[EnglishLanguage 4075] MakeBeliefsComix.com Launches Free Graphic PRINTABLES to Help ESL, Literacy Students Express Themselveswmz at aol.com wmz at aol.comSat Mar 21 19:08:37 EDT 2009
MakeBeliefsComix Online Educational Comics Launches Free Graphic PRINTABLES to Help ESL, Literacy Students Write, Read, Draw and Tell Stories Dear reader, As an author of interactive books to help young people find their writers’ voices, I often am asked by educators and parents for help in reaching reluctant writers. With this goal in mind, I have launched a new PRINTABLES feature on my online comic strip site, MakeBeliefsComix.com, that allows educators and students to print out free interactive comic book pages from my books to use for writing, reading, drawing and telling stories. This new MakeBeliefs PRINTABLES feature is the latest addition to the two year-old comic-generator site where educators and students from 180 countries come to build their own comic strips and practice language, writing and reading skills. These new printable pages are taken from my popular Make Beliefs and Pocket Doodles for Kids books drawn by cartoonist Tom Bloom, who illustrated the best-selling Children’s Letters to God. Now, a teacher using the web site will be able to distribute graphic handouts to students in English-as-a-Second Language or literacy programs that ask for written or drawn responses to such imaginative questions as: .Make believe you could dream any dream that you wanted. What would you dream about? .Make believe you were given a characteris tic of some animal you loved. Which one would you like? .Imagine you could change the ending of a book. What book would you choose? What would your new ending be? .Imagine you are your family’s first ancestor to immigrate to the United States. Why did you come here? What are your hopes, dreams, fears? .Make believe you could tell a love story. How would it go? For copies of these printables and more go to http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/ and click on the PRINTABLES button at the bottom right. The feature also offers comix templates featuring characters from the web site along with blank talk and thought balloons that students can fill with text to create their own comic strips. In addition, MakeBeliefsComix has added a TEACHER RESOURCES feature which offers educators 21 practical ideas on how to use comics in the classroom. Earlier this year, the site launched a WRITER PROMPTS button that regularly gives teachers ideas for class writing assignments. Google and UNESCO selected MakeBeliefsComix.com as one of the world’s most innovative web sites fostering literacy and reading -- http://www.google.com/literacy/projects.html. Users of MakeBeliefsComix.com make comics strips by selecting from 15 fun characters with different moods -- happy, sad, angry, worried -- and write words for blank talk and thought balloons to make characters talk and think. This s ite is used by educators to teach language, reading and writing skills, and also for students in ESL programs to facilitate self-expression and storytelling, as well as computer literacy. Some educational therapists use the online comics with deaf and autistic people to help them understand concepts and communicate. Parents and children can create stories together, print them to create comic books or email them to friends. Please share MakeBeliefsComix.com with your colleagues, students, friends or readers of your publications and favorite listserv groups. We need your help -- it takes a community to build and nature a rich educational resource. Sincerely, Bill Zimmerman billz at makebeliefscomix.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/englishlanguage/attachments/20090321/30edf9ba/attachment.html
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