StorybirdA 4th-Grade Integrated Writing and Technology Unit Overview

Zachary ThompsonCI511/512, Dr. Victoria Trinder • Talcott Fine Arts and Museum Academy, 4th grade • Fall, 2011

Zak Thompson• email: thompson.zak@gmail.com • M.Ed., Elementary Education

An OverviewUsing the Website ‘Storybird’ to Teach Students About Story Structure and Digital Authorship

A UNIT IN 15 LESSONS

A Sample of the Thousands of Illustrations Students Use for Inspiration and Story Creation

Once upon a time, in the midst of my 14-week student teaching experience, the technology

instructor at my school (Talcott Fine Arts and Museum Academy in the West Town

neighborhood of Chicago) came to me with an idea. He had purchased an administrator account

to a website called ‘Storybird’, where students write and publish their own online storybooks,

and was looking for a classroom to test it out, thereby (hopefully) convincing the administration

the subscription was worthwhile. I jumped at the opportunity to volunteer my students for the

experience. I recognize the importance technology plays in my adult and professional life, and I

feel very strongly about providing my fourth-graders the experience to develop that level of

digital competence. Storybird would allow my students a chance to hone their writing skills,

develop a stronger sense of story-telling structure and literary techniques while simultaneously

expanding their proficiency on the computer and internet. What follows is an overview of the

lessons and procedures that guided me through this process. There will be a brief tutorial on the

upcoming page, but I encourage you to please visit www.storybird.com to familiarize yourself

with the site.

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Storybird at a Glance

The website Storybird allows users access to a large picture cache which they can then use to

create their own story books for free which are then published on the site and can be accessed by

family, friends, or interested readers. For a cost, you can then have the books printed by parents

and loved ones. Although Storybird does not have a chat feature, allow people to post their

names, phone numbers or locations, or encourage anyone to write a story under their own

names, any concerned parents or teachers can make their books (or “Storybirds”) private and

shared only among certain peoples. As an interest to educators, teachers can easily create 30

free accounts for their students, which are all linked together.

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Users are inspired by illustrations or can browse tags and themes for ideas.

Once interesting art is found, users add pages, more illustrations and writing.

Standards

Common Core

✦ RL.4.3 - Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).

✦ RL.4.6 - Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations.

✦ RL.4.7 - Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.

✦ RF.4.4b - Read on-level prose and poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.

✦ W.4.3a-e - Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

✦ W.4.5 - With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising and editing.

✦ W. 4.6 - With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others: demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of one page in a single sitting.

ISTE National Educational Technology Standards

✦ 1b. Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students create original works as a means of personal or group expression.

✦ 2b. Students interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments.

✦ 5. Digital citizenship. Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.

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Overview

The 15 lessons comprising this unit take place over six weeks in two places: our general

education classroom and the school’s technology lab, with the classroom lessons being

interwoven into our regular, daily literacy block. During this time, the students are together for

whole-group, interactive read=alouds (Mondays and Tuesdays), small-group guided reading

(Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) and small-group word study exploration (Words Their Way,

daily). This time was ideal for not only covering vital language-arts content, but also to introduce

the ideas of theme, voice and elements of dramatic structure that would help guide the students

through their storytelling. Students’ attention would be directed to these strands of focus

without the need to significantly alter the scripted curriculum, making this an ideal unit for a

general education elementary teacher. As homework, students would be given handouts to

complete to storyboard portions of their book and choose elements like setting and characters.

Finding time for the students to actually explore their sites and create their stories, however, was

a slightly different matter, as we only have one PC in our classroom. Our class visits the lab for

forty minutes once per week (Mondays) where there is a computer for each student. In light of

this, it required six sessions for the majority of the students to progress from becoming familiar

with the site to completing their stories. Students begin the unit by being issued a username and

password, to exploring the pictures and themes, and finally, to writing their stories. Remote

administrative access allows myself and the lab instructor the ability to review the stories before

class and provide editing suggestions to students, thereby freeing up our lab time to work with

the students who are encountering more challenges. The final lab session will consist of chosen

students being able to read their books aloud for their classmates.

