STORYBIRD AS A MEDIUM TO LEARN WRITING NARRATIVE TEXT

STORYBIRD AS A MEDIUM TO LEARN

WRITING NARRATIVE TEXT

 

by

Hayati Wasistyo Adi

2201414067

Monday, at 11 (105)

 

 

English Department

Faculty of Languages and Arts

Universitas Negeri Semarang

2017

1.                INTRODUCTION

1.1              Background of the Study

Writing is one of skills in language. There are many of students find difficulty in writing. One of difficulties is writing narrative text. Narrative text has special elements like orientation, complications, and resolution. From that reason, writing a narrative text should be well organized.

According to my experiences in high school era, the teacher had difficulty to teach how to write a narrative text. She only asked the students to write a narrative text freely without any limitation. Previously, the teacher has explained about narrative text to the students. Nevertheless, they still could not fully understand what the teacher asked. They thought the way of teacher taught was very boring and confusing. It could occur because the lack of creativity from the teacher. She only used traditional method to explain the materials to them. She asked the students to write narrative text like examples in the book. As the result, the students did not interest in class. They also wrote their narrative text disorderly.

Teaching students to write a narrative text could be more interesting with the use of internet. In the 21st century, students are very familiar with internet. They can operate and use for their daily life. Internet has many advantages for the students. They can use internet to learn or look for materials. It will help the students to get more knowledge out of the school.

Internet also provides many websites. One of those are story making websites. It can help the students to write a narrative text. The teacher can make writing narrative text more interesting with the use of the website. Creating narrative text using digital tool like internet called digital storytelling. Digital storytelling appears as a new form of documenting one’s experience through multimedia video creations, blogs, podcasts, activities on social network or other story forms. (Conrad, 2013)

One of digital storytelling tools which is easy to use is Storybird. Storybird is a website to write a story in the internet. This website also provide the story with many artworks or pictures which help the author to write the story more attractive. When the story is published, people all around the world can see and comment to the story. By using this method, it is hope that students will be motivated to write a narrative text and improve their writing skill.

1.2              Reasons for Choosing the Topic

The following are the reasons of choosing the topic:

1. Writing is one of difficult English skills. The students do not really like to write even a story. The simple way to engage the students to write is writing a story or narrative text. It will increase their imagination to write a narrative text.
2. The students are familiar with internet. They can operate many websites there. When the teacher use internet as medium of learning, there is no problem.
3. The students like study using media. The conventional method of teaching how to write narrative text seems boring. The new method like using Storybird as medium to write a story is hoped can make the students more interesting in learning.

2.     OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this essay to find out the strengths and the students weaknesses of the use of Storybird as medium to learn writing narrative text.

3.     REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Review of Previous Studies

There are some researchers conducted similar topic with me about using Storybird to teach the students write narrative text.

The first was a study conducted by Menezes (2012). The author stated that Storybird is an extremely engaging collaborative story writing website that embodies three ideas – creating, reading, and sharing. She also described implementation and outcomes of some activities that used Storybird. The first one was implemented in two Primary Schools. He paired up students from two classes in different schools in the region. They had to write a story together. The second one was developed in a language class in a Basic School. The class was divided into groups. One group of students started the story and then the next day, the rest of the students read what the first group wrote, then the second group added to it and so on until the end of the story. All the students participated actively. Students loved seeing how the story that they started went on and ended.

According to Giacomini (2015), Storybird is one of tools for teaching creative writing in English language class. Students were not only highly motivated to write in English by technological device, but they were also in control of their learning experience. Bringing technology into the classroom may not be a good idea for all teachers due to the fact that some teachers may not be as computer literate as their students. Nevertheless, it is a brilliant decision to overcome certain fears and undertake the challenge of innovation in teacher classes not only for their students’ benefit but also for their own.

Nordin (2010) aimed that storytelling is one of methods for human society and a common practice in every culture which is used most in education. Teachers can use digital storytelling as an engaging learning activity to students. Storybird described itself as “collaborative storytelling” which is a website that allows the users to create a story and publish it in the internet. The special feature of Storybird is allowing a teacher to combine text with images. Three aspects which is going to lose students’ engagement too much text on a page are the length of story is too long, and the story is repeating the same thing. After implementing Storybird in class, the students should be able extend learning time. The students who have internet access at home can review or preview the materials. The author aimed that if the Storybird is used in a class, it will help students develop their creativity and also help students to learn by using internet. Students will also have fun during learning. A teacher must find different ways to motive his or her students to learn, and the usage of Storybird can encourage students’ creative thinking and bring more fun into his/her classroom.

