Student Created E-books

There have been plenty of times when I taught my students narrative writing. It  appears at the beginning of the learning schedule every year kind of mundanely as if narrative writing is the first step in a long and arduous process of more important writing. I've never really been a proponent of stifling my students creativity, but I do know one thing: My students are much more creative at the end of the year than the beginning. But why is that the case?

My theory is that during the summer slump has a negative effect on a child's brain. You may call this a no brainer, or you might even say to me "Duh!" But if that's the case why do we do narrative writing at the beginning of the year after my students have been sitting around all summer playing video games and watching TV. Perhaps they think that it is a good idea because it will get them thinking creatively again. But the potential for creativity after months of reading good books and having good conversations in class allows for my students to have the tools they need to really be creative in their writing.

So here is what I did.

At the end of the year our learning schedule has my students doing response to literature. I happen to come across www.storybird.com and realize that my student should create their own books and then review their classmates books using www.kidblog.com. This way they are responding to each other's literature. I feel like this accomplishes several goals.

First, it allows my students to use those creative tools that we have developed over the year.

Next, it allows for them to receive and accept criticism from their audience. (I don't think a lot of kids consider their audience when they write. They normally just write whatever pops in their head which is good for brainstorming.)

Finally, they get to respond to literature. Since they like to complain about some of the stories we read in class they get to see whether or not they or their classmates can really come up with something better.

Here are a few of the stories that my students created using Storybird.