Canva is an educator’s secret superpower. If you want your students to love language arts, engage in lessons, and even beg to complete schoolwork, Canva is the key. To learn more about how we utilize Canva within Narrative Writing and Newspaper Projects, check out our previous blogs. For today, we are going to explore Canva Comic Strip Writing Activities.
We love Canva for its ease of use, its plethora of templates and graphics, and its many features. My mother and I recently completed Canva’s Teacher Essentials Certification online course, and we highly recommend it to any educator. Even though we both have utilized Canva for years, we learned many tips and tricks through the course.
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Today, let’s embark on learning all about Canva for classroom comic creation!
Benefits of Canva Comic Strip Writing Activities
Canva is the perfect tool for students to create comic strips and comic books. There are numerous ways to use comics in the classroom. For years, I utilized the standard paper comic strip for writing, plot summaries, vocabulary, and spelling practice, among many other uses. Comics are a fun and fantastic resource to engage learners. However, one roadblock I would regularly encounter is students not wanting to draw pictures within comic strips, because they felt they weren’t good enough artists or they could not come up with enough ideas to create a comic. A comic is supposed to be a fun activity and it quickly became discouraging for those students who struggled with drawing and art.
Canva Turns Students into Digital Artists
Canva is the perfect tool because students can gain confidence as digital artists. With Canva’s treasure trove of bright comic-style graphics, there are tons of options for students to choose from. Specifically, Canva has so many comic book dialogue graphics, such as Pow! Bam! Kazam!
Canva also has a ton of comic strip templates to give students variety and to allow them to express their individual preferences depending on which one they choose. Comic magazine and comic book covers are also available on Canva. The already-chosen bright colors, superhero graphics, and carefully placed pictures and dialogue will inspire and motivate students to make their own comics without the discouragement of having to create everything from scratch.
Canva is So Easy to Use
Students are already tech-savvy because of the current culture, and Canva is so user-friendly. I didn’t initially take a course in Canva myself. I learned the program by diving right in. Canva is set up in such a way that students can easily jump in and learn all its features. My son was in fourth grade when I first introduced him to Canva. Within a couple of days, he was using features I had not yet learned myself.
Now that we’ve established Canva is the perfect digital tool for comic creation, we’re going to give you some fun ideas on how to incorporate them into your classroom.
#1 Story and Plot Summaries
Students summarize the plot of a book or story by creating a comic strip or comic book based on the events. If the novel is too large to do this, have students pick a long scene or chapter to summarize and transfer into a comic book. Make sure to emphasize they should turn the elements of the story into a comic-book theme with bright colors, interjections, and a comic-style spin on characters. Wouldn’t it be neat to see Wilbur from Charlotte’s Web in a superhero theme?
#2 Write a Comic Strip Story
Just like Tami mentioned in our blog about using Canva with Narrative Writing, illustrating a story first helps struggling writers with ideas and the flow of words. Getting a story down first by creating a visually rendered picture book (or wordless picture book), allows students to flesh out their ideas and become motivated and inspired to create their plot. The same goes with Canva comics. Students who struggle with writing a story can first create the pictures and graphics within a comic strip. Then, their writing will fly off the page like Superman as they gain ideas from the illustrations to spur on their writing.
#3 Character’s Diary Comic
Students create a comic based on a character from a story or book they’re reading. Students focus on the character traits, inner motivations, direct, and indirect characterization by creating a diary comic. For instance, students can show Auggie’s character traits from Wonder by creating a comic strip highlighting his personality and choices in a diary format in first person point-of-view.
#4 Nonfiction Summaries
Many of my students struggled with enjoying nonfiction articles and informational texts. By converting the information they read into a comic-strip, it’s a more interesting way to retain what they’ve read. For instance, after reading a science article on animal cells, students can create a comic strip in which a superhero shows the audience the scientific topic through action, dialogue, bright colors, and a fun plot. After reading about WWII, students can create a comic strip based on what they’ve learned with war scenes, emotions, and real-life events.
#5 Spelling & Vocabulary Practice
Students create a short comic strip with their various weekly spelling and/or vocabulary words. I always had this option available in our weekly homework options and it was one of the most popular assignments chosen.
#6 Sequencing
Utilizing comic strips is a wonderful way to practice sequencing skills. The various comic panels allow for structure as students place events from a story or create a timeline based on various information.
#7 Comic Sequels
Students can write a sequel to a story or novel by creating a comic book. The interesting spin allows students to dive into the characters’ world in a new and exciting way. Students could continue the story or even create new adventures for the characters. Students can change up the setting to a superhero world as they think out-of-the-box to create new scenarios and situations.
Conclusion
Comics are a SUPER resource for the classroom. From analyzing characters to summarizing plots, from practicing sequencing skills to writing skills in new and fun ways, comics can engage and fascinate students. Utilizing Canva allows students to focus on the task at hand instead of being discouraged with thinking up and drawing their ideas by hand. Comic creation with Canva will thoroughly captivate your classroom.
