SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Politics in Practice
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About TLT
  • Reviews
    • Book Reviews
    • A to Z Book Lists
    • Book Review Policy
  • Teen Issues
  • Middle Grade Mondays
  • Programs
    • TPiB
    • Tech Talk
  • Professional
    • Teen Services 101
    • Things We Didn’t Learn in Library School
  • MakerSpace
  • Projects
    • #SVYALit
    • #FSYALit
    • #MHYALit
    • #Poverty in YA Lit

March 27, 2017 by Robin Willis

Middle School Monday: Jumpstart Creative Writing with Storybird Poetry

March 27, 2017 by Robin Willis   Leave a Comment

MSM11Have you been using Storybird? It’s a wonderful free digital tool that uses images to unlock creative writing in our students [and ourselves!]. Sometimes, writing poetry or prose from scratch can be daunting for students—this is why Storybird can be so effective. With Storybird, users choose the art FIRST and then create poems, picture books, or chapter books using the artwork.

The artwork is extremely varied—and differs greatly in terms of tone, medium, and subject matter. There is truly artwork that would fit the writing of our students from K to 12, making it a wonderful fit for the tricky age-level that is middle school.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Storybird is a favorite tool of mine because of two empowering events that seem to happen with every class.

  1. A student that has never shown interest in poetry will have an immediate affinity for Storybird poetry. As the words are preloaded, it is a sort of ‘found poetry’ like black-out or spine poetry. It’s almost like putting together a puzzle. Without fail, a student will blow us away with her/his/their talent with this mode of poetry. It’s awesome!
  2. Also, in every class, there will be at least one student who will love the tool so much that they will start using it to create poems in their free time.

girl reading poem

Storybird has a new feature that I’m incredibly excited about. Teachers are able to select the words [up to 100] that will pre-fill for a poetry assignment.

What a wonderful project choice for a culminating assignment for any subject! I can imagine 6th grade students using this feature to create cool poems after their space unit. Or, 7th graders writing poems on an aspect they’ve been studying during their WWII units. 8th graders ‘studying’ vocabulary by building poetry. It can fit just about any topic. Any unit. Any subject.

Recently, sixth graders created poetry using a vocabulary list I created from G. Neri’s Yummy: Last Days of a Southside Shorty.

yummy poem

Whenever I incorporate creative mini-projects after reading literature, I’m going to include this as a choice. Thank you Storybird for adding this feature. I LOVE IT!

I’m Julie Stivers at @BespokeLib—and I get excited about things. Have a great week!

Filed under: Middle School Monday

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments

About Robin Willis

After working in middle school libraries for over 20 years, Robin Willis now works in a public library system in Maryland.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

How MEXIKID Was Made, with Pedro Martín

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2023 Picture Book Reprints

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Science Comics: Frogs | Review

by Johanna

Heavy Medal

The Narrow-It-Down Poll: Help us finalize our Heavy Medal Book List

by Steven Engelfried

Politics in Practice

November 2023 Election Hot Take: It was a good night for libraries, a bad night for censorship

by Peter Bromberg

The Yarn

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

10 How-To Guides for Curious Kids

Fascinating People, Past and Present | Biography Series Nonfiction

Delving Into Our World | Social Science Series Nonfiction

Off to a Great Start | Early Readers Series Nonfiction

How to Become the Change | Social Justice Series Nonfiction

Commenting for all posts is disabled after 30 days.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News & Features
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • School Libraries
  • Public Libraries
  • Blogs
  • Classroom
  • Diversity
  • People
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Book Lists
  • Best Books
  • Media
  • Reference
  • Series Made Simple
  • Tech
  • Review for SLJ
  • Review Submissions

SLJ Blog Network

  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal
  • Politics in Practice
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Yarn

Resources

  • Refreshing the Canon Booklist
  • Read Free Poster
  • 2023 Youth Media Awards
  • 2022 Youth Media Awards
  • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
  • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
  • Summer Reading 2021
  • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
  • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies
  • School Librarian of the Year
  • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

Events & PD

  • In-Person Events
  • Online Courses
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Content Submissions
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Diversity Policy
  • Careers at MSI


COPYRIGHT © 2023


COPYRIGHT © 2023