storybird

1. Storybird:
A digital literacy used as maker
space

2. 2
As a first year, first week teacher I began my Social Studies
unit with a project, paper mache globes. Students were given balloons,
flour/water, and strips of newspaper. It was a country school, so we went
out into the field to have workspace to create. They went about making.
Realizing both classes to total forty-eight students needed to dry their
globes, I chose my neighbor’s backdoor that opened to the outside.
Several things went wrong before we were even given the chance to paint
the continents on our worlds. The first, I didn’t have full control over these
students the first week of class. We still needed weeks of training before
leaving the classroom to make both the students in classroom
expectations and myself in classroom management. Second, ants and that
started off a rocky relationship with my neighboring teacher. I was not
going to be deterred or admit what a preposterous idea this was, it was
only after it was over that I could admit to myself that students need a
period of transition from desk to making prior to opening the doors to the
outside world. That was twenty-two years ago and I still shudder to think
of what my fellow teachers thought of my hands-on learning.

3. 3
Teachers need a transition from desk to making. They also
need a tangible product that can show progress as well as move towards
mastering standards that must be met for high stakes testing. Story Bird can
close the gap for writing/making. The program can provide the tools for
instruction and creating, as well as providing the writing and reading tools for
high stakes testing. It is a New Digital Literacy that has the ability to provide
the exploration and creativity needed for young minds, but also concrete
writing tools to produce testing results. This product can be used to simplify
the creating/making and standards can be met using rubrics that are
tangible.
Here is an example of how Storybird can take students from desk to
makers/creators. This entire reading program is created using Storybird that
both teachers and students explore as a foundation for reading and writing,
creating critical thinkers, and exploring other cultures.

4. Reading2Learn
K-1
University of Georgia
April 9, 2018
amyepps4@gmail.com
Amy
C.Epp
s
© 2018

5. Read2LearnInstructional Approaches:
This program was created with both teacher and student in mind. Teachers are provided with whole
group instruction to introduce lessons and reading skills. Actors, plots and keywords bring these stories
to life. Students learn to make predictions as critical thinkers, are introduced to new material and expand
their vocabulary.
Do you see what I see? is the component that addresses reading comprehension as the students learn to
picture what they are reading.
Detailed center plans are provided for each weekly lesson. Teachers are free to work in small groups with
students on fluency with the big book, which comes in picture book form for students to have to explore.
As students move through these intentional centers, it provides scaffolding for multi-discipline materials,
providing that interdisciplinary component.
The final goal is fostering creative writing using Story Bird. Story Bird provides the same pictures as used
in the big books, but students are challenged to create their own version using their new literacy skills.
5

6. Read2Learn
Target:
○ K-1
○ Emergent readers with no
prior phonics/reading
experience
○ General ed population
Teachers Need:
○ Classroom teacher and
assistant
○ Ipads or computers, big
books, picture books, chart
paper and various materials
for centers
○ Story Bird online program
○ FastBridge testing program
Program Goals:
○ Create fluent readers
○ Foster Reading Comprehension
○ Create readers that are critical
thinkers
○ Create a maker space
○ Expand vocabulary
○ Foster Creative thinking and writing
○ Foster Interdisciplinary Teaching
approach
○ Promote multicultural learning
6
I

7. Read2Learn
7
As Fastbridge identifies
deficiencies monthly, the teacher
will use this information to repeat
lessons for reinforcement. Those
students will also be identified for
EIP and any other support
teacher to pull out for additional
help. Because the classroom
library includes all the previous
texts, students will be asked to
work during center time in small
group to reteach missed skills.
Ongoing
Assessment: Informal Assessment:
As a teacher works with
guided reading and writing,
informal assessments are
conducted. There is a quick
form for notation.
Homework:
The big book is sent home in
paper format. Students are
also asked to study the sight
word list.
Length of the program: 65 weeks to allow for teacher discretion

8. Informal Ongoing
Assessment for small
group instruction:
8
Name Date Spelling Concept Retention Sight
words
Fluency Notes
**The teacher will ask the students to practice spelling words based on the
context of the lesson. CVC- cat, bat, lad, mad
The teacher will also practice sight words in small group- using flashcards.

