Storybird

Free to Choose on Storybird

I read this book after finding it on the website Storybird and instantly feel in love with it! What a beautiful story. Storybird is a website that allows adults and children to scaffold stories with the use of artwork from artists all over the world. "Storybird reverses the process of visual storytelling by starting with the image and "unlocking" the story inside. Choose an artist or a theme, get inspired, and start writing"(http://storybird.com/create/). It is collaborative story telling and can be written by more than one person. After the story has been completed, the choice of publishing is available which means that writers then have an audience who can 'heart' their story and leave comments. It is a fantastic tool for engaging students to improve literacy skills and helps inspire those who may lack ideas or struggle with illustrations.

I have written a book myself but it is in the process of being moderated, so until this is complete I am unable to embed my story.

PMI
Pluses -
- Free service
- Encourages students to create, relate, donate (Engagement Theory)
- Artwork scaffolds storytelling for those who may have trouble thinking up ideas
- Moderation occurs to ensure that Storybird books do not contain inappropriate language or misuse
- There is an age suggestion so readers and writers can classify books based on reading level and/or enjoyment
- Authentic context - story writers can get feedback and exposure from all over the world
- The stories are written from writers at preschool age to the elderly, giving the stories a personal, authentic feel
- Books can be tagged so that teachers/parents/readers can search particular topcis, etc
- Website creates a 'challenge' each month based on a topic or word and story writers can win awards
- Focus on literacy skills - a major focus of the school curriculum
- Great way of combining technology skills with literacy
- Easy to use tool for younger students with quick results
- Class accounts for teachers that are safe, secure and private. You can read more about the ever-increasing benefits provided for educators who are using Storybird with their students here.
- Stories can be shared by the students with parents, family, friends
- Option of keeping book private or making it public
- Collaboration! Can write stories in a "round robin fashion" with others in the same class or on the other side of the world
- "publishing platform" for budding artists and writers
- "promotes imagination, literacy, and self-confidence"
- Can add books to your personal reading list so you can read them over and over again
- High quality artwork

This is the tag on the teachers page within the Storybird website:
"Storybirds are short, art-inspired stories that are curiously fun to make, share, and read. Teachers love them because they inspire their most reluctant writers and readers and reward their most adventurous. Kids adore them because they feel empowered by the tools and supported by the social feedback".

Minuses
- Moderation means that if students want to embed stories into their blogs or on teacher websites they have to wait until this has been processed. I published mine 2 days ago and am still waiting for approval...
- No option as yet to add your own artwork
- Searching for a book can be difficult
- May be difficult to incorporate into a range of KLA's as it does not allow image upload
- If students have the story in their head before the image, finding relevant images may prove difficult

Interesting
- Having an audience means that students are likely to produce higher quality work
- You are able to pay for stories to be made into real books, printed and sent from the U.S
- Students could look into becoming artists themselves, imagine if their artwork was used in books all around the world!


Safe, Ethical, Legal Issues:
- What is fantastic about Storybird is that very few of these issues would arise because of the way it has been developed. Teachers are capable of setting up classroom accounts that are free and they can also "set privacy levels and never worry about safety. Storybird has no chat function or personal profiles and administrators moderate all public books and comments"(http://storybird.com/teachers/)
- Artists allow anyone to upload their illustrations and openly use them in their stories so no issues of copyright and/or plagiarism would apply.
- Stories can be moderated by Teachers to ensure that appropriate language has been used by students.

Storybird has a blog that is incorporated into the website and allows Teachers to constructively criticise aspects of Storybird and/or add ideas for future development. This is constructivism at it's finest... tools like this that are becoming integral to 21st century learners will only become better with the help of educators who are actively using these tools in their classrooms and can provide genuine feedback. Feedback is ultimately what allows us to better ourselves, deepen our knowledge and enhance motivation.


Classroom Ideas:
** Have students identify the themes of image sets by reading all of the different stories created
** Have students create stories for the same set of images and then compare the class' stories
** Have students read stories for fluency practice
** Have students write stories using images that have strong sequences as a support for their narratives
** Use it as a reflection tool - get students to write about thoughts on how they are feeling, what they are learning or to emphasise classroom ethics/rules/procedures. Check out a Storybird written by a student on revision here.
** Could choose a word or type of word and ask students to include it in their story as many times as they can.
** Have students create a rhyming story to get to know word groups
** Have students write short poems with only one image each and compile a classroom book
** Create a classroom Storybird based on retelling a story from a book.
** Students could write a story directed at a particular audience or person (eg the queen = formal, a friend = informal) As stated in the Qld Essential learnings, "Writers and designers can adopt different roles for different audiences"


References:
http://www.kristenswanson.org/2009/09/motivate-adolescent-readers-and-writers.html
http://storybird.com
http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/early_middle/qcar_el_all_yr3.pdf