The followings are explanation cited from Zakaria (2016). She conducted a research about students’ experience using Storybird. She took a sample from 15 student from secondary school. They were introduced about using Storybird and asked to write a story using it. After that, the author interviewed the students to get information about their experience using Storybird for the first time.  As the result, they agreed that Storybird is a great tool in helping them to improve their writing skills by reading other online stories shared by other Storybird users. They also prefer working collaboratively as they share their feelings and thoughts with their friends in gaining more ideas to write and to choose suitable vocabulary.

Wertz (2014) shared her experience when she and her students use Storybird for teaching learning. Once students had written a first draft. After that, she modeled revising her initial draft by adding more details and descriptive words that would help the readers visualize her story. She used the images from Storybird as inspiration. The students then worked collaboratively to add imagery to their own stories and edited for grammar, spelling, and word usage. Once their story were finished, they published them to the Storybird website. Then she captured pages from the digital storybook and imported them into iMovie. In the next activity, each student and the author sat together. The student read each page of the storybook while the author recorded her student’s voice reading. The final product was a movie file including the student’s recorded voice reading each page of the digital storybook. Those files were burned onto DVDs. The use of Storybird allowed students to create, publish, and share their words with their families and friends.

In a similar vein, Ramírez (2013) investigated writing skill enhancement when creating narrative texts through the use of collaborative writing and the Storybird. He conducted a research by participating two groups of learners who were undergoing a training course to take the First Certificate in English (FCE) exam. The activities for seven meetings in the classroom were pre-test (instructions week), treatment (feedback, consolidation and reinforcement activities), and post-test (presentation final project). The first group was hold on October to November 2010, and the second group on March to April 2011. The findings revealed that the collaborative writing supported with Storybird encouraged learners to create narrative texts and improve their positive attitude towards the production of stories.

B. Review of the Theoretical Studies

Writing Skill

Writing is one basic skills in learning English beside listening, speaking and reading. According to Meyers (2005) writing is a way to produce a language, which you do naturally when you speak. Writing is communicating with other in a verbal way. Writing also an action – a process of discovering organizing your ideas; putting them on paper, reshaping and revising them. Writing is also the most complex skill to develop. Heaton (1996:138) stated that the writing skills are complex and difficult to teach, requiring mastery not only of grammatical and rhetorical devices but also of conceptual and judgment elements.

            From this reasons, in brief writing is one of language skills which can organize or share the ideas to the others. However, writing is an activity which difficult to teach.

Teaching Writing

According to Harmer (2004:4-5), there are four elements in writing process:

Planning

The writers must decide what they are going to write. Sometimes, these three main activities are considered. First, the writers have to know about the purpose of their writing. Secondly, the writers must think of the audience/readers.  The last, the writer need to consider content structure (sequencing the facts and ideas they have decided to include).

Drafting

This  stage  is  where  the  writers  write  the  first  version  of  their  writing. However, a number of drafts may be produced before they write the final version.

Editing (reflecting and revising)

The writers will need other people (readers/editor) to help them in reflecting and revising by giving comments and suggestions.

Final version

The writers may make the changes but here they produce the final version. After that, the writers are ready to publish their writing or written text to their readers

            From the explanation about the elements in writing process, it proves that teach students writing skill uses several steps. The teacher may use these steps to teach writing. To realize those steps, the teacher should consider to the students’ condition in class.

Narrative Text

Narrative text is one genre text which must be mastered by junior high school students. According to Rebecca (2003), a narrative text is a text, which relates a series of logically, and chronologically related events that are caused or experienced by factors. She stated that a narrative is a sense of plot, of theme, of characters, and of events, and of how they relate. Narrative text also tells a story and entertains the audience. It has character, setting, and action. The characters, the setting, and the problem of the narrative are usually introduced in the beginning. The problem reaches its high point in the middle. The ending resolves the problem.

Narrative is a basic story. According to Rosen (2005), in writing a narrative, an author has a chance to make his or her mark on the world by relating a story that only he or she can tell. Whether it comes from a personal experience or is one that the writer has imagined, the point of a narrative is to bring one’s subject to life. By using the five Ws and H (who, what, where, when, why, and how), and basic story structure, any subject can be more exciting.

There are many aspects in narrative text such as:

• Types of narrative

The types of narrative can be imaginary, factual or both. For example, fairy stories, mysteries, science fiction, romances, horror stories, adventure stories, fables, myths and legends, historical narratives, personal experience.

