Fourth graders at Laburnum Elementary have been studying 20th Century famous Virginians (VS.9), so today students in Ms. Robinson’s class chose one of them and created a comic about their accomplishments. I posted a link to StoryboardThat on Google classroom, and once students accessed the website, they clicked the “Create a Storyboard” button. I explained that their comic would have three panels. Each panel needed to provide an important fact or accomplishment for the Virginian they chose. We discussed ideas for backgrounds and where to find authentic-looking characters (mostly from the 1900s tab). I also showed them how to customize the characters by changing their color, clothing, and poses. After students added backgrounds and characters to each panel, I showed them how to add speech bubbles. We discussed the importance of writing complete sentences that explain the facts and accomplishments. Students could open a new tab to do additional research if necessary. Once they were finished, I showed them how to take a screenshot of their comics (Click the Start button > Snipping Tool) to save them since they can’t create accounts. Finally we posted our comics to Google classroom for everyone to see. You can see them here.
