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STORYBIRD• I believe that writing is fun and should be fun in the classroom. When students are

engaged in learning experiences that they think are fun, they remember the information… Storybird allows students the opportunity to have fun while they’re selecting the pictures or themes for their story, therefore removing the threats and/or the excuses they may face when given a writing assignment.

• Kelly Gallagher in his book, Teaching Adolescent Writers, states that he posts eight writing reasons in his classroom for his students. His Writing Reason #1 is: Writing is Hard, but “Hard” is Rewarding. He takes them through the discussion of writing is rewarding, but the reward does not come easily by taking pieces of writing that he has struggled with over the years. In the book he states the following, “None of these pieces were easy to write. In fact, I reached high levels of frustration while writing every single one of them. This is the point: writing is not for the fainthearted. Writing is hard –so hard that it has been called the most complex of all human activities. I do not sugarcoat that message for my students. Instead, I highlight the difficulty as an opportunity for them to create something truly rewarding. Writing is rewarding because it is hard. (P.16)… Storybird takes the “hard” out of writing.

• Steve Peha in Welcome to Writer’s Workshop which is found on the Teaching That Makes Sense website tells us, The best way to teach is the way that makes sense

• to you, your kids, and your community… Storybird makes sense to our students who are living in the age of digital writing in the digital writing workshop.

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• Establish a positive atmosphere for writing, reading and learning

• Organize for writing• Arrange for meaningful-to-students reasons to write• Arrange for students to read, respond to, and use a variety

of materials written for a variety of purposes and audiences• Write regularly across the curriculum and grade levels• Arrange for students to have constructive response to their

writing and to offer response to other writers (classmates, teachers, and others

• Provide opportunities for students to collaborate as writers, thinkers, and learners

• Conduct mini-lessons on writing

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Using Storybird in the classroom bridges the gap by:

• Improving student writing• Increasing student engagement with content• Providing students with a safe environment to take risks, develop and

share their writing• Provide students with meaningful, real-world writing tasks• Establish ways for students to take up practices and incorporate them

across their lives • Allow students to write about topics relevant to them in personal

narratives• Create a space for students to discover self and meaning in their lives • Students can search for and write about topics and create research

projects instead of the traditional research paper through inquiry • Allows for students to participate in a collaborative writing community

• Can create different stories• use imagination• promote literacy• use cognitive thinking skills to draw conclusions

of a story• meaningful, authentic writing practice with

opportunities to engage in the editing process• meaningful digital writing (typing) practice• Can create a "library" of books created, or read to

keep track of student learning• Teacher friendly for teachers as beginning learners

of technology

• Best of All, even I can us it!!!04/21/23 7

STORYBIRD

Advantages:• It is easy to use• It is free• can be done as a group activity• stories can be shared publicly or privately• product can be printed out or watched on screen• can use images from the program to create story• Any grade level may use it• Opportunity for parents and guardians to "approve" stories children read and create

Disadvantages:• Website can be blocked by school districts and need to request access for

educational purposes.• Printing stories are not free

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STANDARDS

• Standard 7-4 The student creates writing which includes a clear focus, coherent organization, sufficient elaboration, effective

voice, and appropriate use of conventions.• Standard 7-5 The student writes for a variety of purposes and

audiences.• 7-5.1 Create narrative writing from varied points of view such

as letters, journals, diaries, or speeches.• 7-5.4 Create writing such as personal essays, commercial

scripts, reviews (book, movie, product), and poems.

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Anticipation Guide

Agree/Disagree

Group Statements After

A poem can be a story.

A poem must rhyme.

A story must be long when written.

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When I Was Young in the MountainsBy Cynthia Rylant

Personal Narrative WritingMrs. Tipton’s Fifth Grade

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When I was young in the mountains, Grandfather came home in the evening covered with the black dust of a coal mine. Only his lips were clean, and he used them to kiss the top of my head.When was a time that you were glad someone came home?

When I was young in the mountains, Grandmother spread the table with hot cornbread, pinto beans, and fried okra.

When was a time when someone made a special dinner for you?

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Later, in the middle of the night, she walked through the grass with me to the Johnny-house and held my hand in the dark. I promised never to eat more than one serving of okra again.

• When was a time someone held your hand because you were scared?

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When I was young in the mountains, we walked across the cow pasture and through the woods, carrying our towels. The swimming hole was dark and muddy, and we sometimes saw snakes, but we jumped in anyway.

• When was a time you were brave?

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On our way home, we stopped at Mr. Crawford’s for a mound of white butter. Mr. Crawford and Mrs. Crawford looked alike and always smelled of sweet butter.

When was a time you smelled something so good it excited you?

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When I was young in the mountains, we pumped pails of water from the well at the bottom of the hill, and heated the water to fill the round tin tubs for our baths.

When was a time you felt warm and cozy?

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Afterward we stood in the front of the old black stove, shivering and giggling, while Grandmother heated cocoa on top.When was a time someone made something just for you?

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When I was young in the mountains, we went to church in the schoolhouse on Sundays, and sometimes walked with the congregation through the cow pasture to the dark swimming hole, for baptisms.

When was a time when you did something special with your family?

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My cousin Peter was laid back into the water, and his white shirt stuck to him, and my Grandmother cried.

When was a time you cried because you were so happy?

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When I was young in the mountains, we listened to frogs sing at dusk and awoke to cowbells outside our windows. Sometimes a black snake came in the yard, and Grandmother would threaten it with a hoe.

When was a time you saw someone do something that shocked you?

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If it did not leave, she used the hoe to kill it. Four of us once draped a very long snake, dead of course, across our necks for a photograph.

When was a time you did something strange?

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When I was young in the mountains, we sat on the porch swing in the evenings, and Grandfather sharpened my pencils with his pocketknife. Grandmother sometimes shelled beans and sometimes braided my hair. The dogs lay around us, and the stars sparkled in the sky. A bobwhite whistled in the forest. Bob-bob-bobwhite! When I was young in the mountains, I never wanted to go to the ocean, I never wanted to go to the desert. I never wanted to go anywhere else in the world, for I was in the mountains. And that was always enough.

When was a time that being with your family felt good?

Works Cited

• Gallagher, Kelly. Teaching Adolescent Writers. Stenhouse Publishers: Portland, Maine, 2006.

• Gilster, Paul. Digital literacy. John Wiley & Sons, Inc: New York, 1997.

Websites:• http://www.heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources/E02674/Hicks026

74Sample.pdf. Troy Hicks. The Digital Writing Workshop. HEINEMANN. Portsmouth, NH. 2009.

• http://www.slideshare.net/fbaker1346/reading-writing-in-a-digital-age.

• http://www.ttms.org/

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Acknowledgements

“A human mind once stretched to a new dimension, never returns to its former state.” holmes.

I would like to give thanks to Dywanna Smith, Suzanne, Brenda, Sheila, Alice and Melissa for patience and support during the stretching of my mind to this new dimension…I feel like a digital diva.

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