Community reviews for Storybird

I think it is a great way for students or anyone to tell a story, create something vivid to represent learning in a unique way. I like the diverse books and themes created my the students, I enjoyed seeing the students have fun while working and learning and creating their own story. It was a great option for the diverse interests and creating a family album, a story about an event, tv show, or anything is easy and fun with Storybird. I have had several books printed and they are beautiful and really add to our classroom, seeing the students' names on the books and having additional meaningful, authentic learning materials. It is a nice way to give students a choice in how to express something they have learned,, tell a creative story based on the images, good for learners of any age, level or course. I also used it for some of my graduate coursework projects.

I enjoyed this tool so much that I introduced it to my kids at home (ages 6 and 8). They love it, too. We spent a snow day creating and sharing stories with each other. The pictures are so beautiful that it's easy to get lost in them. I am particularly excited to have my most passionate students publish their work. I'd love to have more students publish their writing and see it in print. I also like the ability to set up a class and provide each other with peer revision. One (minor) complaint: I'd love to see a way for students to upload their own sketches.

Storybird is a favorite tool to inspire writers in my classroom. All kids can be successful and the pictures invite the kids to interact in a creative way. The search bar allows the students to type in words for suggested pictures. We are always amazed at the number of pictures and the creative artwork that is continually added. Students don't just use it in school, many have continued using it at home. The site also allows the student projects to be purchased, however, that is certainly not the focus. With the pictures as a springboard to writing, the students seem to be more creative and engaged.

I love that this tool helps students realize their creative storytelling potential. The illustrations are beautiful. Sometimes a student is looking for a particular image that isn't available but it requires they are creative and flexible to tell the best story they can. I used the free version which allowed for students to log in and save their work over multiple class periods. I wish we could print our books for free but I understand this is part of their pricing model. Next time, I would like to do a fundraiser so students can purchase printed bound copies of their books. They seem to alway be adding more pictures, but more in the same styles or collections would allow for more options for the kids. My students did love publishing their finished work, sending links to share it with their families, and tagging stories with descriptive terms.

Storybird is a great app. It helps build literacy while also fostering creativity. It provided students with an opportunity to collaborate and critique other writing which transforms my writing block. Students love seeing their finished products and sharing them. This takes a normal narrative writing task which students would normally do on paper and transforms it into an activity where students can choose illustrators and publish work to be viewed and critiqued. I think it gives students a glimpse into what publishing a real book could be like. Although I love the website, I would love to see them add a voice to text option. This would help support my students with specific learning needs.

I think Storybird is a wodnerful and rich opportunity to enhance student writing! What makes Storybird different from other story creation sites is that the picture is provided and students are asked to create the story to go with it; usually students are asked to write the story, then find or create images that match. With Storybird, students can create original work, publish it, and even receive comments on their creations. The real-world connection creates an authentic experience for students to write for an audience. Publication on the Storybird website it free; additional paid-for options available for downloading and purchasing. It is easy to get started with Storybird and simple for teachers and students to use.

Like: The students loved the range of freedom with choosing their pictures. They also loved collaborating with each other on stories. Another cool piece is that the students' stories are saved so that they can come back to them later and continue working or share with an audience. Dislike: It would be nice to have a few more options to adjust pictures and text. You don't get the full features of the site with a free account.

I provide the lessons and Storybird provides inspiration. Most students loved writing in Storybird. Many students would use Storybird at home to write on their free time - that's engagement! I understand the aestheticsof having all art in a book be from the same artist portfolio. Students would like to have access to multiple portfolios in order to have more options for pictures.

At first students felt restricted because they had to design their stories around the illustrations they selected. They soon realized, however, that the illustrations forced them to be that much more creative in accomplishing what they needed to say in order to demonstrate competency. The result was professional-looking digital books that students seemed to be proud of. Students also had trouble when getting started because they would select pictures to use that would soon get "buried" or "lost" under others on their desktops within the site. It would be helpful to tell them to put the pictures that they see and think they might like to use on one corner of their desktops. Otherwise, students spent little or no additional time learning to use the site, which was important to me. It allowed them to focus almost entirely on the content of their stories. I teach a foreign language class, so this gave my students an opportunity to express themselves freely. It would be great for any class in which students had to explain concepts in creative ways in writing, including ESL classes, English classes and social studies classes. If I needed to provide students extra support, I would have done so by giving them a sheet with sentence structures or a general outline to follow for guided practice.

I believe that as a tool to help spark imagination, this is a good tool However, I had to scaffold a lot by reminding kids that what I was interested in was their content, not necessarily their conventions. Eventually, we did go back and fix some grammar/spelling/punctuation mistakes, but only after precise, concise lessons on these skills.