Read this article on for examples of funny similes and metaphors.You can get some inspiration on these sites: Things like metaphors, similes, alliteration, and foreshadowing are much easier to understand when you have a story and image to go with them! These concepts beg for solid examples in order to be properly understood! If you are studying literary devices with your student, you may even want to have him/her create a comic for each one and keep it in a book. Similarly, use comic strips to bring literary devices to life (and make them more fun too)! Comics can bring a literary device to life. You could use this idea to explore almost any grammatical concept: from prepositions to pronouns to run-on sentences! (Don’t forget to give extra points if it’s funny!)Ģ. When the boy says, “I swear I didn’t not do it!” he accidentally says the opposite of what he means to say. In the picture below, the concept is that of the double negative. However, they will have so much fun being creative that it will seem more like an engaging challenge than an assignment. The next time you introduce a new concept in grammar, get your homeschoolers to see if they can think of some real-life examples and turn those examples into comics! This requires your students to understand the concept well enough to “tell a story” with it. Use comics to illustrate a grammatical concept. Here are some specific ways you can get your high schooler using comic strips to help make English or literature more fun and accessible! There are endless possibilities, but here are a few of the methods I love. A Few Ways to Use Comics in English/Literature What better time to embrace assignments that nurture creative expression? As a homeschooling alum, I know that educational moments that I remember the most from my homeschooling years were tied to assignments in which I got to apply my learning in a creative way. When students get to create something as part of their learning experience, they gain a sense of ownership over the things they’ve learned, too! This may have even more impact on teens, who are in a constant process of gaining responsibility, independence, and ownership over their own opinions. We also typically feel pride, ownership, and connection with the things that we create. Personally, I’m a big believer in utilizing creativity as much as possible in homeschooling (and in life in general!) One reason is that we always learn from creating. Creativity inspires ownership of learning. So even though teens will enjoy the creativity of using comics in their study of English or literature, they will still be effectively challenged, too! 3. You have to understand something really well in order to be able to creatively summarize it in a small space. You know what they say: “If you want to learn something, figure out how to teach it.” Creating comics is kind of the same deal. They’re so much fun, you don’t realize how much you have to think about them.Ĭomics, by nature, are super-condensed reflections of insight/understanding. Comic strips can be a low-pressure way for students to organize their thoughts. That way, students can use their completed comics as guidelines for more formally-written work. Alternatively, you could add comic strips as an assignment in between reading and writing a more formal report. Why add extra intimidation, particularly if your student happens to get overwhelmed by a particular subject (like literature or English)?įor example, if you have a student who has trouble writing summaries, you may want to use comic strips to guide the summaries instead. They’re familiar and low-pressure.Ĭomic strips are a much more laid-back format for expression than some of the more standard forms of high school-level assessment. Here are a few reasons I think comic strips can be a powerful superweapon, particularly for older kids and teens. And if you think that older kids or teens won’t like this kind of thing-it’s just not true! Even adults can use comic doodles to make sense of complicated material. And (confession time) I think these strategies can be just as helpful with younger kids, too. There are several reasons it can be a good idea to utilize comics with your homeschooled high schoolers. There are several ways to use comic strips in high school literature to make difficult material easier to understand and a lot more fun, too. Instead, I’m talking about getting older kids and teens to create their own comics. While you can definitely use published/written comic books in your English or literature class (there are even some classic works of literature that have been re-imagined in that format), that’s not what this article is about.
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