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Slice of Life Day 23. Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.
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I teach gifted elementary kids. At any time during the year, I can get new students. Recently I was blessed with two first graders. I am not as comfortable with this age as I am with middle grades. I introduce them to using technology for presentations. They will need technology skills as they move up in grades in gifted classes. These two students are total opposites in tech savviness. Andrew (is it a boy thing?) learns quickly. He has made two Powerpoints learning how to upload images and use the animation tools. So I wanted him to try something different and new. I directed him to Storybird. If you haven’t tried Storybird, you should. I think it is great for younger students. My older ones feel restricted by the choices of images.
Andrew found a palate of images that he liked, and immediately wrote the title, The Sad Bear that Didn’t Have Friends. The pictures led him to write a story about a bear and his friend, a girl named Gina, who were separated in the woods. The bear found new friends, but Gina only found a tree shaped like a peacock. The images led Andrew to write more and add a little humor as well. Using Storybird, I was able to show him some basic editing, such as adding punctuation and capital letters. He also wrote using and over and over. I read his long sentence without taking a breath to show him that the reader needs a period or a comma, so she can breathe. I think we both enjoyed this process. Andrew was proud to read his story aloud to his classmates using the smart board.
http://storybird.com/books/the-sad-bear-that-didnt-have-friends/?token=qsuvuqe5vc
Link up your Digital Literacy post this week:
Reflections on the Teche 
That’s pretty amazing, especially for first grade! Thanks for sharing Storybird and Andrew’s story.
I know about it, but have not used it, Margaret. Could be used for poetry too, don’t you think? For a first grader, he did so well! Thanks for sharing, and for the link help. Terje told me too. Isn’t it strange? Same words-didn’t “take” I suppose. Have a lovely Sunday!
I think that is what I’ll try next. Maybe for Poetry Month.
Storybird is such a wonderful tool! My teachers use it often. This is a great use for it. Congrats to Andrew on a sweet little piece!
I have forgotten about Storybird, Margaret – Andrew’s story is charming.
Great that you were able to teach him so much using Storybird. I haven’t played around with that yet, but have heard about it on several blogs. Sorry I didn’t link up this Sunday. Since I’m on vacation, I don’t have any school stuff with me. As soon as I can, I will rejoin your DigiLit Sunday – I love it!
No worries. I think it will take a while to build an audience. I’ll keep at it.
Margaret, for a special tech camp project several years ago, we introduced Storybird to my district’s ESL students. They created stories of their journeys to America using the illustrations found in the Storybird collection. The results were amazing.