English Teacher Harlem High School

Name: Kevin McGovern

English Teacher Harlem High School

815-

Middle-High School

English/Speech using Storybird

Timeline: This lesson could take range from two class periods through several weeks depending how you want to use it. This can be an individual or group assignment. There are a variety of story birds students can choose from and they can save their birds once they get started. The minimal length would require about two or three days. You can give students a theme you want them to center on, or it can be totally creative. It depends on what you want the students to get out of the lesson.

Day 1: Should be explaining the lesson and maybe a demonstration on how to use storybird. Finally, work time.

Day 2: Students worked on their storybirds

Day 3: Students worked on their storybirds

Day 4: Presenting/reading individual or group story birds to the class.

NETS*S Standards: 1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity; and 2. Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments.

Content Standards:

Grade 11
Content Area: / English Language Arts - Writing
Standard: / Communications: Oral and Visual
Benchmark: / Give informational presentations that contain a clear perspective; present ideas from multiple sources in logical sequence; and include a consistent organizational structure.
Grade 11 Indicators
/ 8. / Deliver informational presentations (e.g., expository, research) that:
1.  present a clear and distinctive perspective on the subject;
2.  present events or ideas in a logical sequence;
3.  support the controlling idea with well-chosen and relevant facts, details, examples, quotations, statistics, stories and anecdotes;
4.  include an effective introduction and conclusion and use a consistent organizational structure (e.g., cause-effect, compare-contrast, problem-solution);
5.  use appropriate visual materials (e.g., diagrams, charts, illustrations) and available technology to enhance presentation; and
6.  draw from and cite multiple sources including both primary and secondary sources and consider the validity and reliability of sources.
Grade(s): / Grade 11
Content Area: / English Language Arts - Writing
Standard: / Writing Process
Benchmark: / Formulate writing ideas, and identify a topic appropriate to the purpose and audience.

Please select indicators to add to your backpack:

Determine a purpose and audience and plan strategies (e.g., adapting formality of style, including explanations or definitions as appropriate to audience needs) to address purpose and audience.

1.  Overview: In order for this assignment to be effective, it would be essential that the teacher have a specific goal in mind as to what kind of story the students should create. This assignment is centered on kinesthetic as well as creative learning styles since students will be creating a story using sentences and images to help facilitate their story using the concept or free flowing idea in a funny, realistic, yet practical manner.

My goal in using this assignment is to ensure students understand a specific theme, idea, or concept, and they are successfully building a story around that that idea. Finally, this assignment also builds speaking ability because will have to present their storybirds to the class.

Students may have questions about the length and depth of the assignment. I would suggest at least 3-4 pages to ensure students are creating a story. The more they create the more you can ensure an understanding and mastery of the concept. It would also be a good idea to generate a rubric for the bird in terms of teacher expectations, the storybird fulfilling its objective, level of detail, and overall skill being displayed.

In terms of background knowledge students obliviously have to know what concept is being addressed, but really this assignment is student driven, by that they have to be creative and think outside the box.

Assessment:

The benefit to this format is you can have the option of selecting two formal forms of assessment. The assessment could be the storybird itself. Based on your rubric, it will assess a variety of components regarding the assignment. The other assessment is the speech in which students present their original comics to the class outlining how the comic demonstrates the concept.

Resources: Technology plays a crucial role in this assignment in that you need a lab to help students with getting started using this program. The site itself is fairly user friendly; there are a lot of options the students can select. However, they are limited to using only the pictures that go with a certain storybird. For their added benefit students can place pictures in a variety of ways. The program comes equipped with spell check. And there is plenty of room to write on each page. It is very easy to add, move and delete pictures. is a tool bar on the left which moves, scales, rotates, and deletes images. There are also help boxes which explain how use various applications.

Instructional Plan

Preparation:

Due to the fact that students are creating their own stories, it should be geared towards their interest and generated at their level of understanding. The only hard part with using this program is the first students setting up their account, because they will need to save it. The other time consuming aspect is them selecting the storybird they will want to use. In addition it can be tricky getting up to navigating the pictures. Therefore, you may want to model how to do it first.

Instruction and Activities:

It would be best to lay this assignment and directions on how to use it clearly on a handout which is passed out prior to going to the lab or if you are lucky enough to use the computers in your room. I would recommend whole group instruction with a demonstration explaining the activity, the rubric and expectations for lab behavior especially if you have them working in groups. In terms of working in the lab, I would utilize individual or group help because students will be at different points depending on the depth and details of their story. Students may ask each other for help, but unless you have them working in groups, this is an individual assignment. If they are working in groups I would have them working in various sections making sure one person is not doing all the work.

Differentiation:

Differentiation of this assignment can be completed in a variety of ways. Instead of having the student creating a whole story they can use a picture and a short sentence establishing the idea. You can also shorten the length of their story. Or Instead of a speech, they just write out what their storybird represents. If extended time is needed they can complete this assignment at their own pace. The nice aspect associated with this program, is it is fairly easy to use, it can be saved and it can be adapted to a variety of learning levels.

Closure:

Students will fill out a very brief reflection handout in regards to the lesson. See below

Story bird: Self Assessment Worksheet Name and Hour______

1.  What aspects did you like most about this activity? List at least 3

2.  What did you find confusing or difficult in regards to this activity?

3.  How do you feel about your story overall?

4.  In what way(s) could you improve your stroy next time?

5.  How did you about giving your presentation in front of your peers? (For example, does it make you nervous, do you enjoy public speaking, etc).