Storybird
The What, Who, When,
Why, How & Where
of Sparking Creativity
in the Classroom!
WHAT is it?
Storybird is an on-line story book creator; this site allows the user to author a story using well crafted illustrations as inspiration. It was originally inspired by a father wanting to creatively create s story with his son,and has turned into a international phenomenon and a boom to the classroom teacher! The creator, Mark, chronicles the creation of this website in the following blog. It also explains why they say Storybird and not just a story.
http://blog.storybird.com/2009/03/prologue
WHO is it for?
Family, Friends, Artists, and TEACHERS
WHEN can a teacher incorporate Storybird into his/her class?
Storybird has a designated area for teachers that would like to incorporate the website into their classrooms. It enables them to create a class account so students can log in without having to create an individual account, which would require a personal email. Teachers would also have the ability to create assignments, monitor comments made by students and start discussion boards. Another advantage of creating assignments within Storybird.com is that when students log-in they are notified of the assignments they need to do.
Even though this website might seem limited to the lower grades, it has applications to all grades. Many adults enjoy creating Storybirds. Some ideas for assignments could be:
- For an 8th grade class room the teacher can have students use an already established Storybird story to identify different literary elements such as the protagonist, title, theme, etc.
- The younger grades can collaborate together to create a story using the weeks vocabulary. They can pick illustrations as a class and the write out the storyline as a class as well.
Another feature that will spark creativity in your classroom is the option of having students collaborating between classes and soon schools!
WHY should you implement into your class?
It’s a wonderful site that sparks creativity within teachers and students.
- Makes narrative accessible to all readers and writers
- Very engaging
- Author friendly
- Quick Student Success
- Builds confidence and ownership of one’s work
- Monitored site – Safe for Students
http://coekate.murraystate.edu/kate/in_your_classroom/172/
HOW do you use Storybird?
1. Create an General Account - Super Easy
Just takes a user name, password and an email address
2. After you have access you can start a Storybird right away. You can get inspired by an artist or theme.
3.After artwork is chosen the user will then be able to create a story by clicking and dragging an illustration and then adding your own text.
Once you have a general account, you need to create a class - once again super easy!
TEACHERS
1. On any screen, scroll to the bottom of the page and select "For Teachers"
2. Click Sign Up
3. Create a class by assigning a Class name, School name and select "Create a Class"
4. You are ready to add students and create assignments.
5. To create students, you need a name and a user name.
A temporary password will be created. the first time the student signs in, they will change it.
If they forget, you will be able to give them a new temporary password.
6. To create an assignment you will need
- an assignment title
- description (limited to 250 words)
- set due date
- you can even decide to keep spell check on.
WHERE can someone go to get more information?
A tutorial about creating a Storybird
http://vimeo.com/6178690
A link directly to site - Enjoy and do not be surprised if you can not stop creating!
http://storybird.com/
Below is a link to a blog for innovations in the classroom that has a very informative article about Storybird.com.
www.primarypete.net/ict-writing-storybird
The support staff are quick to answer questions, they often return emails within 12 hours!
Support@storybird.com
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