by Lauren Fridman
Storybird has created a new way for students to tell their own stories. With an extensive collection of artwork to choose from, students can be inspired to write in ways that they may not have on paper. Students can use the licensed artwork to add life to a pre-existing story or allow the images to direct their story-writing process.
The website is very user friendly, and can be used alongside any curricular subject, from the junior grades all the way through high school. I have used this tool with middle school students to bring an Aesop’s fable new life. Each student chose their own fabl
e, searched StoryBird for artwork that fit their plotlines and if nothing worked, they got creative and re-invented their Aesop’s fable. The only real constraint of this tool is that students can only use the artwork from the site. So, this may limit their abilities to tell the story they may have had in mind, and this was the main frustration expressed by the middle school students who used it with us in the lab. However, even with this hindrance in mind, the students mostly enjoyed using the program and would attempt it again. Check out the site here to get making or to explore what others have created: https://storybird.com/
