Three staples of management and organizational behavior classes are units on creativity, problem solving, and group decision making. This article presents an experiential exercise in creative problem solving in which the participants attempt to create a cartoon caption both individually and in small groups. The cartoons all come from "The New…

Creative use of language is a central tenet of learner-centric pedagogy, and as such has become a big part of today's language classrooms. Students who are allowed to use their creative impulses are often more engaged during in-class activities (Gregory et al., 2013). This is precisely one of the primary motivators for teachers to leverage…

This article is an international reflection on literacy, creativity, and student engagement. The authors collaborated to help Nigerian youths and their teachers develop, design, and share original comic books. By leveraging student engagement for literacy learning, the authors highlighted the crucial role of creativity in the classroom. The…

When it comes to teaching vocabulary in foreign language classes words are often taught in isolation, without regard to the context in which they appear. The paper draws attention to the importance of teaching words in context so that the meaning of a word often results from the meaning of a larger construction it is part of. After presenting the…

This document describes a strategy for increasing student leadership and creativity skills through the creation of cartoons. Creating cartoons engages students in divergent thinking and cognitive processes, such as perception, recall, and mental processing. When students create cartoons focused on a particular topic, they are making connections to…

This essay describes an adaptable, multimodal assignment in which students create a comic in lieu of a traditional essay or exam. I outline the theoretical and practical value of this assignment and provide a detailed description of its implementation in two different literature courses: an introduction to the major course and a course on…

The expansion of the Internet has created many new opportunities for people to share their talents. Many people share just for fun--but some do it for fun and money. Online, these artists can reach a global audience. The rapid growth of online media excites many people working in the field. This article describes careers for digital media workers.…

Cartoon interpretation and production are teaching strategies that can assist students in a deeper understanding of concepts and practice of higher level thinking skills while motivating them through humor. This article presents an extended example of graduate students in an introductory course in gifted education creating humorous cartoons to…

In order for students to learn well, someone or something must capture their interest. Novelty and intellectual challenges are good approaches for gaining attention. Imaginative strategies include storytelling, discrepant events, dressing in costumes, music, dynamic video clips, comic strips, humor, models, puppets, the element of surprise,…

This definitive book presents the newest research linking graphic narratives and literacy learning, as well as the tools teachers will need to make comic book projects a success in their classrooms. The Comic Book Project (www.comicbookproject.org) is an internationally celebrated initiative where children plan, write, design, and publish original…

The Comic Book Project (CBP) celebrates its eighth anniversary this year. The project, which just originated with one school in New York City, had grown to encompass thousands of students nationwide. The goal of the CBP is not to create comics the "Marvel way" or to develop the next Stan Lee. Rather, the goal is to give students the opportunity to…

A "Promising Practice" is a system, process, or activity in a program that works and leads to good results. It is something that would work in other programs, if only they were aware about it. "Promising Practices" capture some of the most innovative, creative and successful ways that programs serve youth. This publication…

Based on a four-year study, "Manga High" explores the convergence of literacy, creativity, social development, and personal identity in one of New York City's largest high schools. Since 2004, students at Martin Luther King, Jr., High School in Manhattan have been creating manga--Japanese comic books. They write the stories, design the…

The benefits and advantages of classroom practices incorporating unity-in-diversity and diversity-in-unity are what "Multilevel and Diverse Classrooms" is all about. Multilevel classrooms--also known as mixed-ability or heterogeneous classrooms--are a fact of life in ESOL programs around the world. These classrooms are often not only…

When the author decided to start a college for cartoonists in Vermont, he knew he would be tapping into an unprecedented excitement about graphic novels in the literary, publishing and art worlds. What he did not know was that he would also be tapping into the energy swirling around New England's so-called "Creative Economy," which…