How I Use It
Reading: can be used for independent reading projects, plot summary, illustration of figurative language
Writing: narrative writing (strategies and whole piece), responding to literature
My Take
Bitstrips can be used to support a variety of different kinds of activities, and because it's so visual, it can take a lot of teaching out of the hands of the teacher and put it into the hands of the students. I have had kids illustrate figurative language used throughout a novel, and they teach each other when we come across it while reading. Kids seem really engaged when using this product. I did not find that students thought it was limiting - they had plenty of choices from the premade art, and loved manipulating every little function of characters and props.
Unfortunately, this made this product extremely time-consuming to use - I couldn't afford to lose that many periods more than once or twice a school year. I am very computer-literature and quick to pick up new apps and websites, and while it was easy to learn, it took me more than an hour to create a 6-panel Bitstrip that illustrated the basic parts of a story. I later learned that one way to get around that is to use templates that other teachers have made, but then my students complained that they don't get to do much with the comic itself.
