Pixton Activity

A reflection after using Pixton in class:

Every time I have to do an activity in groups I like them not to be really large, so for me two or three people are enough to develop a task as the one presented above; in fact, Pixton could be a tool to be used independently, but we do not have enough computers to do so and I decided (taking into account the physical organization of the class) to do it by pairs, what worked really well.
In order to get the final products you can see attached, I followed a very simple sequence of tasks due to the fact that Pixton is a very easy and intuitive too. Students were eager to start manipulating the program so I could not explain much to them. I asked them to create simple stories and a dialogue with vocabulary and expressions learnt in class. We developed this activity during one session and if they did not have the time to finish it, it was concluded at home and sent to me by email.

The specific learning objectives for this activity were: creating simple dialogues inviting someone or developing specific interactions as daily or common situations. As it was their first time with the programme, I want them to investigate and modify every single character or comic strip album; so, of course, another objective was being able to use and take advantage of the program itself. Writing was easier to do thanks to Pixton and they did not complain as much as they used to (3º ESO is the class where the activity was carried out).
Needless to say that this tool helped a lot the learners achieve the objectives above described, which didn't want to be too serious or pretentious.

Creativity and the use of imagination was encouraged from the very first moment. I recommended my students to make a draft of the story they were going to "draw" thanks to Pixton, but once they started working with the tool itself they changed their mind and adapted their stories and dialogues according to the settings and characters available, so in most cases the script was modified a lot in comparison with the original. What my students enjoyed the most was the fact that they could draw their own imagery from scratch and customize everything, but they disliked the bubbles to introduce texts, as they were bigger than they preferred and sometimes they did not know how to express their thoughts (in fact what worried them the most were the pictures, not the writing purpose). Next time, I will probably give them a list of different items their comics should have (for example, one conditional, verbs in certain tenses, etc. if not, they will opt for the easier forms.).

The projects were shared with the rest of the class by projecting them in class. A quick view and reading of all of them; then we could discuss about which ones were the best, the most originals, the best stories...etc.

The learning experience, without a doubt, was really positive. I would like helping reluctant readers to understand in a better way different texts and this is a magnificent opportunity to do so. Finally, I was wondering if this would a be a good option when doing graded readers in class instead of the "typical and boring" summary of the story...