I just found a web 2.0 tool that I love. It is called Story Something. They have some stories already created and one of the coolest features it has is you can switch out the names to make it more personal. There was a story called Flapdoodle on the Farm and for the boy’s name I replaced it with my son’s name and replaced all the names on there.
They have a section where it breaks down the stories by themes and ages. Under each story it tells the name of the story, the author, who illustrated it, how many words are in the story and the ages it is appropriate for. It also gives you the genre and a brief description of what the story is about.
Once you personalize the story you can email it to a friend or print the page. I found one called Best Friends at the Movies and replaced it with my daughter’s name and her best friend’s name and emailed it to them both. They got a real kick out of it! How fun!
When I first went on this I was hoping there was a way for the children to write a story and put it on there. You can but that is not as easy as using what is there already. For those students who are just not interested in reading might be more engaged using a tool like this because everyone loves to see their name in print and they could choose whatever kind of story they want.
I’m thinking this could be a cool way to send home stories for kids to read to parents to help build fluency as well as comprehension. One adaptation that could be done is having your students personalize the story and then make up comprehension questions on their own and partner up students. There are more ways I’m sure… please look at this website and let me know what you think and how else this could be used! Thanks!
http://www.storysomething.com/
Great ideas for this! This is a great way for students to make connections with vocabulary and story telling. You are right - kids would love being the main character in a story.
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