Comics–an underused tool to boost SEL skills

Comics have long been considered not just to gamify education but to teach writing skills that are challenging for some students. SmartBrief Education tells Dan Ryder’s story,

How comics curriculum boosts SEL

Dan Ryder, a learning facilitator at Community Regional Charter School in Skowhegan, Maine, says he uses comics to support students’ social and emotional learning. In this blog post, Ryder shares several ways he will use comics in the classroom during the first weeks of school, including to help foster discussion about choices and different perspectives on social issues.

Read on…

You can create comics in dedicated webtools or with tools you probably already have, like Google Drawings:

comic strip in google draw

For excellent online comic creator tools, check this list:

  1. Book Creator–(iOS/Android) templates to create digital comic books and graphic novels.
  2. Canva–excellent comic templates you can use from an individual or education account
  3. Friendstrip–use their library of pieces; create/publish/share
  4. MakeBeliefsComix–simple comic creation
  5. Marvel– create comic strips and books with Marvel characters.
  6. Pixton.com–offers a comic builder to simplify the process
  7. PlayComic–English or Spanish
  8. PowToon–try free, then fee
  9. Storyboard That!–the gold standard for comics; free or fee


Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

Author: Jacqui
Welcome to my virtual classroom. I've been a tech teacher for 15 years, but modern technology offers more to get my ideas across to students than at any time in my career. Drop in to my class wikis, classroom blog, our internet start pages. I'll answer your questions about how to teach tech, what to teach when, where the best virtual sites are. Need more--let's chat about issues of importance in tech ed. Want to see what I'm doing today? Click the gravatar and select the grade.

5 thoughts on “Comics–an underused tool to boost SEL skills

      1. I’ve tried Canva but didn’t find it much better than PowerPoint – except for some graphics. I still pop over there occasionally to buy some. 🙂

        1. I like Canva because I’m not terribly creative and they give me lots of templates with good ideas. I haven’t used PowerPoint for comics. There’s an idea…

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