The Use of 'Professor Garfield: Comic Creator' in the EFL Classroom

Activity

Group: 5th form
Age group: 11-12
Level: Intermediate
Name: Playing with Garfield and its friends

Warm Up: The teacher will stick a picture of Garfield, another of Odie and another of their owner, Jon Arbuckle. The teacher will ask the students to brainstorm what they remember about the characters and how the relationships among the characters are. The teacher will copy words and phrases the students say on the board.

Web: The teacher will show the students a cardboard bag with many slices of paper in it. The slices will describe a problem or a situation in which some or all of the characters mentioned before are involved. Each of the students will get a slice of paper and will read his or her situation aloud. The teacher will tell the students they will have to create a comic representing the situation they have received.
To do that, the teacher will show the students a tutorial video which explains how to use Professor Garfield’s Comic Lab. The students will go to that site and will log in with their names or usernames.

What Next: The students’ comics will be shown through a beamer, so that everyone can see. The owner of the comic, together with one or two more students will read the speech bubbles there are as if they are acting it. While students to that, the task of the rest will be not only to pay attention, but also to think about how the comic could be improved, if they consider it necessary.

Evaluation Criteria

• Apropriate and coherent use of the language
• Apropriate use of the tool
• Accurate representation
• Students' reading skills
• Students' writing skills
• Students’ speaking skills