At the beginning of each new school term have your students use MakeBeliefsComix.com to create autobiographical comic strips talking about themselves and their families or summarizing important things about their lives to help a teacher or fellow student learn more about them.
Let each student select a cartoon character as a surrogate to represent her- or himself. In their comic they can talk about their dreams, their goals, a happy or sad memory, and about their family members. What are they most proud of?
Or, let the comic character they choose to represent them talk about their favorite music or book or author. What new thing did they learn or do this summer? Which new friend did they make? What new idea came into their head? Those students who are immigrants might want to talk about where they came from and about their families; they can talk about the opportunities and problems of being in the United States.
After students complete their comic strips, print them out and encourage them to exchange their comics with classmates so they can learn more about each other. You may want to place these on the class bulletin board.
These autobiographical comic strips can even become the opening pages of a daily comix diary that students can be encouraged to keep throughout the school year. See Take Our Daily Comix Diary Challenge! at https://www.makebeliefscomix.com/daily-comic-diary/