To give a little background on why I chose to use Story Kit I really liked that it allowed students to have ownership of their own learning. My students have just finished up a persuasive writing unit and they were working on convincing people to either buy a toy/object or not buy it. They followed pretty simple steps to complete their work.
1. Students write story
2. Students illustrate story
3. Take a picture of their writing with your iPad
4. Record each student reading their story with the audio button
5. Write their name on the main page and ask them to color the background
6. Save work
7. Click the share button to email it to yourself
It's really pretty simple!
Due to time restraints I only used 10 of my students for this project. But boy were my students were so proud when I showed them the final product last week. They all love hearing their voice come out from those large SmartBoard speakers (even if they pretended they're embarrassed!). Here is my students completed StoryKit, enjoy!
Thank you so much for presenting your literacy prject last night Samantha. I really liked the idea that you are creating a definitive record of each student's progress that can be used when communicating with parents. Your project has created a level of accountability both for the teacher and the student. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteHello Samantha, I agree with Paul's comment. In addition to creating a e-portfolios to document students' literacy skills, you have created a project which will generate student enthusiasm, especially when you show it to the students and other classes in your school. Keep exploring the possibilities of using StoryKit and other iPad apps. As you explore and others see your students' accomplishments, you can build up support for funding acquisition of additional iPads and similar resources. Given you are at a magnet school to support the arts, visual communication tools such as iPads make perfect sense.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to think I should invest in an iPad to have access to some of these kinds of tools! I thought your students did a really nice job with this project. It must be exciting for them to see their stories come to life! I'm sure it's motivated their reading and writing. Thanks for sharing this tool with us.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the above sentiments. I think I may need to invest in one of these handy, but oh-so-pricey iPads. This particular app looks easy enough to use and has clearly promoted student engagement and accountability. The best part is that these little stories are perfect to share with parents during conferences, and may be an ideal way to document students' growth throughout the school year. Maybe record their writing and accompanying illustrations 3x throughout the school year, to show students (and parents AND administrators) just how much progress they've made. Fabulous idea, Sam!
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