Loony Toons

I've been looking at a few different cartoon-making websites with a view to encouraging students to write creatively in French. Pixton is a sophisticated site which can enable you to produce convincing-looking satirical-style cartoons. Looks good for more advanced students, as it is flexible but maybe less visually-attractive than some others. Makebeliefscomix is good as a beginners' site, as it gives simple on-screen instructions and isn't cluttered with complicated features. No registration is needed, so quick to set up a task with students, but they will need to print their strip as the site does not store cartoons. Comiqs is fun and flexible, as you can use your own photos, so could be really motivating, but you need to be careful about permission to use photos. I like the idea of getting students to work on some exchange photos on their return from a trip (or indeed while you are there if they are in a school and have access to computers). My personal favourite, however, is toondoo, as it provides a really wide variety of characters (including aliens and monsters) and props which can really spark off the imagination and elicit some really interesting language. You can see an example of a toondoo cartoon here and a pixton strip in the post above.