Compatibility: web-based
Description
Storybird is a great way to engage reluctant writers and a whole lot more. This site is a tool for creating and publishing poems, picture books, and stories. Choose from thousands of high-quality illustrations; make your choices based on artistic style, subject matter, or both. Use pictures as an inspirational kick-off to get your story started, or search for pictures in a particular subject matter to illustrate an idea you have in mind.
Once you publish your story, you instantly have a link to share it with others; if you make your story "public" it goes into Storybird's library for the world to read. Because of this, there is a wait period while your story is reviewed to make sure that it's family-friendly; for a free account, the wait period is 5-7 days, and for a paid account, it's 1-2 days. Once it's been reviewed (the website refers to this process as "moderation"), you get an embed code that allows you to embed your story or share it on your social media sites. For either the free or paid accounts, you have instant access to a link to share your story with anyone you choose.
Using Storybird with your classes: When you create your account, be sure to create the teacher account; this will allow you the option of creating classes and then creating assignments for those classes.
Student accounts: There is more than one way for students to access the assignments you create. 1) You can create usernames and passwords for your students (the free account allows you to create a class of 35). Students can log in with the username and passwords that you provide for them and easily find and complete the assignments that you've made. 2) Students can also easily create their own student accounts - email addresses are not required for student accounts (but if they don't use an email address, they will certainly want to make sure that they record their password). When students create their own accounts, you provide them with the generated invite code that adds them to your class. There are easy options for students in your Storybird class to collaboratively complete assignments as well.
Check out the video below, created by Mike Pennella of Boise State University; it's longer than some of the other videos (15 minutes), but it includes
Then click on the sail to Storybird button above to get started!
Once you publish your story, you instantly have a link to share it with others; if you make your story "public" it goes into Storybird's library for the world to read. Because of this, there is a wait period while your story is reviewed to make sure that it's family-friendly; for a free account, the wait period is 5-7 days, and for a paid account, it's 1-2 days. Once it's been reviewed (the website refers to this process as "moderation"), you get an embed code that allows you to embed your story or share it on your social media sites. For either the free or paid accounts, you have instant access to a link to share your story with anyone you choose.
Using Storybird with your classes: When you create your account, be sure to create the teacher account; this will allow you the option of creating classes and then creating assignments for those classes.
Student accounts: There is more than one way for students to access the assignments you create. 1) You can create usernames and passwords for your students (the free account allows you to create a class of 35). Students can log in with the username and passwords that you provide for them and easily find and complete the assignments that you've made. 2) Students can also easily create their own student accounts - email addresses are not required for student accounts (but if they don't use an email address, they will certainly want to make sure that they record their password). When students create their own accounts, you provide them with the generated invite code that adds them to your class. There are easy options for students in your Storybird class to collaboratively complete assignments as well.
Check out the video below, created by Mike Pennella of Boise State University; it's longer than some of the other videos (15 minutes), but it includes
- instructions for creating classes and assignments
- an overview of completing assignments from the student perspective, and
- the process for viewing/grading submitted work.
Then click on the sail to Storybird button above to get started!
Storybird Tutorial Videos
This is a quick (3-minute) overview and tutorial of Storybird.
The following tutorials are longer and more in-depth.
A Storybird Picture Book Example
You can check out my sample story; this was my first time to use Storybird, and it took probably a little over an hour to make, using a combined approach of making up the story to fit the pictures available in the style I wanted to use and sorting through those pictures to go with the story in my head.
A storybird poem example
When you choose the Poem option in Storybird, you are prompted to choose your image first; then you are given a selection of words to drag onto the image to create your poem. You can refresh the words and/or the image as often as you like to get a new selection.
Please use the forum below to share your insights, experiences, links, or cool lessons or stories you've created with Storybird. Thanks for collaborating!