Storybird & Chrome: Art-inspired Writing and Storytelling in the Classroom Educational environmentWe interviewed educators in three medium-sized K-Grade 7 classrooms across the globe who use Storybird and Chrome in the classroom for writing.

Peter Richardson, United Kingdom (1-1 Chromebook classroom)Anne Sutton, Colorado, USA (shared Chromebook lab)Ian Hancock, British Columbia, Canada (shared Chromebooks)

ChallengesEducators worldwide share similar challenges when it comes to inspiring students to write. Today’s digital native students are accustomed from an early age to communicating visually via photographs and videos, and text. However, students find it challenging to get inspired “on-command” when presented with a blank page of paper, or when offered a traditional word processor’s blank screen.This initial hesitancy about writing from students makes teaching/learning about core writing competencies (i.e., standard story structure, expression of ideas, and key elements of language arts/writing such as symbolism, themes, or character development) leads to a lack of confidence or interest in writing. At the same time, these students will eventually graduate into a world which depends increasingly on communication and storytelling across all professional/career sectors.

In describing their current students, Anne Sutton highlighted students who had trouble coming up with ideas for stories, and Peter Richardson noted it can be “difficult to get kids interested in writing.” Ian Hancock spoke of students becoming easily frustrated with their attempts to communicate their ideas on paper.” In all cases, teachers reported the fragile nature of a child’s creative output, and the amount of time it takes for educators to independently design lessons that engage students around writing.

The SolutionSince these students were digital natives, the basics of computing and browsing for images were already familiar to them. Through the Storybird Chrome app, with its vibrant library of narrative images, students found visual jumping-off points for writing which led them to express themselves more confidently and eagerly. The familiarity of using digital tools and images for expression removed mental barriers of self-doubt about or dislike of writing, turning writing assignments into a creative, almost-gamified experience of matching and blending their original text with Storybird-supplied art in Storybird’s various creation formats. The end result for educators was successful student writing, created by newly-energized students via lessons that were more dynamic than standard writing exercises with pencil and paper or via word processing tools. Storybird also offered secondary benefits: ease of use for group-writing assignments as well as individual work; the ability for students to continue work on home computers/devices (where available); and the built-in optional social tools which allowed for ancillary lessons in positive digital citizenship and class-wide student-to-student reinforcement of one another’s writing efforts via “hearts” and comments on student work.

Hancock noted that he makes Chromebooks available to every student, with their own login, and their own Storybird accounts, so when basic lessons are over, they can continue their learning on their own—and they do. Ian Hancock, British Columbia, Canada (shared Chromebooks)

“Often,” explained Sutton, “A student doesn’t know what they want to write. They can see pictures in Storybird that lead them to creating stories they never would have otherwise.“Anne Sutton, Colorado, USA (shared Chromebook lab)

© 2015 Storybird — Storybird.com

Hancock, Richardson and Sutton all highlighted Storybird’s art component as a particular benefit and source of student inspiration. “Often,” explained Sutton, “A student doesn’t know what they want to write. They can see pictures in Storybird that lead them to creating stories they never would have otherwise.“

In all cases, teachers found Storybird on Chrome maximized class time. Since “Chrome has been our default browser for about 8 years,” Richardson deployed a custom coursework resource page to all students, making it their default log-in page. This standardized launch page saved valuable class time, as did easily-managed individual user logins that saved student data and offered students access to their writing anywhere: on classroom devices, in computer labs, and at home/away from school.

For educators responsible for lesson design and curriculum development, Storybird offers  significant time saving functions through Storybird’s dashboard of educator-specific tools (Storybird Studio) for lesson guidelines, story review, administrative oversight, and monitoring social activity. The teachers named ease of setup, quick creation of individual student logins, helpful administrative tools for reviewing student work, and portability as primary benefits. Like many US educators, “We follow Common Core, and with Storybird we are able to do authentic assessment of narrative standards by plugging in and allowing students to use Storybird to present their work,” said Sutton

CapabilitiesFor educators, much of using technology in the classroom is allowing the technology to get out of the way in service of the lessons at hand. The primary focus isn’t on the technology, but on the pedagogy. For language arts educators and classes, this means instilling a confidence and creativity about writing skills, an awareness of the “rules” of writing, and an ease with writing as a means of expressing knowledge, ideas, information both inside and far beyond the language arts classroom.

All three teachers said Storybird’s poetry and story-building tools were instantly accessible to all students, and allowed them to “play” with words and images in ways that had not been experienced in their writing lessons previously. Richardson notes that the book formats are excellent for developing language skills (conjunctions, prepositions, vocabulary, etc.) and knowledge retention of previously-studied concepts.

Storybird’s art offerings inspire enhanced performance from students at all ability levels and fluencies with writing, from the most reluctant writers to those more comfortable with narrative expression. Peter Richardson, United Kingdom (1-1 Chromebook classroom)

The diversity of images allows “kids with an initial idea for a story to really draw from the images [in order] to flesh out their stories,” says Sutton. For the student who struggles with creating a story from scratch, Hancock says, “When trying to build stories, having something narrative to look at is extremely valuable.” He adds, “The visual element Storybird introduces allowed two of my good writers to become great because of the rich imagery.”

Hancock noted that he makes Chromebooks available to every student, with their own login, and their own Storybird accounts, so when basic lessons are over, they can continue their learning on their own--and they do. Other teachers had similar experiences. “The students are more excited about writing,“ says Richardson, “It gets them so excited they continue to use Storybird at home.“ Increasing student engagement and confidence around writing--both inside the classroom and at home--has direct correlation to development of stronger reading skills and enhanced ability to communicate and express themselves successfully via writing. Chrome simplifies student access to the Storybird technology, and the combined effect is classrooms across the globe filled with students who feel empowered creatively, “like real authors,” and have a newly-positive relationship with writing as a result.

© 2015 Storybird — Storybird.com