Gabbing About Garfield: Conversing About Texts With Comic Creator

Materials and Technology

Student Interactives

Printouts

Websites

Preparation

 

MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY

• LCD projector

• ELMO document viewer

• Computers with Internet access and printing capability

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STUDENT INTERACTIVES

Grades   K – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Writing & Publishing Prose

Comic Creator

The Comic Creator invites students to compose their own comic strips for a variety of contexts (prewriting, pre- and postreading activities, response to literature, and so on).

 

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PRINTOUTS

• Elements of Comics checklist

• Written Conversation Planning sheet

• Elements of Comics Evaluation sheet

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WEBSITES

• Reading Ring
• Garfield Comics and Cartoons
• KiddoNet

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PREPARATION

1.	Prior to beginning this lesson, provide a Garfield “comic of the day” for a couple of weeks. You can use an LCD projector to show strips from Garfield Comics and Cartoons, or use an ELMO document viewer to project comics from newspapers or book collections.
2.	Have students bring in their favorite Garfield comics from the newspaper or a published collection. Share these with the class using the document viewer.
3.	Familiarize yourself with the elements of comics. A list of these elements can be found on the KiddoNet site. Choose Comics Center from the pull-down menu and then click on ComicSlanguage.
4.	Schedule access to student computers for both sessions of the lesson. You will need one computer for every two students.
5.	Bookmark the Reading Ring, Garfield Comics and Cartoons, and ReadWriteThink.org Comic Creator websites and make sure the interactive features function properly on students’ computers. Familiarize students with use of the Comic Creator prior to Session 2.
6.	Make a copy for each student of the Elements of Comics checklist and the Written Conversation Planning sheet.
7.	Copy sample Garfield comics from published collections or print from the Garfield Comics and Cartoons website, enough so that each pair of students will have several different strips to examine in Session 1.

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