9. Big Books connect readers to writing
through Story Bird.
Let’s see what it would look like Days 1-5.
Read it, Retell it, Write it and Learn!
Each weekly lesson comes with a big book. Teachers read this
aloud to students, students explore the book with guided reading
and then students rewrite their own story. Ulma, Adam, Emily,Bad
Cat
9

10. Day 1.
Whole Group
Introduce the phonics lesson for the day. This is where
whole group instruction takes place and sharing the Big
Book created from Storybird as a class. Depending on
the lesson topic, whole group could look two different
ways:

11. Teaching
Vowels and
Consonants
○ Emily and Eddie, Vowel E Big Book
○ Read the story to the students
○ Identify sight words from story
○ Draw a picture of Emily holding an elephant while wearing egg
earrings~keyword elephant
○ Illustrate short E and the sound it makes
○ Make a word map of the e words from the story
○ Identify the location of the actor’s home on a map
○ Use this to continue with Do you see what I see?, using the keyword
elephant
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12. Vowel Acts
The Actors
a-Adam
e- Emily
o-Oscar
i-Izzy
u-Ulma
The Plots
Adam eats apples and
adds ants. Adam lives in
Africa.
Emily wears earrings
shaped like eggs while
holding her pet
Elephant, Eddie. Emily
lives in El Salvador.
Oscar paints ostriches in
olive during October
and lives in Oghil.
Izzy is itching the iguana
in the igloo. Izzy lives in
India.
Ulma is ultra unhappy.
Ulma lives in Uruguay.
Key Words
Apple, eggs, olives,
igloo, unhappy
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13. Teaching
Reading
○ Bad Cat, CVC Book-Teacher explains that each letter makes
its own sound. Put a paw print under each letter and tap
them for each sound. Then have students picture a cat
running- complete reading the title.
○ Introduce the story-This cat has a problem. Let’s read to find
out what the problem is.
○ Make a prediction-What do you predict about cat?
○ Read the story to the students using a big book and
pointer.Select vocabulary and have students discuss with
partners-gnat, saw/come back together and create
definitions on a wall chart
○ Create a sight word list for the week-ex. and, why, saw, was,
gnat/add to wall chart
○ Move to centers
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14. Day 1-5, part 2.
Centers and
Guided Reading
Various pre selected activities to enhance
literacy learning, teacher led small group guided
reading, ongoing assessment using Fast Bridge

15. Center
Sampling
Story Bird-(Computer)
Fast Bridge(Computer)
Guided Reading(Teacher)
Listening-following along to an audio version of a book containing
the same topic(Ipad)
Cultural-explore the origin of each actor by viewing short videos
on the country ex Ecuador for kids(Ipad)
Science-exploring ebooks containing information based on big
book- ex elephants(Ipad)
Art-for letter sounds-using the shape of the letter to create a
word picture ex horse(Art supplies)
Book Center-free reading for books containing phonics taught
Interactive Letter Books, Alphabet Roads
CVC Flip Books, Word Cups, CVC Spinners
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16. Day 2.
Do you see what I
see?
Using picture prompts, words, sentences and stories from the big books
students are asked to describe what they see to a neighbor using details
and answering these questions-what, where, color, shape-The group
comes back together and students are selected to share. Students go over
sight words and reread the Big Book.

17. Day 3.
Let me tell you a
story!
Bad Cat Story Board
The Story Bird center is introduced and students are asked to use the same
pictures and create their own stories. This is modeled each week for the
students. At first this may look like the same story, may need to be dictated,
may be in a different order, but as students progress, they can add to, recreate
and retell their own ideas. This can be saved and shared with parents. This
center should be manned by a paraprofessional or additional resource teacher.

18. Day 4.
Let me tell you
my story!
Using fresh ideas from Story Bird writing, students are
given blanks within the big book in whole group and
asked to input new words. Continue with sight words,
key words and centers. An alternative to this would be
using the time to allow students to share their books.
Bad Cat Book 2

19. Day 5.
That’s a wrap!
This day is used for story mapping and any whole group
instruction to show illustration of keyword. Elephant
draw
Additional center time, rereading the Big Book, placing
the student books in the classroom library and sharing a
few of the students’ writings from the Story Bird Center
completes the concept/lesson.