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All of the unit’s lessons take place, as stated above, either in during the students daily, 1-hour

literacy block or during the students weekly trip to the computer lab for 45 minutes.

✦ OBJECTIVE: For each student to use their new understanding of story elements and dramatic

structure to publish a unique, original, online ‘Storybird.’ Students will discuss online

etiquette and safety as well as the concept of “digital citizenship.”

✦ MATERIALS: Students will be provided by the instructor a colored folder to retain their

homework handouts, which will also be supplied.

✦ PLANNING FOR DIVERSE LEARNERS: As 16 or our class’ 27 students are English-

language learners, care must be taken with the instructor’s use of language. The handouts

must be read orally to the whole class and difficult/confusing words (e.g. “climax,” “seeds,” or

“villain.” Our students with exceptional needs require a greater amount of one-on-one time in

the lab, especially when logging in. On their homework sheets, students who have more

difficulty writing are encouraged to use pictures to storyboard their ideas.

✦ ASSESSMENT: Since this was my student teaching semester and the lab instructor, my

cooperating teacher and myself were introducing a unit and a website none of us had ever

taught before, we thought it unfair to assign a formal, summative letter grade to their

performance throughout this process. However, the homework assignments provide an

excellent opportunity for formative assessment - the degree to which students are taking the

work seriously and are understanding the different elements of story structure will be clear by

how they are progressing while writing about their own story. Similarly, the homework sheets

are always one step ahead of the lab visits, so the instructor can see if the classroom lessons are

effecting the quality of the Storybirds at any time. Teaching this lesson in the future would be a

terrific occasion to introduce the students to portfolio creation (perhaps even digitally) and

reflection.

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Calendar

The following is a calendar of the 15-lesson, 6-week schedule. Classroom time is written in

purple, while lab work is in green.

Week Monday Tuesday Wednesday

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Introduction to Storybird. What and why. Description of the upcoming weeks.

Students will be given a username and password and instructions on accessing the site.

Discuss the stories we’ve read and the stories we like. For homework: students are given handout Part I: Story Seeds. Instructed to come up with possible ideas for their own story.

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Discuss story seeds, review concepts of ‘setting’ during interactive read-aloud. For homework: Part II: Setting.

Students will be instructed on how to browse the site and how to find pictures, either through specific searches or theme browsing.

Discuss concepts of “characters” and “voice.” For homework: Part III: Characters sheet.

Discuss how authors use the begging of the story to describe the setting and introduce characters. For homework: Part IV: Introduction

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Students will choose the pictures that fit their stories and create both their cover page and introductory page(s).

Discuss the concepts of “rising action” what happens in the middle of the story that grab the reader’s attention? For homework: Part V: Rising Action

Discuss a story’s climax this is where things begin to change. For homework: Part VI: Climax

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Students continue creating their stories and gathering feedback from peers and teachers.

Discuss falling action/final conflict/suspense. For homework: Part VI: Falling Action

Discuss falling action and, finally, resolution or conclusions. For homework: Part VII: Conclusion.

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Students will be given a page of editing notes from the instructors and will use those to complete their stories.

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Students will be chosen by the instructor to read their stories aloud to the class, talk about their thought process, and answer questions from their peers.

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Week One

Objective: To introduce the students to idea of story creation. Reiterate that they are, in fact,

authors and will publish a story online.

Procedure: Explain/describe ‘Storybird’ to the students. In lab, give them a username and

password for the site. (Note: username will be the same as the one they use for Edmodo, for

simplicity’s sake.) For homework, get them to think about ideas for possible stories. This could

be as simple as themes like “friendship” or “bravery” or possible characters (e.g. “knights”,

“witches”.)

