I found the program on Tuesday and spent a few days exploring it before presenting it to my students on Friday morning. We have the laptop cart for an hour and a half in the morning. The kids look forward to working on various projects, as well as learning new technology. They particularly love the things that we explore that they can access at home and at school.
The great thing about Storyjumper is that you can set up a free class list. So you tell the program how many students you have, input their names and create a class password and you're set! It literally took me 2 minutes. The program gives them screen names that make them giggle. And then all you have to do is print the class list. It gives you a master list of the kids' pseudonyms and then it prints out a sheet for each child with directions of how to sign on. I have third graders and I was surprised how easy it was for them to get started. All they had to do was trust the answers were on the sheet. It also gives them direction of how to access their books from home. The students were wicked excited to show their parents the work they did.
I set up a picture of a pirate on a ship with the first line saying "There once was a pirate named _____" and asked the kids to finish the book. I was amazed at their creativity. Some students chose to write stories about fairies, magicians, soccer, or insects. This program makes publishing books motivating and easy to do! I was so impressed with how independent they were. I just had to show them how to navigate through the pages and where "the good stuff" was. There were small quirks but my students quickly navigated around them and showed the class how to get around it on the Smartboard. We had a great time. I recorded the process for my one minute message as well as to create a documentary for our district website. This way the district can see how easy it is to use!
The only thing about this program, is that is a program meant for younger children. It is great for second, third and maybe fourth graders, but the graphics are very kid-like. I think it is wonderful for third grade, but it limits the age range that it is appropriate for.
Here are some of the first pages my students created:
I love this Story Jumper tool and I like that you posted pics of what your students created! It seems to be a fairly easy tool. I'm eager to see how I can incorporate it in my high school classes. Great post!
ReplyDeleteStory Jumper as been added to my teacher toolbox but I want to take this comment to a next level. I received a Masters in History and although we were not required to have our theses published the Professors suggested that you would not taken seriously unless you were published. I looked in to having the work published through local publisher and I was dismayed. You have put this problem in to a new perspective. “This Web 2.0 tool enables students to publish their writing online in a web-based program and gives them the option of ordering their books in soft or hardcover that is sent to them”. Thank you for the lead, I hope to be a publish author soon, even if it may not be age appropriate! Perhaps with more research I will find a more age appropriate on line printing available. Thank you for the idea!
ReplyDeleteLindsey, for your middle school teachers, this would be a great site for students to write for a younger audience. Teachers can talk about how the images as well as what they write must be at a lower level in order to speak to this particular audience. It can also be a way to build community and give the students an avenue to give back to their elementary teachers and those teacher's students. A great way to make connections. Awesome post.
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