20. “Vowels-week 1-5
Consonants-week 6-16
CVC words-week 17-18
Digraphs-week 19-23
Two letter blends-first the end then the beginning of the word-week 24-28
Three letter blends-week 29-31
Digraph blends-week 32-33
Units-34-36
Hard c, g/soft c, g-week 37-39
Long vowels-week 40-44
Silent e-week 45-46
20
The program follows traditional
phonics instruction:

21. “Compound Words 47-48
Two Syllable Words-week 49-51
Multi-syllable words-week 52-54
Doubling Rule:-week 55-56
Prefixes-week 57-60
Suffixes-week 61-63
Schwa-week 64-65
Why only 65 weeks? The program allows for teacher ongoing assessments and
reteaching for concepts that are not mastered.
21

22. See It
Retell
It
Read It
Reading2Learn
Process made
Easy
22
Learn it!

23. Critical
Thinking
What is critical thinking? Critical thinking comprises a number of different skills that
help us learn to make decisions. It is the ability to evaluate information to
determine whether it is right or wrong. To think critically about an issue or a
problem means to be open-minded and consider alternative ways of looking at
solutions. As children grow into pre-adolescents and teenagers, their critical
thinking skills will help them make judgments independently of parents.
To be good at thinking, children must believe that thinking is fun and want to be
good at it. Parents can make thinking fun throughout the academic year as well as
during the summer and on vacations. Good thinkers practice thinking just like they
practice basketball or soccer(Price-Mitchell, 2011)
Read2Learn offers instruction for early development in fostering
creative and critical thinking. Our early approach allows students to
foster their own skills at a young age by simply making predictions
and giving explanations that support their ideas in large and small
group setting. As supported by Wepner, Strickland and Quatroche,
“Encourage discussions that can continue from one day to the next”().
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24. Balanced
literacy: Guided
Reading and
Fluency
K-12 states(2016)Guided reading is one component of a balanced literacy
program that allows teachers to meet the needs of all students – regardless of
their level of proficiency – so they become stronger, more confident readers.
Through this strategy, students are met right where they are in ability. Because
they’re with students who are on their level, they’re much less likely to feel anxious
or embarrassed about how they measure up to the skills other students. This is so
important(Guided Reading-a Snapshot, 2016). For students that struggle, giving
them a safe place where their peers’ skills are similar, students began to have a
small support group, with the teacher as the head cheerleader.
The recipe for a successful guiding reading lesson should include the following
according to K-12: small group, appropriate level, voc and background,
predictions, observations, comprehension and provide for activities while students
work in small group with the teacher(Guided Reading-a Snapshot, 2016). While
this is the foundation for Reading2Learn, it expands and creates bridges for these
same students to find success in other disciplines.
Benefits: With guided reading, instruction can be streamlined to meet
the individual needs of each student within a group. In addition to
using FastBridge testing results, the teacher will have opportunities
for daily interaction and assessment. This curriculum spirals and never
drops a concept as the texts are added to the classroom library for
continued use and retention.
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25. Reading
Comprehension
The organization Understand More explains that when a student is asked to read a
passage, the left and right side of the brain must work together to form a mental
picture with the word(Why people have trouble with comprehension,2007). Some
students are unable to form a mental picture and the result is poor reading
comprehension. However, Do you see what I see? -will close this gap.
25
Do you see what I see?-teaches students to
create a movie in their minds as they read,
thus using both the right and left side of the
brain. For some students this is instinct, for
for those with comprehension issues, it
must be taught.

26. Meeting
Cultural Needs
Culturally responsive
pedagogy starts with the
premise that race and
class matter, and that
some schools fail to send
diverse students signals
that they belong. To make
sure all students feel
valued, the theory goes,
teachers need to be aware
of their own biases, work
deeply to understand
their individual students,
find ways to bring
students' heritage and
community into the
classroom, and hold all
students to a high
academic
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The Atlantic’s article
Good Teachers
Embrace their
Students’ Cultural
Backgrounds(2013)
states:
Reading2Learn explores
cultures in its texts as well as
small group interaction with
students. What happens
when a student doesn’t
speak the language, much
less comprehend meaning of
words and stories? The
small group time allows
teachers to scaffold on their
students’ knowledge in a safe
small group as well as larger
whole group. By doing this,
both the practice of Balanced
Literacy and cultural
understanding are met.

27. Questions/
Answers
27
To clarify, students are asked to create their own stories when it
is their turn on the computers in the classroom, so they are
given opportunities for creative thinking. The concept is whole
group, breaking into smaller group and assuming there are only
two to four computers in the classroom. It is all self
contained. As for the using a para, if the classroom does not
have one, during reading a Title I teacher, EIP teacher or
Reading Coach would be present and could assume the
duties. The ongoing testing would be done during computer lab
time.

28. 28References
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M=VIRE
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29. 29from https://www.pinterest.com/Playdough2Plato/
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