Our last task is giving information about the tool which we presented in the class. We had chosen Storybird as a tool to present with my partner Buse and we introduced it in the class last week. Now it is time for you to meet with Storybird.
Storybird is a platform which lets anyone make stories or in seconds. Especially it gives opportunities to teachers and students to develop their writing and creative thinking skills. You can write stories by adding some photos to your story and publish them on the website. You can also write a poem on the website. However you must sign in Storybird, before you come to the process of creating a story. You can sign in Storybird for free via your email address or you can create a new address there.
After signing in Storybird, you should decide what you will write. Are you going to write a poem or create a picture book or create a longform story? It is up to you! After you decide what you will write, you begin to create your own material. For example if you want to create a picture book, you write your story and according to the topic of the story, you can add a cover page and some images which are given on the site. Finally you can and publish it privately or publicly. If you want to publish it privately, only your family and friends can see your work, but if you choose to publish it publicly, everyone can access and read it, you can also share your story somewhere else by the means of the embed code of your story.
English language teachers can benefit from storybird. Teachers can create some tasks for their students to develop their language learning skills and to engage in learning activities. While creating a story, students can invite their friends in this creative process and in this way they can learn to cooperate and collaborate with each other. Teachers also provide the students with the opportunity to develop their creative thinking skills by writing a story. Students can learn to think creatively. These are some task example for students:
Option 1: Teachers can give some keywords to students and ask them to write a story with these keywords by adding some photos to their stories.
Ex key words: car, traffic, road, bridge, motorway
Option 2:They can write just the first sentence of a story as a clue and expect students to make the story continue, to complete it based on this sentence.
Ex : One day Robert went for a walk. On the way he saw a/an....
Option 3: They can give only a word as a theme to students and tell them to write a story about this theme.
Ex: Love
OUR STORY
We chose second option as a task and created our story with my partner on the website. Here is the first sentence of our story:
One day, Simon and his mother are discussing about ...........(future)
If you want to read it, you should click here: FROM THE DECISION TO THE FUTURE WITH SIMON
CONSTRAINTS
Storybird has some constraints. Firstly you can not use Storybird without having an account or an email address, Seconly you can not upload photos or use the images you want because the images are categorized, You have to chose one category and use the images about that category. Additionally, you can not add your voice or a song into your story.
IN CONCLUSION
Although it has some constraints, Storybird is a useful tool for language learning. By using this tool, teachers can grab their students' attention and students can engage in the activities and enhance their some skills like writing, reading, creative thinking, so they may not get bored and take pleasure in language learning proces.
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