Storybird is a visual storytelling community. A global hub of readers, writers, and artists of all ages. Students and teachers can make, read, and share short, visual stories with an easy-to-use tool. Teachers and students can select artwork, drag and organize photos, and add your own text to create beautiful digital stories. These creations can then be published on the web with adjustable privacy settings and with the option to allow comments, which is perfect for teachers to encourage student collaboration. In addition, there is the option to create a classroom account. You can sign up for free or consider an upgrade to a paid account.
World Language teachers can create stories for their students to read and share online. Students can also read or create short visual stories to share with their teacher and their peers.
This is an awesome YouTube channel by Sylvia Duckworth. I would use her Chansons au Powerpoint to pre-teach vocabulary and then reinforce the learning with the music/PowerPoint combination. Other videos offer a plethora of topics that can be used in your classroom. Her use of GoAnimate inspires me to have my students create similar projects to tell stories. Although in French, the ideas are easily used in Spanish and other WL classrooms.
Through a special agreement with more than 800 newspapers worldwide, the Newseum displays front pages each day on its website. The front pages are in their original, unedited form. I could see this being used to compare how different countries report news stories, especially international ones. No papers from France, yet.
Create, or have your students create, choose-your-own-adventure style stories. You can integrate cultural norms in the options for each step of the story.
Digital stories push students to become creators of content, rather than just consumers. Weaving together images, music, text, and voice, digital stories can be created in all content areas and at all grade levels while incorporating the 21st century skills of creating, communicating, and collaborating
This project is listed on the ePals website and is my choice for the Global Networks activity. The languages listed in the project description are French and English, however, I think this kind of project could work in just about any language setting.
This article takes you through the process of creating a digital storytelling project. It also offers a sample lesson plan how to implement digital storytelling in your language class.
ePals is a free web 2.0 resource that provides language classes the opportunity to connect with target language speakers around the globe. Communication can range from simple email messages to wiki and blog collaboration to multimedia presentations and even Skype video chat. Teachers can monitor all activity, for the sake of student security.
A potential project would be for both groups - advanced level students in the local L2 group - to read the same story or poem and then use the ePals blog tool to share opinions (targeting writing skills) and later the Skype video chat to discuss (or perhaps debate) the text (targeting oral skills).
A great collection of francophone stories from countries like Mali, Senegal, Maroc. You can download the text and a teacher's guide. It's also read aloud by a native speaker.
Storybirds are short, art-inspired stories you can make and share on any device.
I think the artwork might help inspire even the most tentative of L2 writers. I can envision using this in a beginning Spanish course, to get students thinking creatively.