Monday, March 26, 2012

Storybird

A story for me, a story for you,
Storybird is fun, through and through.
Spidey likes it and so do I,
Write a story, no need to be shy.

I think Storybird is my favourite web application from those I have investigated for this course. It is so simple, yet it creates really impressive results. It is such a great resource for students to get them writing.

Over Spring Break, my 8 year old had the task of writing a short story (really a paragraph). He always struggles with generating ideas for his writing, so I got him to try a Storybird instead. By choosing some fun images, he was able to create a story to flow with it. Voila!


George le scientiste fâcher by bjdoyle on Storybird
Of course, one of the advantages of Storybird is that the stories can be created in French, a bonus at my French Immersion School. In fact, here is a page of Storybirds en Français. These would be great for students to read for inspiration.
Erin Klein has some good tips in her blog post A Reflection on Storybird:
  • write a Storybird as a class first - this is a great idea and could be done on the SmartBoard
  • offer choice - Klein found that the boys more frequently gravitated to Web 2.0 applications that involved multi-media like Glogster or VoiceThread
Storybird is an excellent way to get students involved in digital storytelling and collaboration. It is accessible to young students as long as they have the ability to write. 

As we head back to school after our Spring Break, this is one tool that I will be looking to implement with students soon.

1 comment:

  1. I loved your son's storybird! Well done! I'll have to share it with my own son (who is 8) and maybe get him to try one of his own! As you say, it is nice to find a tool that works equally well in English and in French.

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