GOOGLE APPS FOR EDUCATIONGOOGLE STORY BUILDER

Jill Dallesasse

Education Telecommunications

A summary or demonstration of the tool/appHow you did/will introduce the tool/appImportant things to know about the tool/appAreas for more self-discoveryAdditional information you find relevant

Google Story Builder

I am a 5th grade language arts teacher and I am always looking for ways to get my 10 year old students writing. Using a traditional pencil and paper is always valuable, as is keying in a story or paper on a computer. However, finding a tool like Google Story Builder is like finding a buried treasure! The program facilitates idea building and story writing, but on top of that, encourages peer editing, self-correction, and most of all, collaboration! Where to find Story Builder: http://docsstorybuilder.appspot.com/

builder

Description of Google Story Builder

Google Story Builder is a site where you create characters, write a story, add music and publish your story. You are able to show characters editing and changing the story as the story builds. It is similar to people working together to edit a shared Google doc where many people are creating and editing a shared document.

Application of Google Story Builder

Google Story Builder allows children to discuss, create, edit and share ideas on one site. The site allows the children to go through the writing process in one step. They write, edit, collaborate and publish all within one site.

Here is an example of a sample story written, edited and published on Story Builder.

http://goo.gl/ynIe5w

Application of Google Story Builder

Discuss:Students work together to develop ideas for a story. Create:The stories are created and the discussion continues while the story is evolving. Edit:As each child takes a turn adding to the story, they have the opportunity to edit and enhance the work by adding stronger words, creating complete sentences and correcting grammar, spelling and punctuation.

Description of Google Story BuilderCollaborate:The students work together to create a complete story. They learn to listen to each other, respect each other’s ideas and to understand that when working in a group, their ideas are not always going to be used. It builds a sense of compromise while learning. Publish:The students can publish their final story and present it to the class. Story builder allows music to be added to the presentation to enhance the story.

Description of Google Story BuilderUses:Although a wonderful tool, it is a learning tool. This is a great way to introduce and emphasize the 6 traits of writing, especially ideas, voice, and word choice. As each group discusses the story, they can add ideas, add their personality to the writing and use descriptive words in order to create a story that shows off their understanding of the focused trait.

Introduction of Google Story Builder

Our district currently uses the Journeys Common Core Curriculum through Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. There are weekly/lesson writing assignments that focus on a genre and a writing trait. This app will be used by the children to demonstrate their knowledge of the writing traits and how to produce writing of a given genre. IDEAS:Students create a story focused upon ideas. Their ideas are expected to be rich, creative and relate to the genre.

VOICE:Students build upon original story and work to add voice. They continue with the same “ideas” and work to add their personality and “flare” to the writing. This will be a second writing and publishing of the story.

WORD CHOICE:Continuing with the story, the students now rewrite the story adding powerful and strong words to the writing. How can they make the words within the story richer and more detailed? The story will continue to grow as they make the changes as a group.

Introduction of Google Story Builder

Once finished with their story, they will email the link created to their teacher and the other students in the class. This way, the students can view their peer’s stories. The groups will be expected to present and discuss their stories to the class.

Important things to know:

Cannot Edit once Published Once the story is published, it isn’t accessible. If the students are going to use the same story to

enhance their writing, they may want to copy and paste the story into a doc to save for the next topic. They can then re-insert the text into the appropriate character’s box and edit it as necessary.

Cannot Save It is a single sitting application. The story must be

published within a single day, as the app doesn’t allow for saving.

Areas for more self-discovery Do you need a GAFE account in order to login

to the app? As I used the app, I was not able to login and was

not able to save work in order to revisit later. I will need to dig deeper to find if there is a solution to this problem.

Are you able to send the information to Google Docs to save work?

Is there a way to insert pictures to the story? Are there video tutorials giving tips and “how

to use” information for the app?

Areas for more self-discovery Using as a stepping stone

for Google Docs. Create an initial story

within Story Builder to foster collaboration and building of the selected trait for the activity. Use the story builder creations to create a final shared project within Google docs. This can be published and printed as a final project. The story can also be copy and pasted into other apps, such as book creator, or made into a slides presentation where the students can add illustrations.