Story Bird
In the autumn holidays I had the opportunity to go on short lectures on “teachers resources” online. This suited me perfectly as we would look at different resources. What I understood during these days was that there is unlimited with resources online. There is an infinite treasure online; you just have to find the gems.
A resource that I fell for is called Story Bird ( http://storybird.com/ ) and it's free. The only requirement is an Internet connected computer. Story Bird is a site for creating digital stories. Story Bird offers a range of images to illustrate your own texts and images that can also help those of us who have a poor imagination to create stories. Of course it’s also good for those of us who are not very good at creating professional pictures and stories. Another great feature is the ability to have an on-line collaboration.
To create a story in Story Bird you need to select a theme. Then drag and drop the images where you want them in your story and then you add your text. When the story is finished, it can be published online so that everyone can see it, or you can choose to keep it in your own private archives. It is also possible to invite other partners to take part of the story.
As a teacher, I can write custom stories to pupils depending on their progress in their reading and writing skills. I’m thinking especially in the subjects English and Swedish. I think this is strength, since a class has so different maturity levels. I can even do stories that fit into a theme work.
When the pupils got started with their writing skills, I think (because I have not tried this site yet) that younger pupils can be introduced to the resource. In the beginning we can also print them and have texts in the class’ "library". These stories can be stored in the pupils’ portfolio through the school year so that they can see their writing skills developing.
My class enjoys fairy tales and stories in various forms so I believe this resource will suit them well.
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ReplyDeleteI´ve also discovered Storybird! I think it´s a good website that attracts young students to both write and read English. When I first used it I found out that there were much more to think about that I had realized.
ReplyDeleteAfter the introduction I let about six students start working with Storybird, in the computer rooms just outside our classroom. At first everything went smoothly. The students logged in and started to work with the assignment. After a while they got some problems. They didn´t know some of the words they wanted to write. Of course I was there showing them how to use the dictionaries. We have “Nordsteds första engelska ordbok” in the classroom and we have access to www.ne.se, which includes Nordsteds dictionaries online (though Ne.se can be a bit hard at the beginning).
I must add that this wasn´t the first time that we used the dictionaries. We use them whenever we need to. I also reminded them that they could ask each other first.
Then I went back to the classroom and the rest of my students for a while. During the time I was gone something else happened in the computer rooms. One of the girls introduced the other students, one after the other, to Google Translate. I hadn´t thought about Google Translate though I didn´t use it by myself very much at that time. Of course Google Translate can be helpful, but I think that you need to know a bit of the language, for example English, to use it proper.
At first I thought it was quite good that she´d taught them how to use Google Translate and of course it was good in a way. Then a boy came to me and said that he had finished his story. I went to his computer and started to read the story. Now I realised that he had used words and phrases that even I didn´t recognise and understand. Here we are taking about a 10 year old student that hadn´t learnt English before fourth grade! When I asked him to explain what he´d written it turned out that the boy had no idea! I asked him to show me how he could have written it. Both proud and pleased he then showed me how he´d used Google Translate.
It turned out that the girl had not only taught her classmates how to use Google Translate. She had also taught them how to mark, copy and paste words and phrases. They did all use their new knowledge with joy and they did not need to make the slightest effort at all!
Of course they learnt a lot of other things that can be useful in other situations, but it wasn´t the meaning of the assignment!
But to conclude it all, I must say that it gave us a very good discussion afterwards. It was not only the student that learned something. I did as well!!!
I still think that Storybird is a very good website and I will use it again next week. This time I have made an assignment at Storybird for them to follow and their stories will have a special theme: To make a story about a monster. It will be very interesting to see how it goes!
//Katarina Forsell
Funny that you already tried this website. Interesting to read how it went. I work with a grades 1 and it becomes on a simpler level. Shall try the website with those pupils who got started with theirs writing development. Googels translation is perhaps not the best but it works in certain modes.
Delete//Lena Marmont
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DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteWell, I have this colleague in Landskrona that´s just outstanding finding new websites to use. Maybe you want to join our two facebookgroups
Delete(one for ICT interested educators in Landskrona - "IKT-intresserade pedagoger i Landskrona"
https://www.facebook.com/groups/iktlandskrona/
and one for English interested educators in Landskrona - "Engelska för intresserade pedagoger i Landskrona";
https://www.facebook.com/groups/452463781472040/).
I know that Anna (my colleague) loves when new members join. Don´t bother about the names of the groups that ends with “…educators in Landskrona”... EVERYONE is welcome!!!
//Katarina
Hi Lena!
ReplyDeleteThank you for some interesting reading on how to use Story Bird! I actually got a tip about Story Bird by a former colleague of mine just a couple of days ago but haven’t used it with my students yet. After reading your blog post yesterday I immediately created an account though, anxious to try it out!
As you, I believe that Story Bird is a way to promote the English language learning in many aspects. Through the varied range of themes and images there are great opportunities to create stories without being limited by lack of imagination. Even I got inspired and since my student’s imagination is quite vivid, I’m convinced they will not have any problems figuring out what to write about! I believe you also get a chance to discuss grammar structures as well as phrases and expressions common for the English language. I liked what you wrote about adapting the severity in your stories to the different abilities among your students. That is one of the difficulties I find when teaching English – knowing where to set the bar.
I particularly liked the part about using Story Bird while working with different themes, since my opinion is that the new curriculum gives us quite a lot of opportunities to work thematically. When using Story Bird in different themes, I think you’ll get an opportunity to use peer assessment when having the students giving feedback and response to each other’s stories – regarding both linguistic and contents.
My thoughts after reading your blog post are, above of all, that I believe Story Bird is a way to learn English in a fun way! And if there’s something all teachers know, it’s that our students learn much more when they have an assignment they enjoy doing!
//Hanna Vendel