Digital Resource Review: Storybird

Storybird

Overview:

Teacher Point of View:   This website allows students to create their own books using other people's artwork. You can create picture books, poetry or chapter books (Longform).  These books can then be printed after paying a fee.  This site allows teachers to create private accounts for their students.  Teachers can also create assignments to help guide students into complete a specific type of project or to create literature using a specific artist's artwork.

Price/Availability:
Storybird is free to sign up.  You can sign up for a teacher account and allow your students access to all of the artwork and templates for book creation. You can order published work. To see the price visit the website or see the table below.

Storybird Creation	Cost
Sign up	Free
Hardcover Picture Book	Starting at $29.99
Softcover Picture Book	Starting at $12.59
Digital Download Bundle Picture Book	$3.99
eBook Longform	$2.99
Printable PDF Longform	$2.99
Art Print Poetry	$24.99
Folded Card Poetry (set of 10)	$18.99
Flat Notecards Envelopes (set of 10)	$16.99
Greeting Card (digital download)	$1.99
Art Print	$24.99
Writing Journal	$24.99
Folded Cards (set of 10)	$18.99
iPhone 5 case	$34.99

Images:

When you complete your work you have the option to make it public.  

There is a glitch in the bottom left corner.  It said I needed a title, but didn't give me the option.  I had to try several times before this went away.

This is another glitch.  For a long time it showed me a blank page where I could not type or add a picture. 

Here is the final page where you can choose to have your book printed.

You can either buy the book yourself or ask for a donation.  

Rationale for Tool Selection:
I selected this tool because I was hoping to have a better way for my students to connect to their writing. I think often primary writing is only read by their classroom teacher and/or parent.  I liked the idea that my students would see their work come to life in a published book.

In addition, I have a lot of reluctant writers. I was hoping the artwork would inspire them to create great stories.  Often generating ideas is a struggle for my classroom and their allowed for some visual support for students.

Lastly, I liked the idea that families could view their student's writing on the computer as compared to it coming home graded.  I think this digital way of viewing things would connect with a lot of my families that have cell phones.  The best way to view the books is on the computer though, in my opinion.

Assessment Rubric/Review:  
This assessment rubric was challenging to create.  The first feature that was important to me was cost. I come from a school with over 50% free and reduced lunch.  I didn't want to endorse a product if I felt like I could not provide families a reasonable price to but student work.  The cost of the website itself was free but I feel the books are a little pricey.  I think the writing that would need to be generated in order to make having a book printed might be a little out of the scope of a 2nd grade classroom.

Secondly, ease of use was my most important feature as a teacher.  My students do not have a lot of computer skills and this program needed to be easy to use.  The point of the program is to create writing and I did not want my students spending their whole time trying to log on.  I also wanted this to be an exciting website for my students to use and appeal to my student that struggles to write a sentence all the way to my students that write paragraphs during one writing session.

This website has a login for each student.  This is nice because it adds privacy, but frustrating because you have to create a login for each student and this is another thing they need to remember.  You can print cards to help with this.  Also students get to pick their own passwords, this is not primary friendly.

I hoped this website would appeal to students and families.  I liked the idea of how this website connected school and home through writing.  The website has a link that you can send to families so they can view their student's writing.

It was also important as a teacher to be able to easily see what the student is working on an give feedback. Creating assignments was very simple. One issue that concerned me was not being able to see my student's work until they decided to share it with me.  As a 2nd grade teacher I feel like it is important to see the whole process.  In addition, the program does not help promote the writing process.  Students need to see the artwork, organize it into a story and then write.  As a teacher that would mean creating a picture book, going back to plan it out and then writing it as a final book.  It felt like students would be writing to fit the pictures instead of creating their original work.

The last feature that I thought was cool, but unrelated to my classroom was the artwork.  I think this is a great place to post artwork and get money for it.  Talented student artists might considering submitting work on this website.

Pro vs. Con:

Pros	Feature	Cons
Free to sign up Free to create books	Cost	Variety of pricing from $1.99 – over $29.99
Creating Assignments Tutorials for students Link to share with parents Lark (Poetry Version) works with iOS devices (iPhone only)	Ease to Use	Requires a lot of computer literacy and ability to find, organize and create text with given artwork. Create cover last Has glitches  Personal log in for students Only available through computers
Getting to see student work in a digital and printed format	Engagement/Motivation	If books are not purchased then they remain available to only a small group of people
Pictures can help reluctant writers generate ideas	Differentiation Learning	Picture limit writers who have clear ideas
Seeing student work in a more public way	Appeal	Having to pay money in order to get access to the work
Student accounts are free Can see student work privately.	Teacher Version	Creating student account takes awhile. Need to do fundraising to get books purchased
A large variety of art to choose from	Artwork	Can only use one artists work per book Art doesn’t always connect to student writing
Help reluctant writers gather ideas	Educational Benefit	Doesn’t promote the writing process

Comparable Resources:
Here is a website that I used to compare Storybird with other websites focusing on reluctant writers.  When looking at the other websites it became clear that many of the websites had a combination of creating your artwork and writing.  I think this is one of the biggest things missing with Storybird, you are bound to the art.  In order to best engage students I would like to use a website that allows them to pick a predesigned background but then add different images to create the scene that matches their writing.

While investigating websites I also found sites that encourage comic book writing.  These short ideas to explain a scene could really help engaged my students.  I would like to investigate BitStrips for schools.  These are very popular and could really have the funny piece that relates to a lot of my writers.

By far, Storybird has the best artwork. If this is what interests the user then I would recommend it.  If teachers are looking to help develop students creativity through art and writing I think ZooBurst, myStoryMaker,  StoryStarters, and StoryJumper are more user friendly and student focused as well as promoting writing.

Ideas for Literacy Instruction:
Storybird has a lot of options for classroom production.  I would see potentially using this website for fiction stories.  Unfortunately, this is not a large focus in 2nd grade. This might be a good option for schools that have mentorship, similar to book buddies. If my students had an older student to help navigate the computer they could both create a book together.

Another area that I might try this with is poetry. This has not been a focus of my review, but I would be interested since their poetry section comes in an iPad app, Lark.  This lets you pick a picture and gives you a set of words, think Magnetic Poetry but in the 21st century.  This might help my reluctant writers when we get to our Poetry unit.

English Language Art Standards:
Some standards this might support in 2nd grade are...
Uses the writing process to plan and draft literary genres

• 3.1.d - Write simple, descriptive poems
  3.1.f - Use a knowledge of structure and crafts of various forms of writing gained through reading and listening to mentor texts

Uses proper conventions and grammar when writing

• 3.3.a - Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking
  3.3.a.ii - Form and use frequently occurring irregular plural nouns (e.g., feet, children, teeth, mice, fish)
  3.3.a.iii - Use reflexive pronouns (e.g., myself, ourselves)
  3.3.a.v - Use adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified
  3.3.a.vii - Produce, expand, and rearrange complete simple and compound sentences (e.g., The little boy watched the movie; The action movie was watched by the little boy)
  3.3.a.ix - Spell high-frequency words correctly.
  3.3.b – Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing
  3.3.b.iv - Generalize learned spelling patterns when writing words (e.g., cage – badge; boy – boil)
  3.3.d - With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers

Getting Started: 
In order to get started go to the Storybird website.  You will then be directed to create an account.  At this time you can choose an teacher account.  You will then need to import a class list and print login cards for the student. If you have questions visit their FAQ website.