Spontaneous Comics

Ever been reading a book aloud to your class and after discussing, want to do just a little more?

Recently, I read a book to my class about manners, which led into a great conversation about that good ole' golden rule.  And while we did a few turn-n-talks during the read aloud, I wanted to have the kids do more, since it was such a (small but) powerful book.

One of the upsides to my brain and it's ADHD is the spontaneous flow of ideas that are constantly floating around, trying to escape.  And this idea was a pretty good escapee, if I do say so myself!

Anyway, after reading, the kids got into groups of three or four and had to come up with the most important lessons connected to the book.  Once they had ideas, each member of the group (formed by who they were sitting near during read aloud,) went back to their own seat and drew ONE idea on a sticky note, comic style, complete with word balloons or captions.

As they finished their comic square, they put it on our comic strip.  When we were done?  It made a pretty neat read that the kids went up to look at throughout the day!  What I liked the best is it was a quick, simple way to assess the individual understandings of the story.  When I read each student's response, I could tell who was able to apply the theme of the book to the task, who is still in the literal phase, taking direct examples from the book, who followed the directions, and even quick spelling and handwriting observations.  All from a simple sticky note activity that took less than 10 minutes!