Creative writing
Storybird is a visual storytelling community and can be used since young ages, and for different subjects. They use illustrations to inspire students to write stories such as picture books, longform chapter books and poetry.
The webpage has a lot of pictures in which you can write your story, and can easily be found. There are some sections to read (categories, format and age) which are really useful to find out what you are looking for.
However, there are not instructions to know how to use and it is nor very intuitive. In addition, you need to earn "crowns" to download your own creations.
This tool is based on creating stories through comics. It is very easy to create them, but there is not a wide range of possibilities to add objetcs and characters. However, it can be enough for children in the first years of Primary Education. In addition, we can find a section in which there are about 500 free educational printbles teachers can use to do in class as addiccional activities, or to support other tasks, as well as students´can print them at home to have fun.
According to Taylor (2000), a story is a brief narration of fiction or popular story which is transmitted orally from one generation to another. According to García (2015), the most relevant genres are: fables, myths and legends. In addition, there are many reasons why stories can produce a positive effect on children. Authors such as López Téllez (1996) pointed out four reasons for the use of stories in education: affective development, reflective-linguistic, cognitive development and sociocultural.
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Why should we use storytelling with children? It improves children' comprehension, develops literacy skills and creativity, shapes their view of the world, and develops empathy. Moreover, this tool develops both, productive and receptive skills, this means that this resource is able to integrate the four skills.
Storytelling can be used in a wide variety of ways to improve students’ oral communication. If the story is interesting for them, they will want to make questions or just give their opinions. Moreover, storytelling encourages children to write impressions of stories or write their own stories.
According to listening, storytelling will help students to improve comprehension skills, understanding the meaning of different words and linguistic structures. The last skill to mention is reading, which can be enhanced if reading to enjoy.
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References
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López Téllez, G. (1996). La narración de cuentos y la adquisición de la lengua inglesa en la Enseñanza Primaria. Revista interuniversitaria de formación del profesorado. 1(25). 159-166.
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Rábano, M. F. & García, S. (2015). Inglés para el Grado en Magisterio de Educación Infantil: aspectos básicos, propuestas y actividades. Madrid: Universidad de Alcalá de Henares.
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Taylor, E. (2000). Using folktales. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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