App-time at Naptime: StoryKit

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StoryKit

(Oddly, StoryKit is actually an iPhone app, so you need to know that when searching!)

I love love love StoryKit and primarily use it in conjunction with narrative writing. 

Once again, this is a free app! 

When kiddos are just learning how to write, often the stories they can tell are way ahead of their abilities to write down what they are thinking.This is where StoryKit comes in. Students can use the app to record their narrative stories long before they are competent to write those stories down on paper.

What is particularly helpful about StoryKit is that a microphone icon appears on the screen for each recorded segment, so I teach my kiddos that they need to have four microphone icons on their pages. Our narrative writing rubric is based on the Common Core State Standards, so the expectation in Kinder is that students can meet the standard through a combination of writing, dictating, and drawing. There are four parts that can go along with dictation and don't require actual writing in order to get credit for the narrative, so I teach students to include those four parts in their recorded speech. 

Initially, I only have the kiddos draw and record. As they learn the letter sounds and become more competent writers, then I have them follow their app time with their journal time. They then listen to what they recorded on their iPad and write their sentence(s) in their journal. The benefit of having the recordings is that they can listen and re-listen as often as they need to. We now get a lot fewer complaints that they don't know what to write. 

Here's what it looks like...

Students click on new book to start their project. The other books on the screen come with the app, but can be deleted. 

 Each page looks like like this. The fourth icon on the bottom is the record button. 

Students press record to talk and once they do that the word on that button changes to stop. They simply press stop when they are done and then press edit to go back to the previous page. I have the rule that they can't talk for longer than 10 seconds because I want to make sure they organize their ideas before speaking and that they break up their narrative into the four parts that correspond with our rubric (what they did, two details, their feeling)

 Each recording shows up at one of the little microphone apps, so they have a visual to keep track of the four parts of their narrative. They can also access images from their camera roll in order to add a drawing or they can draw within the app. I usually have them draw in Sketchio, save their work, then import their drawing. Later in the year, I only have them record and then they write and draw a picture in their journal. 

Another idea that I had (which I haven't tried yet) is to upload an image of a graphic organizer onto the iPads so students can record and place their microphone icons within the graphic organizer once they import it into their StoryKit project. Our new phonics program, ECRI, has graphic organizers for story retelling. One image is a seal with several beach balls above his head. Having the picture in which to place the microphones will help kiddos remember what they need to record and how many times. 

If desired, they can add text to their project.

Once a project has been started, students have options to read, edit, or share. Students use the "read" function when they are writing because that allows them to listen to what they recorded. They can edit a project if they need to add more or make changes. Finally, they can share their work by emailing it. I have students email me their work each week and then I can easily forward their projects to their parents. 

I use StoryKit on a weekly basis when my kiddos do their "weekend news." Initially we only use StoryKit and then they begin to use journals for the writing part. I love that even the lowest students who don't know their sounds at all can still tell their narrative. It's a great way for ELL students to practice language and it's a great way to better understand their "kid writing" because I have the recordings to listen to as I look at their writing. I often have a hard time getting around to each child to write down what they say they have written so the individual recordings are awesome! 

I definitely encourage you to try this one out! Let me know what you think!