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

Professor Garfield

The Professor Garfield Foundation is a not-for-profit educational collaboration between several companies and Ball State University, a nationally recognized leader in teacher training and digital education.
Their mission is to be a free delivery of innovative and motivational digital learning content with a primary emphasis on children's literacy and creative expression.
According to Thomas (200), Web 2.0 technologies signal the need to move toward a greater emphasis on digital literacy skills. Therefore, an online comic-maker such as Professor Garfield Foundation can make the writing process much more exciting and interesting. By creating comics, students can demonstrate their understanding of a topic. Also, the structure of this genre requires students to master clear and concise communication. 
Apart from that, according to Peachey (2010), one of the main perks of this webpage is that students can create genuine products, in a wide range and combination of media to high standards, which can have a real audience, such as their peers, parents or teachers.
In all, this webpage will accomplish this by creating fun and educationally interactive activities and games where kids like to play supplemented with standards-based resources for teachers, parents and mentors.

Below, you will find the tutorial of how to use 'Professor Garfield: Comic Creator':

In order to get an activity to use in the classroom, please click here

Bibliography

• Peachey, N. (2010) Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers. Retrieved October, 2016 from: http://es.scribd.com/doc/19576895/Web-2-0-Tools-for-Teachers
• Thomas, M. (Ed.). (2009). Handbook of research on Web 2.0 and second language learning.

The Use of Printable Crossword Maker in the EFL Classroom

Activity

Class: 4th form
Age group: 8-9
Level: Intermediate
Name: Guessing the words

Warm Up: The teacher will write romos of a house on the board in the form of a chart: Kitchen – Bedroom – Bathroom – Living Room. The students will play a game. They will be divided into two teams and will make two lines. The first students in line will have to go to the board and will have to write one item of a room in any of the columns. When they have finished writing, they have to run back to the line and hand in the marker to the next student. The first team that writes 3 examples in each column wins.

Web: The teacher will show the students a video tutorial on how to create a crossword. He will ask them to pay special attention to the clues. If students have no questions about its use, the teacher will proceed to explain his own crossword which is shown in a mimio. The students will have to complete the crossword with items of a house. For this, students will have to raise their hands and the one chosen will have to say the word out loud and, if he/she guesses, he/she will have to go to the front and write i ton the mimio with the interactive maker. The teacher will show them an example he himself has created, using the mimio and the interactive marker.

What Next: Students will make groups of 4 students and they will have to create their own crosswords on some area of language sttudied before. After having created the file, they will have to share it with the other groups, so everyone can work.

Evaluation Criteria

• Students' reading skills
• Students' writing skills
• Conscious research from the part of the students
• Appropriate use of the tool
• Respect towards their peers