Exploring the possibilities of Storybird

Finally I've got to making my first story on Storybird which I had been planning to do for a while. Easter break gave me this chance and I did not get disappointed. Working on the story got my creative juices flowing and though I realized I can hardly be an author who writes perfect stories in English, I managed to build my first tale. Here it is.

A night in the city on Storybird

What I like on Storybird is the amazing, fantastic and awesome artwork offered to the writers. The pictures are varied in colour, theme, characters, atmosphere, style etc. I went through tons of images and loved so many of them that my initial problem was to choose the most attractive ones for my first story.

But, as I was trying to decide on which pictures I would be going to use, I realized that it is not us who decide on the idea of the story but the pictures which lead us where they want, and we just have to follow them.

For a story you get an assortment of pictures and you can choose only from them, no possibility of adding images from another bunch or replacing them. It may be considered a drawback if you do not like any restrictions but such are the conditions on Storybird - take it or leave it.

If you are going to use Storybird with your students, they will probably be grateful that they are offered a ready-made set of pictures which certainly makes it easier to decide on what to use. You may start with a very short story, no longer than 2-3 pages to show the students the way it is done and get the knack of digital storytelling. I am sure they will take to it eventually and create original, witty and sparkling stories.

Meanwhile, I have composed another story, and while I am now waiting for it to be approved by the site administrators, I am asking myself - has Storybird got me enchanted?

April 27. Here is my second Storybird - The cat who flew to the moon.

Developing writing with monthly journals

image by gregoryhogan

Time to share one of my favourite writing practice tasks.

I have been using this type of tasks with my students for many years and it has always proved to be successful. Students have always given positive feedback and even those who usually don't feel like writing anything at all, eventually hand in their product and eagerly wait for the grade. They admit it is a challenging task but it might also be one of the reasons why they like it.

What is it? It is a monthly journal with a short task for each day of the month.

I put the daily tasks in the table which represents one calendar month, week by week, day by day. This particular task was created for December 2008 when the 1st day was Monday.

The students are asked to write a short paragraph, an opinion, a list of words, a definition etc - one entry per day.
They are encouraged to use dictionaries and encyclopedias, eg Wikipedia or any other. The tasks require browsing reference and looking for information. I allow the students to draw pictures or colour the pages if they want.

I create a grading scale depending on the total number of points I am going to give. Usually it is 3-5 points per entry. Each teacher can devise his/her own marking scale.

Here is the worksheet to download but you will no doubt create your own, if only because of the dates.
Though this task is more suitable for students whose English is a foreign language, I am sure a modified task can work well with other students too.
The teacher needs to adjust the difficulty of each (daily) task depending on the students' level.

More presentations on creative writing

Following my presentation on writing mini sagas, here are two more presentations giving quick tips for writing diamond poems or diamantes and limericks.

A diamante is a seven line poem, shaped like a diamond, hence the name. It is perfect for revising adjectives, participles or gerunds.
To learn more, see my presentation.

Creative writing: Diamond poems

More PowerPoint presentations from baiba svenca

Limericks are short poems of vague origin but the name most obviously has been borrowed from the Irish town of Limerick which is why limericks are often associated with Ireland.

This presentation gives examples and suggestions how to write a limerick.

All these forms of creative writing - mini sagas, diamond poems and limericks - are suitable for developing students' creativity, imagination and thinking skills. They work well with students of all ages.

Mini sagas

Recently I have noticed the literary term mini saga appearing here and there. As a relatively new type of creative writing (first mini sagas appeared in 1982), it has not been widely used, and I wonder why.

Mini sagas are easy to use in the classroom with students of all ages. The themes will differ but not the format which is exactly 50 words. Twitter messages are very long in comparison. Students may like this type of class/home work because it is short. On the other hand, in the beginning they won't know that it is rather difficult to create a meaningful and coherent text using only 50 words. Why not give it a go?

I made a PowerPoint presentation which explains the idea and gives some examples borrowed from the internet.
See if you may find it helpful in your teaching.

Mind mapping with SpicyNodes

I have been tempted to try SpicyNodes for a while and eventually I have done it.
The site offers a tool for making interactive presentations, mind maps, visualizations or organizational charts. The process of creating a map is simple and straightforward. The result is attractive and cool.

