Storybird Time

During my last EDUC 584 class, I had the opportunity to create a story with my peers Michelle and Juan using the online digital story-telling tool Storybird.  It was the first time I had used a tool such as this to create a story.  It was difficult to create a story on the spot based on someone else’s pictures.  However, once we selected an artist our story came together quickly.   

I am proud of our accomplishment, so proud that I showed it to my six graders the next day.  I wanted to show them what I created in class the night before and to get some feedback.  I told them that we created the story off the top of our head and had it done within a half hour of starting.  After I read the story to them, they asked when they would get the opportunity to make one of their own!  They did say they thought the story was nice and immediately noticed the students on the cover page.  They had so many questions about the artwork and where did we get the names for the characters.  I reminded the students about the short stories they wrote at the beginning of the year.  I told them if I had known about Storybird before, they could have used it to create their original stories to share online.  I definitely plan to use this tool with students in the future. I can see them selecting pictures first then building their story using a plot chart.  They can practice including conflict, dialogue, characterization, and setting. As an ELA teacher, I see the many possibilities for using Storybird in my classroom.