Review by Jennifer Sitkin, Common Sense Education | Updated October 2016
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Sutori

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A slick way to share knowledge via interactive timelines and stories

Subjects & skills
Subjects
  • English Language Arts
  • Social Studies
Skills
  • Communication & Collaboration
  • Creativity
Grades This grade range is a recommendation by Common Sense Education and not the developer/publisher.
6–12
Great for:
Common Sense says (See details)
Teachers say (3 Reviews)
Price:  Free, Paid While basic accounts are free, they're limited to 200 student stories. Sutori's Premium accounts, which cost $49/year for educators, allow unlimited story creation, student collaboration (in pairs), and exporting stories to PDF. The $99/year Unlimited account adds the ability to upload custom videos and expands collaboration to larger groups.
Platforms:  Website

Take a look inside

5 images
Sutori stories are organized by topic and cover a healthy amount of contemporary and historical issues.
Stories are easy to create, and offer a few different media and interactive options.
An example of a Sutori story with embedded media.
Teachers can create classes for their students to explore and add content.
Common Core-aligned lesson plans (available with Premium account) include aims and activities to do before and after viewing each story.

Pros: Interactive features will engage students with primary source media, and students can create and share original content.

Cons: The best pre-made content is only available for a fee, and the quality of community stories varies greatly.

Bottom Line: With a super simple design, interactive features, and an imaginative personal approach, it's an easy and flexible tool for all kinds of classrooms.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

Teachers can use the pre-made stories, construct their own, or create assignments (like an exam review study guide or final assessment) that require students to build multimedia-rich stories. Teachers should definitely take time to search through both the developer's pre-made stories and the community stories to see what may be relevant for their specific classroom needs. For example, “A History of Immigration of the USA” highlights the experiences of immigrants; “Franz Ferdinand’s Assassination” gives students the opportunity to follow a journalist through a turbulent period. Teachers should encourage students to compare how different stories portray the same issue or events: how does one author's portrayal of events differ from another author's account of the same event? How is that important?

Sutori lends itself to solo, partner, or small-group assignments. However, if you're interested in having students build stories together, you'll need to opt in for a Premium account (which allows collaborative pairs) or an Unlimited account (which allows for group projects and class stories).

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Standards:

Sutori (formerly HSTRY) was initially marketed as a tool for viewing and creating interactive timelines, but is now positioned as a tool to create interactive stories. The reality is that Sutori has much of the same functionality (and look) as its previous incarnation, but the shift toward stories is understandable since the tool can be used to present all sorts of information. The developer's pre-made stories still lean toward timelines, however, but the community contributions cover all subject areas. To get started, teachers can create classes and then send students codes to access shared timelines and to create their own. The timeline template walks users through the creation process, and the timelines are easy to edit and share. There are a number of features available, including text, images, videos, “Did You Know” call-out boxes, click-to-reveal text links, and multiple-choice quiz questions.

The site has both free and paid features. For free, teachers and students can create up to 200 stories and use community stories created by other teachers and students. For an annual fee, there is no limit to student projects and teachers can access developer-created stories that are organized into bundles by subject (like the American Revolution or American Civil War), each with multiple stories and lesson plans. Stories include lesson plans (with an overview and time estimate) and CCSS alignment specifics. Students can also collaborate in pairs on stories with premium access.

Overall, this is an imaginative, flexible resource for teachers to encourage their students to explore historical events, consider the perspectives of the people who experienced them, and research and collect media to illustrate the story they hope to tell. The content on the site continues to grow both in terms of pre-made and community stories and teachers in all subject areas can find or make engaging interactive tools. 

There are ample options to embed media, and students will appreciate getting instant feedback on the quiz questions and exploring the videos, images, and pop-up text in their own stories and within those their classmates create. The developer-created stories are solid. Students can imagine what Thomas Jefferson must have felt as he wrote the Declaration of Independence or experience the excitement of Paul Revere's famous ride from the patriot's perspective. 

Overall Rating
Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?

Interactive quizzes, embedded videos, and click-to-reveal text encourage active exploration. Students can easily build their own stories, taking a historical figure's perspective and choosing media to tell that person's story.

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?

Embedded questions provide immediate feedback, and customizable timelines give students endless ways to present and tell stories. Developer-produced stories (available for a fee) include lesson plans aligned to CCSS.

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?

Built-in help center, pop-up windows, and a site walkthrough are stellar, though it would be nice if students could more easily track their progress and favorites. Developers respond quickly to questions. 

Common Sense Reviewer
Jennifer Sitkin Classroom teacher
About our ratings and privacy evaluation.

Key Standards Supported

Reading History/Social Studies

  • RH.6-8.6

    Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author’s point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts).

  • RH.6-8.7

    Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.

  • RH.6-8.3

    Identify key steps in a text’s description of a process related to history/social studies (e.g., how a bill becomes law, how interest rates are raised or lowered).

  • RH.9-10.6

    Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.

  • RH.9-10.7

    Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative analysis in print or digital text.

  • RH.9-10.1

    Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.

  • RH.9-10.3

    Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.

  • RH.11-12.6

    Evaluate authors’ differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors’ claims, reasoning, and evidence.

  • RH.11-12.7

    Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.

  • RH.11-12.9

    Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.

  • RH.11-12.1

    Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.

  • RH.11-12.3

    Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.

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Teacher Reviews

(See all 3 reviews) (3 reviews) Write a review
Featured review by
James D. , Other
Other
Timelines that are not just for history!
On the surface, Hstry is designed to give students a chance to create timelines to demonstrate understanding of key historical content. It is indeed useful for this, but it is also useful as a medium for demonstrating understanding of novels, of the way events (real or fictional) relate to each other, and the sometimes difficult concept of cause and effect. Not all students have seen the creative potential of Hstry, but for those who have, it has been a really fun and innovative way to demonstrate knowledge and to learn to represent ideas in creative ways. Those students who harnessed the creative potential of the site have inspired others to go beyond straightforward representations of information to try and be more analytical and creative.
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