Story+Creator+2

Create your own digital stories using text, sound, characters, creatures, and backgrounds.
 * [|Story Creator 2]

Resources and links:
[|Showcase of Story Creator Stories]

Strengths:

 * Engages student motivation, participation, and creativity.
 * Goes beyond the traditional 2-D creative writing process and brings students’ stories to life through digital storytelling.
 * Provides an authentic audience for students to share their projects.
 * Utilizes differentiated instruction. For example, younger students can construct a short story with just a few frames while older students can create stories with unlimited chapters.
 * Students can incorporate a variety of media, such as text, pictures, sound, and video.
 * Projects can integrate cross-curricular storylines.
 * Increase listening and comprehension skills.
 * Improve writing skills by utilizing authentic tasks.
 * Allows students to apply critical thinking skills by incorporating a variety of themes in their writing.
 * Practice essential reading skills such as visualization, characterization, and plot.
 * Familiarize students with a variety of literature genres and their distinct characteristics.
 * A site moderator gives students feedback and suggestions for editing their story.
 * Students are able to practice self-reflection.

Weaknesses:

 * After students submit their work, it must be reviewed by a moderator to ensure the project is appropriate and free of errors. Only when its been approved can the student’s creation can be shared with others on the website.

Opportunities:

 * Provide students with the opportunity to create animated stories using backgrounds, characters, sound effects, text, and images.
 * Students can print or download their creations to save them or they can be uploaded to a different website, such as a school or classroom site, to share with peers or parents.
 * Rather than choosing prefabricated backgrounds or characters, students can upload their own pictures or illustrations to personalize their story.
 * Provides teachers with a resource area that offers downloadable lesson plans.
 * Provides information on various myths and legends and an interactive map of selected myths.

**Threats**:

 * If moderators do not initially approve student work for publication, students may feel inadequate or it may diminish student confidence.

Ideas for the Classroom:

 * Students can create their own stories based on topics/genres being studied.
 * A class story can be made where each student contributes to a project that’s already been started.
 * Teacher can use the application to create a story to grab student’s attention at the start of a new lesson, skill, or concept.
 * When studying different cultures or regions in Social Studies, students can research myths, legends, or folktales associated with that culture or region and recreate their own version of a tale or invent a new storyline using similar themes or characters.
 * Create math stories to introduce, illustrate, or elaborate on particular concepts.
 * Students can create alternative endings to books or stories read in class.
 * Students can use stories to recreate historical events or favorite scenes in a book.