Week Two

Objective: Students will choose one of their “seeds” and think about their setting, voice, and

characters. In lab, students will become familiar with the artwork and the site’s search interface.

Procedure: Instructor will collect story ideas in the morning, choosing what is the most

reasonable story idea for each student, taking into account time constraints and available

illustrations on Storybird. Students will be instructed in lab on how to browse the site’s artwork,

be inspired by themes, or search for specific terms. In the class, students will discuss settings,

voice (first- vs. third-person) and characters in their guided readings. For homework, they will

choose these elements for their stories and think about how to create their introduction.

Week Three

Objective: Students will understand traditional story introductions and rising actions. Students

will be able to add illustrations, writing, and pages to their Storybirds.

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Procedure: Students will discuss their homework sheets in small groups. Bringing into a full-

class discussion, students will provide ideas and constructive criticism to their peers. In the lab,

students will know how to start a Storybird, add pages, drag illustrations, and add writing. We

will discuss story “climaxes” and the concept of “rising action”.

Week Four

Objective: Students will understand traditional story introductions and rising actions. Students

will be able to add illustrations, writing, and pages to their Storybirds.

Procedure: Students will discuss their homework sheets in small groups. Bringing into a full-

class discussion, students will provide ideas and constructive criticism to their peers.

Misconceptions will be discussed with the instructor. We will compare our conceptions of

dramatic elements with those from our interactive read-alouds and guided readings. In the lab,

students will know continue working on their stories.

Week Five

Objective: Students will understand traditional, dramatic concepts of “falling action” and

conclusions, either tragic or uplifting.

Procedure: Students will discuss their homework sheets in small groups. Bringing into a full-

class discussion, students will provide ideas and constructive criticism to their peers.

Misconceptions will be discussed with the instructor. We will compare our conceptions of

dramatic elements with those from our interactive read-alouds and guided readings. Instructor

will review the Storybirds that have created so far and create a personalized handout of suggested

edits and changes for the students to follow in class to create their finish products.

Week Six

Objective: Students will see the value of their completed project and have a chance to reflect on

their and their peers’ work.

Procedure: Select several of the more accomplished stories and have, in the lab, the students

read them aloud on the projector. Students will be given a handout to reflect on their

experiences on the project.

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Reflection

This was my and our technology instructor’s first time creating a student experience around Storybird. All told, I thought the students did well. Their difficulties lay mostly with their expertise as writers and not as a reflection of their abilities to navigate the site or comprehend

dramatic story elements. Developing their writing skills is a challenge we will be facing all year long and I don’t think a mere 15 lessons with Storybird would change that too significantly. This was an opportunity to create an authentic environment for their writing, provide them with more experience navigating and manipulating an internet site, allow for a continued opportunity to discuss online safety and digital citizenship.

In an ideal world, where each student has all-day, everyday access to a computer, I think this would be a very effective unit to spread out over an entire quarter as a writing workshop project. The stories could be longer and more in=depth and we could allow far more time for the peer editing and review process. However, in a more realistic scenario, when the students most likely have access to a computer only once per week, I feel the 6-week program is ideal. I was happy to

be able to integrate the unit into the students’ daily literacy block with a minimal amount of change to their scheduled activities. All the stories that we used to introduce our dramatic elements were what we were using to work on our reading comprehension strategies, anyway.

If I were to teach this unit again, I would, though, make some alterations. Firstly, I would try to gain access to a projector and be able to introduce them to the Storybird site in a more teacher-

controlled environment. Most of their exploration originally was independently with too little modeling or scaffolding. Secondly, I would differentiate for the more advanced students who have computer access at home by providing more in-depth activities they can work on after school. It is a shame our students don’t have more in-school computer time, but those who do should be allowed to explore further. Also, as stated earlier, I would have the students create a

portfolio of their handouts and reflections which, time permitting, could be scanned into a .pdf and provided alongside a link to their story. Nevertheless, I recommend Storybird as a unique way for any teacher to promote authentic authorship for their students.

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