TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of May 9, 2021
Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive
Teachers' Guide to Cranky Uncle - John Cook
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (146), digital citizenship (93), evaluating sources (30), game based learning (208), internet safety (116), media literacy (113), social media (50)
In the Classroom
Add this game to your toolkit of lessons and activities when teaching Internet safety and media literacy skills. The Teachers' Guide already includes many ideas on integrating the game into classroom lessons and includes using technology to enhance and extend learning. Use these ideas as a starting point to build student engagement and help them understand the real-world applications for the information found in the game. For example, use the suggested Padlet, reviewed here, activity to compile quiz questions as suggested in Activity 5. After completing that activity, have students create their own videos, fake social media posts, or news articles that contain misinformation and create quiz questions for their peers to complete. Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, reviewed here, is an excellent tool for students to use when creating websites, flyers, and infographics. As a final project, and to extend learning, have students share what they learned with others by producing podcasts using Buzzsprout, reviewed here, or digital books for younger students using Book Creator, reviewed here.New York Fed's Educational Comic Books - Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): banks (8), comics and cartoons (56), financial literacy (95), money (113)
In the Classroom
Take advantage of these free comic books and lessons when teaching economic and financial lessons as a supplement to your current teaching materials. Instead of printing each comic for individual students, provide a link to students using Padlet, reviewed here. Create a Padlet to share all of your online resources for your unit in one place. Use these comic books as inspiration and modify student learning by asking them to use a comic creation tool like ToonyTool, reviewed here, to create single frame cartoons explaining financial concepts. Find more uses for using comics in the classroom by viewing the archive of our OK2Ask session Engage & Inspire: Comics in the Classroom reviewed here.ToonyTool - ToonyTool
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): comics and cartoons (56), communication (130), creative writing (125), digital storytelling (156), summarizing (22)
In the Classroom
There is a multitude of ways to use comics/cartoons in the classroom. For instance, create one-page discussion starters to help students keep up with current political issues. Use comics to show sequencing of events, for example, explain the sequence of a story, a science concept, or current event! When studying about characterization, create a dialog to show (not tell) about a character. Use comic strips for literature responses. Another idea - why not use the comics for conflict resolution or other guidance issues (such as bullying). Sometimes it is easier for students to write it down (or draw the pictures) than use the actual words. Emotional support and autistic support teachers can work with students to create strips about appropriate interpersonal responses and feelings. World language and ENL/ESL teachers can assign students to create dialogue strips as an alternative to traditional written assessments; summarize through a comic. Challenge students who move through other assignments more quickly to create a cartoon for review of a topic studied in class. Make a class book of the comics created throughout the year using Book Creator, reviewed here. Book Creator includes features for students to easily create digital books using their own text, videos, and images.Re-Mission 2: Fight Cancer and Win! - Hope Lab
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): difficult conversations (57), diseases (66), medicine (57), mental health (50)
In the Classroom
Introduce these activities on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Allow students to explore and play on their own. Challenge students to create a story with cancer as the monster and one of the therapies they learned about as a cartoon figure hero. Then have students create an online or printed comic using one of the tools and ideas included in this collection. Re-Mission 2 would be especially useful if your students know someone dealing with cancer. It will help them understand what cancer is and some of the different treatments. It may also give them hope that the cancer can be treatable. Share these games with your school's counselors as an excellent tool for use with students facing cancer treatments either for themselves, a relative, or a friend.OneGeology Kids - OneGeology
Grades
1 to 5tag(s): dinosaurs (42), earthquakes (47), energy (133), fossils (41), geology (61), maps (224), rocks (34), volcanoes (55), water (105)
In the Classroom
Share OneGeology on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) to introduce your geology unit to students. Enhance learning by having students create a word cloud of the important terms they learn from this site using a tool such as WordItOut, reviewed here. Create a link to the site on classroom computers for students to explore on their own. Transform technology use and enhance learning by having students create an annotated image including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Image Annotator, reviewed here, to explain different geologic phenomenon.Cartoons for the Classroom - The Association for American Editorial Cartoonists
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): comics and cartoons (56), politics (118), satire (6)
In the Classroom
These one-page discussion starters could help students keep up with current political issues, provide an opening or closing activity, or serve as an enrichment activity for students who move through other assignments more quickly. Available either with or without guiding questions, and covering a wide range of relevant and timely topics, they are perfect to keep as a Plan B or for an emergency substitute teacher activity. Elsewhere on the site are links to Weekly News Videos with prompts for discussion, and other information about political cartooning through history; most of these latter links connect to outside sites so be sure and preview carefully. In an art class, create a "political" option during a line drawing unit for current events enthusiasts to draw their own political cartoons. Include these cartoons during a unit on humor and satire in an English/Language Arts class or gifted program.Printable Comic Strip Templates - Donna Young
