One thing I’d really reproach my mother is that she gave me the “can’t draw” gene. My natural talent is limited to lines, points, circles and stick figures. The animals I sometimes try to draw  (in an attempt to please my 3-year-old twins) look like mutants from a bad futuristic film. However, I take some comfort from the fact that I’m not alone with my incapacity to draw. Many of my pupils are in the same situation. So, how can somebody still be creative, and at the same time not ashamed of his creations?

Last year my frustration turned to enthusiasm as I came across this award-winning website called Pixton. I’ve used it ever since to create my own characters and comics for different purposes, from explaining grammar to describing group interactions. For an introduction I’d recommend their funky how-to-videos.

With Pixton for schools teachers can create their own classrooms and projects. Depending on the setting you choose, you can see pupils’ work in progress, rate, approve, comment or send the comics back for revision. As soon as students have published their comics the rest of the group can comment on these. Due to facilitating communication within the group, this virtual classroom actually functions as a secure social platform.

Teaching idea 1: After dealing with process (creative) writing and phrasal verbs, pupils had to write a script and create their Pixton comics to it. Additionally, five common phrasal verbs had to be used. Here is one example (Victoria and Pia, Year 8):

Teaching idea 2: As an after-reading activity, writing a continuation of a short story or novel. In our case, we read Deportation at Breakfast by Larry Fondation, and these are two pupils’ comics:

Joe and Javier (Anna and Katha, Year 9)

Javier’s Return 1 (Max and Oliver, Year 9)

Javier’s Return 2

Javier’s Return 3

The only drawback of signing up for Pixton for schools is that this service is not free. The licence fee, though, is more than reasonable for such a convenient service.