Comics in the Classroom

Comics are a lot of fun for light reading, but they're also an excellent teaching and learning tool. Most of my students are visual learners, and they tend to be more engaged when I can show them some type of engaging picture. There is something about the comics genre that makes kids look and gives me a shot at delivering a concept that would otherwise be lost.

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Years ago, I taught a unit on the chemical elements using a project I created called The Super Elements Comic Adventure. One of my favorite resources at that time was The Comic Book Periodic Table of Elements created by The University of Kentucky's Chemistry Department, and I think this site gave me the idea to have students create their own comics about element-inspired superheroes.

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I'm also a big fan of The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry and The Cartoon Guide to Physics by Larry Gonick. He has guides on calculus, algebra, genetics, and statistics too that are available from various book sellers. If you're interested in math comics that you can put on the copy machine and pass out to students, you should really check out Comic-Strip Math by Dan Greenberg, which has 80 reproducible math comics with story problems for grades 3-6.

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I've made a few of my science comics available on TeachersPayTeachers, and I'd love for you to take a look at them. Also, please enjoy a free download with a few more of my ideas for using comics in the classroom.