10th January 2012
_ In this
task I comment on a teaching idea I found on the web. The teaching idea is part
of a booklet that has been designed by students in a former New Media course
and can be accessed via the following URL: http://www.uni-marburg.de/fb10/iaa/aktuelles/news/Downloads/booklet-nmfle.pdf (See page 23-26).
This teaching
idea has as its motto “collaborating online” and serves as an introduction to
creative writing with the help of the online tool storybird.com. Storybird.com is a free web tool that enables you to create stories
in the shape of a short virtual picture book. Students are asked to build
groups of two, but have to work on separate computers. It is their task to work
independently but collaboratively on a story with a topic they can choose
freely. To start a story they can either get inspired by art, which means that they
choose a picture they want to start with, or they click on a certain theme that
they are interested in and are given appropriate pictures to start their story
with. The only thing the students have to adhere to is the structure of the
story. When they have finished their stories, the next step is to read the
stories of their fellow students and comment on them and give advice how to
improve them.
Comment:
_
The
teaching idea gives a general overview how creative writing can be introduced in
the EFL-classroom with the help of new media. The tool storybird.com is highly
appropriate what concerns creative writing tasks. The authenticity of the
stories the students make up is very high, because they have the possibility to
publish them and therefore produced a virtual story book. Another advantage of
this tool is that it is easy to access (teacher can create accounts for
students beforehand) and very self-explanatory. Problematic is the aspect of collaborative working. Although students
have the possibility to work in groups on one story, storybird.com is not a
real-time writing tool. Hence, students need to update the page to see what
their partner/s wrote. The information about the tool above is also indicated
by the authors of the teaching idea. I really like that they not only state the
positive aspects of the tool, but also point out problems or disadvantages.
Concerning the structure of the teaching idea, there is little more to say, because almost all aspects that you need to take into consideration when evolving a concept for teaching are covered. The tool and the general teaching idea are presented at the beginning. The authors also provide a didactical analysis that expresses the importance of creative writing for language and literature teaching as well as for the stimulation of the students’ imagination. They also indicate in which grade this teaching idea should be used and why. Furthermore the authors suggest possible variations of the actual teaching idea and give hints for the classroom. These hints contain on the one hand advice for the teacher about preparations he has to make beforehand and what opportunities there are for whole classes (educational version) and on the other hand how this tool can be introduced to the students or how they can explore it. The authors of the teaching idea suggest that the students either start exploring the tool by reading already published storybirds or make themselves familiar with the tool as a homework. I would add to these opportunities a general introduction by the teacher. He or she can show his students how to sign in, how to invite others to collaborate on a story and what possibilities there are to create a storybird.
One aspect that is not explicitly included in the teaching idea, but is nowadays very important, is the competences can be achieved with the teaching idea. Although the authors of the text comment on the importance of creative writing, they do not formulate specific competences. For this teaching suggestion the following competences might be important:
- Students are able to work and cooperate together in a virtual setting
- Students are able to write stories according to a certain structure
- Students are able to creatively write a story
- Students are able to express feelings and emotions and get access to other people’s perspectives
- Students know how to use the online tool storybird.com
- Students are able to criticize their fellow students in a constructive way
In my opinion the last competence is very important, because the students learn how to criticize others in a constructive way and also learn how to handle critic for their own work. This gives them the opportunity to revise their storybirds and improve their writing skill.
Besides the competences that the students can acquire, this teaching idea includes a high potential for motivation. This is supported by the already mentioned authenticity and also by the up-to-dateness the task contains. If the topic is not preset, the students most like will choose a topic that they are familiar and concerned with. Hence, they will have fun working on this task.
Concerning the structure of the teaching idea, there is little more to say, because almost all aspects that you need to take into consideration when evolving a concept for teaching are covered. The tool and the general teaching idea are presented at the beginning. The authors also provide a didactical analysis that expresses the importance of creative writing for language and literature teaching as well as for the stimulation of the students’ imagination. They also indicate in which grade this teaching idea should be used and why. Furthermore the authors suggest possible variations of the actual teaching idea and give hints for the classroom. These hints contain on the one hand advice for the teacher about preparations he has to make beforehand and what opportunities there are for whole classes (educational version) and on the other hand how this tool can be introduced to the students or how they can explore it. The authors of the teaching idea suggest that the students either start exploring the tool by reading already published storybirds or make themselves familiar with the tool as a homework. I would add to these opportunities a general introduction by the teacher. He or she can show his students how to sign in, how to invite others to collaborate on a story and what possibilities there are to create a storybird.
One aspect that is not explicitly included in the teaching idea, but is nowadays very important, is the competences can be achieved with the teaching idea. Although the authors of the text comment on the importance of creative writing, they do not formulate specific competences. For this teaching suggestion the following competences might be important:
- Students are able to work and cooperate together in a virtual setting
- Students are able to write stories according to a certain structure
- Students are able to creatively write a story
- Students are able to express feelings and emotions and get access to other people’s perspectives
- Students know how to use the online tool storybird.com
- Students are able to criticize their fellow students in a constructive way
In my opinion the last competence is very important, because the students learn how to criticize others in a constructive way and also learn how to handle critic for their own work. This gives them the opportunity to revise their storybirds and improve their writing skill.
Besides the competences that the students can acquire, this teaching idea includes a high potential for motivation. This is supported by the already mentioned authenticity and also by the up-to-dateness the task contains. If the topic is not preset, the students most like will choose a topic that they are familiar and concerned with. Hence, they will have fun working on this task.