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): comics and cartoons (56)
In the Classroom
Have small groups of students each create one panel as a summary of what the class just learned. Use comics in math and turn a word problem into a comic strip/cartoon. In social studies create a comic strip/cartoon about a historic event, person, place, or speech. In language arts take a novel or non-fiction book and create a comic strip/cartoon depicting the characters and plot. Have students write summaries of current events or responses to reading assignments. With younger students, use an interactive whiteboard or projector to create a class comic on a current topic of study, such as the different parts of a plant, the planets, or a butterfly's life cycle. Use these templates for students to plan out storyboards for more involved projects, such as videos. Alternatively, have students use one of the templates for a rough draft before creating and online comic. In emotional support or autistic support classes, create comics to show how people interact. In world languages or with ENL/ESL students, create comics to reinforce correct language. Looking for even more comic resources? Check out TeachersFirst's complete collection of Comics and Cartoons.Witty Comics - WittyComics.com
Grades
K to 12tag(s): comics and cartoons (56), communication (130), summarizing (22)
In the Classroom
Create dialogues that introduce new content topics in your classroom. Students can use this "witty" tool to introduce topics from research or to practice a speech to be given in class. Use comics to create a dialogue discussing misconceptions in the content and a discussion of the actual facts to dispel the misunderstandings. To view more comic creator tools and ideas view this collection. Some suggested comic creators are Printable Comic Strip Templates, reviewed here, ToonyTool, reviewed here, Make Beliefs Comix, reviewed here.Phrase.it - phrase.it
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): bulletin boards (15), comics and cartoons (56), communication (130), images (263)
In the Classroom
The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. Teach parts of speech and grammar by having students write captions using colorful adjectives, adverbs, or specific sentence structures on a random photo. Make classroom signs and reminders. Caption the homework directions on your teacher web page. Ask your students to create captions for class photos for all sorts of reasons. Use this site for back to school fun. Post a photo of yourself with a caption on your class website introducing yourself to the class during the summer. Challenge each student to find/share a photo of themselves either the first week of school (or even prior to school). You will want parental permission before posting any student photos on your class website. Use photos or digital drawings from your classroom, such as pictures taken during any hands-on activity. Have students draw in a paint program, save the file, and then add a caption. Spice up research projects about historic figures or important scientists. Have literary characters "talk" as part of a project. In a government class, add captions to photos explaining politicians' major platform planks during election campaigns. Caption the steps for math problem solving. Make visual vocabulary/terminology sentences with an appropriate character using the term in context (a beaker explaining how it is different from a flask?). Students could also take pictures of themselves doing a lab and then caption the pictures to explain the concepts. Share the class captions on your class web page or wiki. Leave directions to your class (for when a substitute is there). Use at back to school night to grab parent attention to important announcements. Have students make talking photos of themselves as a visual tour of their new classroom for parents attending back to school night. World language classes can create images explaining and using new vocabulary. Use the site's random photo offerings for clever caption contests in your new language. Have gifted students create Phase.it pictures to explain new knowledge they gain in going beyond the basics. For example, as the class studies plate tectonics, they could make a collection of volcano images "explaining" their own history or describing the Ring of Fire. Gifted students of all ages can make simple Phrase.it images to share their own thought provoking questions about curriculum content, such as "Which figure of speech would Shakespeare be willing to give up?" Be sure to include these thought provokers on a class wiki or blog for others to respond! (No need to single out the "thinker" by mentioning who created it if it would cause ridicule.)Alphabetimals - Patrick O'Toole
Grades
K to 2This site includes advertising.
tag(s): alphabet (52), alphabetical order (8), preK (291)
In the Classroom
Share a link to Alphabetimals on classroom computers for students to explore during computer centers. Print a copy of each student's name for use with literacy displays or as a desk label. Share a link on your class webpage for students to explore at home. Take advantage of the other free options to print coloring pages and flash cards for student use.Comics and Cartoons Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): comics and cartoons (56)
In the Classroom
Choose a comic creator tool for students to use in your class to reinforce curriculum concepts. With younger students or those who need examples, create the first comic(s) together on interactive whiteboard or projector as a closure activity to reinforce concepts before a test. Gradually allow students to create their own comics (or collections of comics) to tell stories, review concepts, or make political comments. More techno-savvy students will appreciate the variety of tool options offered here.Make Beliefs Comix - Bill Zimmerman
Grades
2 to 12This site also features writing prompts. To find the writing prompts, click Comic Starters or Writing from the top menu. Registration is NOT required unless you want to save your comic; in that case, use an email address or login with your Google account.
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): comics and cartoons (56), communication (130), digital storytelling (156), summarizing (22), writing (323), writing prompts (59)