I don't see it too often with this generation of kids but there's nothing that makes one reminisce on childhood like a good comic strip. Though there are a ton of adults around that still read and collect comic books, most of them began their obsession with this genre when they were kids. The comics themselves are fascinating in nature. The animation accompanied with written narration and dialogue make it so much more visual than your typical book but also capitalize on one's imagination similar to well-written literature. There's no doubt that comics can be a great way to tell a story.
So why not include them in the classroom as yet another way of engaging students? I just tried another tool that enables anyone to create their own comic strip and do so relatively easily. It's called stripgenerator and I was able to create a cool comic in a matter of minutes. It was fun though it showed my clear lack of visual artistic ability. The two strips I created, 日常生活第一 and 日常生活第二 (daily life parts one and two), are quick stories with one liners for each frame. It details the daily life of a student and his schedule. See if you can figure out what the Chinese phrases mean!
Similar to the performance indicators in the flipped classroom activities, students would be able to display their understanding of certain vocabulary words as well as being able to assemble phrases and/or sentences in Mandarin (to view the performance indicators, click here and go to page 12 of the PDF). I would be able to assess their work by evaluating their vocabulary usage, relevance for the visuals displayed and for grammar as well.
Who says you're too old to enjoy a comic?
I enjoyed your comic strips. It's good to know that you can create them with Chinese characters.
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