Having my students in mind, I made a very simple visual map of English tenses in the active voice. What they usually forget is the formula of each tense. Now I have put the basic rules into this map. Click on the bubbles to see what is inside.

Word search creator on Busy Teacher

There are various word search makers on the net but the Busy Teacher site offers a tool that instantly attracted my attention because of the cool look of the puzzles and the simplicity of the tool.

Busy Teacher is a site which has a vast collection of teaching ideas, worksheets and lesson plans, and now - a word search generator.
Mind you, I have not been paid to advertise the site, nor the new tool. I just happen to like it.

Word Search Creator lets you choose the size of the grid and the level of difficulty from easy to moderate to difficult. The best thing is that you can print your word search or save it and play online.

Here is the link to the puzzle SPORTS which I made for my younger students.
Feel free to download it. It comes with the solution to make the teacher's life easier!

Summarizing skill

Since students have been asked to make a summary of a short text at the state exam, the teaching of summarizing skill has come to the fore.
It has turned out to be a tedious job because summarizing skill is not easy to teach. It actually involves many skills - reading for the gist and detail, concentrating on the main points, seeing the key words and getting the central message of the paragraph, being able to join many ideas in one.

Why is it for a student sometimes easier to write a passage of 200 words instead of 100 as required by the task? What if they just do not know how to curb their imagination and control their flow of thoughts? That is where summarizing skill becomes essential. I believe, it can be developed through practice but it takes time. And it is a very creative process, I'd like to add.

Here are some links to useful web pages about writing summaries.

• Summary writing by Drew University
• Summarizing by Reading Quest
• Summarizing skill by Googol Learning

I have prepared a worksheet for practicing summary writing.
 


Here you can access it on Google Docs and download it for the use in the classroom. It consists of five paragraphs taken from the internet and a space for writing a summary. I have also added sample summaries for each paragraph but they are not absolute. The teacher can accept many different variants.

Earth Hour 2011

I find it awesome that at 8.30 PM on Saturday 26 March 2011, lights will be switched off around the globe for Earth Hour. The campaign is organized by World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Just imagine all the lights as seen in this satellite image of Europe, Middle East and North Africa going out one by one until this part of the globe lies in the dark... Incredible!
I wish I could see it from space!



Apart from experiencing emotionally beautiful moment, we can use this action to teach the students some facts about this campaign or attract their attention to protecting and saving the planet which is our home.

Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million individuals and more than 2,000 businesses turned their lights off for one hour to take a stand against climate change. Only a year later and Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries participating.
(Quoted from the Earth Hour website. Visit the site to read on.)

my lantern

Younger students can go to the Earth Hour website and create a virtual lantern which will float around the virtual globe and  serve as a symbol of their care and devotion.
              

Download an excellent resource pack for primary students here (pdf). 
Do an online exercise here.

Finally you can watch the official Earth Hour video and it will speak for itself.

Reading stuff on YUDU

I regularly frequent the YUDU site which boasts a huge variety of online magazines and other reading stuff.
I recently discovered the magazine BRITAIN which should be of interest to every English teacher because of its wonderful materials about Britain, its geography, history, culture and people.

To view the magazines you need Adobe Flash.

The latest issue of the magazine April/May 2011 contains articles about the Royal Wedding (about to take place), Wales, City of Bath, the War of Roses and a lot more. Colourful 100 pages with loads of information!


Click to launch the full edition in a new window
Publishing Software from YUDU


February/March issue

Read BRITAIN Magazine Feb/Mar
Digital Publishing with YUDU

Widgets with images

I tried out GoodWidgets to see how the images work if put in a widget.
There are 8 styles to choose from. This turned out to be my favourite because of the smooth and inconspicuous image transition.

There is only one drawback to the site - it is rather old and looks a little forgotten.

These are my students getting ready for a big school event.

EDIT:  Just noticed today (3rd April) that the widget with the pictures of my students has disappeared. Checked the home site - gone! No wonder the website looked a bit sad, no one cared about it until it vanished completely.