Comic Life Planning

Comic Life Planning

Comic Life is an excellent piece of software created by Plasq, originally for the Mac, now in a Windows version. It was one of those bits of software that Mac users paraded as a reason to use Macs. You can download a 30 day trial from their website. It is such good software that I am not sure it really needs video help files, however due to force of habit I have created a set to go with it. This module could be taught as an ICT focus with another area of the curriculum as the comic theme or taught within another area of the curriculum as the main focus just using Comic life as the expressive tool. However you choose to teach it, you will need to find a wider focus before the lesson to get the most out of the experience. See the list at the bottom for possible themes.
Learning Objective Lesson 1	Lesson Plan
Introduction to the program Experimentation with the program	Demonstrate how to Open the program Add a template Drag existing picture into the template Freeze and drag web cam pictures into the template Add speech bubbles and increase the number of speech links into the same speech bubble Now give pupils time to play and experiment. I recommend allowing them to choose a temporary theme of their own choosing at this point. (You could miss out this section in italics if integrating this module but it can lead to lost time later on as pupils experiment with types during the module) 15 mins before the end of the lesson stop pupils and introduce your wider theme. Explain that they can have a lesson and a half to complete their work and that work will be uploaded to a Studywiz shared gallery for evaluation by their classmates and seen by the rest of the year group. You may wish to encourage pupils to capture media during the week as part of a official or un-official homework.
ICT Skills	Able & SEN Support	Notes	Resources
Choosing a template Choosing the media type to use that fits the project Adding appropriate speech bubbles. Saving a comic life documents	You may wish to focus SEN pupils onto a simple theme of your choosing for the experimentation aspect of this lesson to speed things up.	Some pupils may choose to use pictures copied from the internet. A brief discussion on copyright and where they are going to publish this work may be appropriate.	web cams Comic Life software Digital cameras Video Help Files
Learning Objective Lesson 2	Lesson Plan
Creating a comic around your chosen theme	Remind pupils what your chosen theme was from last week. Offer to go over how the program works with anyone who needs it. Remind pupils that they have this lesson and half of the next lesson. Allow pupils plenty of creation time 10 mins before the end tell pupils to open up their best comic page then give out post it notes to all pupils. Pupils now need to find one screen that no one else has posted onto and write one good point and one thing to improve.
ICT Skills	Able & SEN Support	Notes	Resources
Choosing a template Choosing the media type to use that fits the project Adding appropriate speech bubbles. Saving a comic life documents	You may wish to show more able pupils how to drag an extra panel into the template.	In my experience the most important thing you will be doing in this lesson is helping pupils with their chosen theme, the software is so intuitive.	Post it notes Pencils for each pupil Video help files
Learning Objective Lesson 3	Lesson Plan Make sure you create a shared Gallery in the Studywiz Year group area where pupils can upload their work and evaluate each other finished comics.
Finishing their comic project from last weekPeer Evaluating their project	Allow pupils half of the lesson to finish their work from last week. Half way through the lesson show pupils how to export their work as images (.jpg) Then open the exported folder (Each comic page will be named Page_1 Page_2 etc) Show pupils how to rename these pages name_of_pupil_p1 etc Remind pupils how to upload their work to the Wizkid gallery After they have uploaded their own work they need to peer assess each others work using two stars and a wish Finally you could slide show all of the work showcasing pupils hard work.
ICT Skills	Able & SEN Support	Notes	Resources
Exporting comics as .jpg files so they can be uploaded to the gallery	Early finishers can write a marking scheme for the work that pupils can use when evaluating the work.	Make sure you go over two stars and a wish if your pupils have not used this before or the peer assessing process can be soul destroying.	Studywiz Gallery Video Help Files

Possible themes to use with Comic Life

Anti bullying Poster (PDL)
Perils of sharing a password (digital citizenship)
Beating Cyber bullying (digital citizenship)
Story writing (Literacy)
Conversation between historical characters (History)
Travel brochure with rich descriptions over landscape pictures (Geography/Literacy)
Step by step guide how to carry out a science experiment (Science)
Guide to musical instruments (Music)
Sports tips and techniques (One sport carried out in school) (PE)

	Report Statement Is able to produce a comic combining text and pictures with a consistent style
Below Average for Year group	The comic might only be one page it might not follow the theme asked for. Text might obscure important picture features.
Within Average for Year Group	A comic has been made that fits in with the theme asked for. Their might not be any coherent style to a page.
Above Average for Year Group	Meets all average criteria plus there is a clear style to every page (styles may differ page to page) Pictures are well chosen and text never obscures important picture features.