Comic Conversations – Lesson Plan & Comic Templates

Class level: Elementary – High school Lesson Time: 55 minutes

English level: Beginner to Advanced Expected number of students: 20 - 40

Context: Forming, practicing and understanding simple conversations.

Teaching aids: White/chalk board, Comic Conversation templates (These came from the internet and were
edited for this lesson), and a soft foam ball for playing conversation hot-potato
Learner objectives: Teacher aims:
For all students to speak in English in a structured lesson that provides Involve all students in an engaging lesson.
support and guidance as needed. Students should also have the
Teach a fun lesson with a game that
opportunity to practice correct pronunciation, practice grammar skills
adapts to the learner’s abilities.
and practice constructing simple conversations.

Procedure Phase Timing

Before class starts, the teacher will need to review the comic
conversation templates to be used for this lesson. These templates
were made by copying syndicated comic strips from the Internet.
The teacher is free to use the comic strip templates that are
prepared for this lesson, but in the future the teacher should
prepared comic strips that are popular among the students.
Syndicated comics appear on the internet and programs such as
MS Paint can be used to edit the conversation bubbles so that the
students can add their own conversations.

Begin the lesson by using prior knowledge of the students. Ask

students about comics they enjoy reading. Ask what kinds of things Engage 8 minutes
the characters say in the comic strips. Next ask the students what
they talk about with their friends.

Distribute the comic strips conversation templates to the students.

Study 12 minutes
Review the conversations in the comics by reading them with the
class out loud. Discuss what is being said in the conversations.
You can use the same comic strip to practice several different
possible conversations.

Comic Conversations Activity:

Activate 20 minutes
(1) With the class as a whole group, practice making some
conversations by asking the class what possible things the
characters might say frame by frame. The teacher will write
the conversations given on the board. Emphasize that there
are no wrong answers and there are an infinite number of
conversations possible.

(2) When the class is ready have the class split off into either
pairs (for beginning and intermediate students) or
individually (for advanced students) to start writing their own
the own conversations within the comic strips. The teacher

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 will circulate among the students and give minimal feedback
and guidance as needed. Let the students take control of
the project. Do not write the conversations for them, but
guide them by asking questions (Socratic Method of
teaching) that will help them to find the answers they are
looking for. Try by asking, “Oh you are not sure what to
write? What do you see the characters in the comic doing?
What might this one be asking the other one? Okay, what
might the other one respond?”

(3) When the students are ready have them share their comic
conversations with the class by reading the different parts. If
the students are beginner level English the teacher can help
by participating to read one of the parts that the student
wrote.

Closing Activity Closure/ 15 min

minutes
1. The teacher reviews the comic conversation activity by having Study
conversations with the class using the comic conversation strips
as a guide.
2. The, gently toss the foam ball to a student to answer the
question that the first character might say, “How are you
today?”
3. The student who caught the ball answers by either using their
own conversation as a guide or the example conversations that
you the teacher gave them at the start of class “I feel terrible I
think I was turned into a robot.”
4. After answering, the teacher continues to the next frame where
the conversation either continues with the same student, of the
foam ball is passed to a different student to continue the comic
conversation.
5. The process repeats itself with the responding student taking a
turn at asking the question to the next student.
Continue to toss the ball until all students have taken a turn

The point of the activity is to have students attempt speaking in

English and become familiar with using simple scripted
conversations. If the students do not respond directly in line with
the frame of the comics it is still okay as long as they are practicing
English and enjoying the lesson.

 This lesson can be repeated once a week to give students a

chance to practice constructing conversations. You can use
the conversation comic strips provided here or you can
make them by copying them from online and editing them.

See the following pages for the comic conversation templates that you can use with this lesson.
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Name:_______________________________ Date:________________

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Name:_______________________ Date:_________________

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Name:_______________________________ Date:________________

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Name:_______________________________ Date:________________

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Mother and Son

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Mother and Son

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Name:_______________________________ Date:________________
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