimensions:

1- Creativity and innovation. Toondoo offers the students a variety of characters, scenes and objects and even allows the students to create their own characters giving them the chance to be as creative as they can and express their own ideas.

2- Communication and collaboration. This tool fosters students’ communication among them as they have to reach an agreement on how to represent the phrasal verb so as to be understood by their audience.

3- Information and representation. As Toondoo has a wide variety of elements to drag and drop to the copic strip, it motivates students to collect the necessary elements, so as to show the meaning of the phrasal verb in an understandable way. Besides, they should organize the information they provide in the speech bubbles so as to be coherent.

4- Responsible and Solidary Participation. students are responsible for what they choose to include in their comic strips. Ideas can be commented and negotiated as to ensure a fair participation in the final product.

5- Critical thinking. In order to successfully create a comic strip in which the meaning of the given phrasal is understandable, students have to decide and think carefully about what items they will include to present their character, look for the appropriate ways in which information will be presented and take into account what peers think.

6- Autonomous use of TICs. To create the comic strip, students have to consult dictionaries to make sure they are using correct and appropriate language. By using search engines or dictionaries students will be showing they are autonomous in the use of ICT tools.

NAPS

Núcleos de Aprendizaje Prioritarios

NAPs have been written considering the fundamental principles that the teaching of a foreign language must sustain in school context. They contemplate the elements of a given language emphasizing its role in the construction of the sociocultural identity of children, adolescents and adults of our country. NAPs focuses on the relationship among languages and cultures as well.

There are six areas taken into account: Listening comprehension, oral production, written production, reading comprehension, language awareness and intercultural reflection.

Applied in this lesson plan

This lesson will be analyzed according to these areas.

Listening comprehension: During the lesson students are asked to follow oral instructions. At the beginning of the lesson, the students should listen to the comic strip read by the teacher.
Reading comprehension: Students consult dictionaries and look for examples to understand the meaning of the phrasal verb given.
Oral production: Students present their work to their classmates orally and they discuss what the meaning of the phrasal verb represented in the comic strip is.
Written production: Students have to write the dialogues between the characters in the comic strip.
Language awareness: Students are conscious that their work is going to be shared afterwards, so they try to write as accurately as possible.
Intercultural reflection: Students are aware of the different varieties of the foreign language and do research on different cultures and the way they speak.

Google Sites

Report abuse