Story Bird

hello again! :D
Hope everyone is doing well.

Today I am very excited to tell all of you about another tool that is not just interesting but very helpful in language learning specifically. So, what is it?

The tool is called STORY BIRD. What is story bird? sounds peculiar and at at the same time attractive right? :)

Story bird is a tool that contains lots and lots of attractive and pretty images illustrated by artists> From those images students will be able to create their own story book based on their chosen set of images!
Don't worry about how interesting the students' story book could be or the students' worries about 'don't know how to write based on certain genre' because it contains all kinds of set of images in many different themes! such as, FAIRYTALE, GIRLFRIENDS, LOVE and many others.

Now, how does it works?

First of all, we will need to ask the student to open the website, http://storybird.com/ and ask them to sign up and create their account so that it will be easier for them to create stories especially with their friends later on.

Now, its time to write and create a story book!
As the teacher, we can ask the students to choose any themes that they like or we can assign certain themes that is suitable and appropriate for the lesson. After choosing one specific themes, a whole load of set of images that come under the theme would appear and again the student will select their preference.

Then, they will just continue by clicking "Start a Storybird with art tagged 'love'". After that, a page like this would appear :

To start their story, students can choose any picture to be their first page and continue with any sequence of pictures they like based on their story. After choosing a picture, students will start writing their first page as shown below :

So, the process of selecting a picture and write continues until the end of students' story. Then, they can save it and publish it. Students can choose to share it just through emails, by choosing the option private or public which the story will appear in searches and the public library.

Why Storybird?

In my point of view, storybird would be helpful for learners in WRITING. This is because :-

1. It is another way of getting the students to write rather than giving them a piece of paper and asking them to write.

2. It could also be something that is more motivating and enhancing the students' ability to write better as it consist of many themes and sets of pictures that could cope with the students' imagination.

3. Students would feel more appreciated as they could think they are really a writer that write stories, save, and publish them!

4. Students will also get the sense of owning their work as they started it from scratch! They even decide the tittle of their storybook and put their name as the author.

However, teacher needs to be careful in using this tool as it might be too complicated for some students who probably struggle with the tool and also lack of ability to write narrative essay. this if not carefully monitored will demotivate the students. One solution for that is to get the students to work in pairs rather than individual. 

That's all, thanks! :)

Dvolver

Hello everyone, hope you are having a great day. I am going to write about another tool that could be useful in the classroom that is DVOLVER.
So, what is Dvolver?
Dvolver is a tool that allows students to make a short movie or a film strips. It is a very interesting tool as it provides a wide range of characters, background, scene and sounds.

How does Dvolver works? Very easy.

Firstly, open the website Then, let the students pick their choice of background and click 'next'.

Secondly, students can choose any scenes that are available which interest them. As shown below:

After selecting their scene, students can now choose two characters that they like and suits their short movie.

Now, students will write the scripts for their characters depending on their own story line. They can make it as interesting as they want.

Then, they can choose if they want to put any background music. Lastly, they can put their movie title and put their name as the director.
DONE!

Now, what is it good about Dvolver for learning, especially language learning?
 1. Students are able to use language creatively, depending on their story.

 2. It is an interesting way to get the students to write rather than using a typical way of writing a long essay.

 3. It contains the sense of owning something. Its very personal and very close to the students as it is their own work and its is fully made by them.

 4. It allows the students to practice real communicative language as they need to create dialogues.

 So, why don't we try and use it class?? bye for now and good luck! :D