Make Beliefs Comix

Make Beliefs Comix is a web-based initiative built on the premise that learning can happen through imaginative play. Zimmerman envisions teachers using the online comic strip game to encourage their students to improve language, reading, and creative skills. For those who teach people how to read and write or to learn English as a second language, this ICT-based educational tool might also be used as a resource to spur children and adults to write, read, and communicate their ideas - while practicing English. It is also being used as a tool by educational therapists who work with deaf and autistic people to help them understand concepts and communicate. Parents and children can create stories together, print them to create comic books, or email them to friends and family.

Specifically, Make Beliefs Comix uses entertaining strategies to encourage children to express themselves through writing. On the free website, students can create their own comic strips by selecting from 15 animal and human characters, each of which shows four distinct emotions - happy, sad, angry, worried, and by writing words for blank talk and thought balloons to make their characters talk and think. There also are story ideas and prompts to help users create graphic stories. For example, one suggestion relates to dealing with interpersonal conflict; children are asked to "make believe you could defend yourself effectively from a bully or someone who acts badly to you. What are the words you would say to this person? What comeback would you have after someone tries to embarrass you?"

The website accepts text, characters, and accent marks in languages other than English, including Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, and Latin, and the organisers are, as of this update, working to add Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Consequently, according to the organisers, many foreign language teachers are now encouraging students to write comics in the language they are learning. In addition, students have the option of printing out their comix for their portfolios and also emailing them as messages to friends and relatives, so that they can create comics for events such as birthdays and other special occasions. Some educational therapists use the online comics with deaf and autistic people to help them understand concepts and communicate.

In 2008, Make Beliefs Comix expanded its online tools to include a "writer prompts" function to offer educators new ideas to spark student creativity and love for writing as they seek to promote literacy, learning, and English as a second language (ESL). This tool is centred around interactive techniques designed to help people of all ages find their writer's voice and express themselves; click here to connect to these idea prompts. (Here is an example: "You are a six-year-old Pakistani boy sold into servitude by his family to labor 14 hours a day in a carpet factory. Your enslavement will help settle a $16 family debt. You spend the next six years chained to a rug loom, working 12-hour days for pennies. Then comes the day when you escape to freedom...here's what happens:") At this blog site, selected students' written responses are posted in an effort to reinforce students' writing and language-learning efforts.

Children, Education.

Zimmerman is a journalist who, for 13 years, created an interactive, syndicated Student Briefing Page for Newsday newspaper to teach young people about current events and to encourage young people to express their opinions about the world they live in. The page brought in hundreds of thousands of letters, and was nominated twice for a Pulitzer Prize. At Newsday, Zimmerman also created a series of comic books to teach history and current events to young readers. Zimmerman himself learned to read with comic books, and seeks to create resources that help people find their voice and express themselves. The concept for Make Beliefs Comix is derived from his earlier books, Make Beliefs and Make Beliefs for Kids of All Ages; click here if you seek more details.

Google and UNESCO have selected MakeBeliefsComix.com as one of the world's most innovative websites to encourage literacy and reading.