What are Storybirds?
In essence they are short, art-inspired stories that you make to share, read, and print. Storybirds is a fun, collaborative, storytelling website. What is great about Storybirds is that your students do not need any artistic ability as they drag and drop characters and images into a digital storyboard. Students can also be inspired by the themes and artwork available on Storybird, providing them with the resources they need to evoke abstract thoughts and emotions your students may not be able to express on pen and paper. What I really like about Storybird is that it is not only a fun, storytelling website, but more importantly it is a collaborative learning website as students can work together in teams to create stories.
It is also an excellent way to get your students enthusiastically writing, which is sometimes hard in the classroom today as students have become so involved and reliant on technology to communicate their thoughts, and thus find it difficult to physically right. It is also an excellent piece of technology to use in the classroom when you have students who have speech impediments, literacy difficulties, or a lack of English to present their work.
I currently teach in a school where DEAR is valued and promoted and takes place every week. As a result, Storybird can be used to encourage students to create stories to be printed off and given out during DEAR time for their fellow classmates to swap around and read.
Cost?
Wait for it….you can sign up for FREE!!
What do teachers think about Storybird?
“Beginning to see almost limitless appeal of Storybird to all curriculum areas.” @bellaale
“The best writing website for kids.
Fresh and innovative.” @Suite101
“I can’t think of a better way to encourage literary exploration, artsy fun and new media skill sets to inspire a whole new flock of creative storytellers.” @ShapingYouth
“Simple to use and endlessly extendable.” @theDigitalNarrative
How to create a Storybird:
Ms Conneally's EDRE5j Blog 