That Time Rebecca Did Some Storybird-ing

Storybird is a great resource, if you haven't learned about it already. It's a website where you can choose pictures or pieces of art and use them to illustrate your very own story. (To be fair, I just illustrated the verses of Mary, Mary Quite Contrary. But I'm sure that you could create a really wonderful story of Harry Potter proportions.)

And then you star the stories you like, and leave comments on the way someone wrote a story. Basically, you Facebook stories. And it's wonderful, but it's also something that needs managed. Something that a teacher needs to become involved in.

Storybird is useful for any age group and ability level. The illustrations are perfect for describing sight words and drawing inspiration to write a chapter book. For little authors, it is truly an ideal tool, and one I would prescribe to almost any classroom.

However, students need a chance to create their own pictures. To come up with original ideas that have nothing to do with a picture placed in front of them. Storybird can be a great resource, but students should still be familiar with the feel of a pencil and a sheet of notebook paper.

So I would use Storybird to begin creative assignments. I could even allow my students to give online feedback to their peers, and that could easily tie in with a lesson on "netiquette", and maybe even cyber bulling.

But I would want to monitor Storybird, to make sure my students were staying focused and safe online. I would want to give them opportunities to create and use their own unique art.

It's a good lesson for life. There are only seven basic plots in the world, after all. We are constantly creating stories out of the environment around us. But at some point, our story needs to become our own. Drawing too much inspiration out of another story (or picture) becomes plagarism. Storybird-ing is a step up from copying the teacher, but my students won't yet be able to fully spread their own wings (pun intended).