• Generic structures

1. Orientation: introduction in which the characters, setting and time are established.
2. Complication: when the problem arise.
3. Resolution: the complication maybe resolved.
4. Re-orientation: optional

• Language features

1. Using Past tense
2. Using Adverb of time (Once upon a time, one day, etc)
3. Using Time conjunction (when, then, suddenly, etc.)
4. Using Specific character: The character of the story is specific, not general. (Mermaid, Pinocchio, etc.)
5. Using Action verbs: A verb that shows an action. (saw, swam, sang, etc.)
6. Direct speech: It is to make the story lively. The direct speech uses present tense

In narrative text, the generic structure is the most important. The students who write narrative text should understand well the definition of each points. The language features also crucial points in narrative text. The students also should master the past tense form well to write narrative text.

Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling at its most basic core is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories (Robin, 2016). There are many terms used to describe this practice, such as digital documentaries, computer-based narratives, digital essays, electronic memoirs, interactive storytelling, etc. In general, they are all about the idea of combining stories with a variety of multimedia, including graphics, audio and video. In the end, the final products of those would be published in internet.

The Center for Digital Storytelling (2010) has been very influential in identifying the major components of a digital story by breaking the creative process into seven steps. This process, known as “The Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling” includes the following components: (1) Point of View shows the purpose and author’s perspective of the story, (2) A Dramatic Question arouses the audience’s curiosity and will be given an explanation by the end of the story, (3) Emotional Content involves the audience in the story, (4) The Gift of Voice helps the audience understand the story through personalization of the narration, (5) The Power of Soundtrack supports the story with appropriate music, (6) Economy avoids overloading the viewer with excessive use of visuals and/or audio, and (7) Pacing provides a rhythm to the story and deals with how slowly or quickly the story is told.

Storybird

Storybird is a very simple and engaging tool as it offers ready-made high quality digital visualization (Pop, 2012). Based on the art inspired storytelling, Mark Ury, the founder of Storybird has brought the readers, writers, artists and educators to collaborate and share their talents into the world of virtual storytelling (West, 2013).

Storybird offers a large variety of images illustrated by artists from all over the world to select from, and possibilities to add written text for a story (Åberg, 2014). The images are organized by theme, such as dogs, cats, and happiness. The story maker selects an initial theme, whereupon several images become visible, and thereafter the story maker decides the amount of images he/she wants in the story. In this sense, Storybird differs from the digital technologies mentioned above. Additionally, the software does not offer spell checking or sound application, however, important features provided are appealing layout and design of the final product and opportunities for worldwide publishing.

4.     ANALYSIS

Based on the literature review in the previous section, Storybird is proven to be a great medium for students to learn or teach how to write narrative text attractively. StoryBird is an online resource available on the internet. Once students log into our StoryBird account, they are able to start making our stories. They can also read other people’s stories. Creating stories are very easy to do. Students only should pick an artwork that they like and will be able to create a story with that artist’s work. Students can also work in a group with StoryBird’s collaborate settings. One nice feature of StoryBird is the ability to drag and drop. It makes making a story very easy and fun to do.

Students have the ability to favorite your stories. They can also work with others on the same project and email the link for the story or embed our story in blog like WordPress and share their stories on popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter. They don’t have to worry about being a good artist because all the artwork is already available. The navigation of StoryBird is very easy to use. Everything is easy to find and there are multiple categories such as Active, Content, Format, and Ages.

The most obvious use for Storybird in the classroom is that it aids teacher-student editing. Teachers are able to check on the progress of their students’ work. It is also a good tool for peer editing. This editing helps students become better writers by critiquing others. Additionally, Storybird is able to be shared to people across the country and the world. Much like Tikatok, this site allows students to be creative in the re-telling of a series of events or story. This could also use this as a reward tool. Students could create a Storybird on their own topic and the teacher could print it for a keepsake.

Storybird is a free website. It gives low-income students an opportunity to participate in a creative experience. Also, it focuses on story-making as a collaborative process. The students makes the process of collaborating, or “taking turns,” very easy. It allows for teachers, friends and family to edit and help the author throughout the story.

Storybird also gives the option of keeping a story private until the student is ready to share it. For many students, this feature makes them feel creatively safer. The artwork is enough to inspire students to create stories even if they come to the website with nothing in mind.

Students could also find another class from another state or country to work with. Pair up students from the two classes and have them write a story together. Each child will bring their own style to the story while working together. Each class can work on them when they have an opportunity so the stories don’t have to be worked on at the exact same time. Once the stories are finished, Skype the other class and have students take turns reading stories. Each pair could read the pages they wrote from the book.

On the other hand, one of the biggest limitations to StoryBird is that students cannot download their stories for free. Currently the fee to download one story is $1.99. Students are also unable to have the pro-version of StoryBird without upgrading. Students also are unable to use artwork from their own gallery or artwork from multiple artists. If they pick one artist’s work, they can only use that artist’s work. It is also very difficult to search for artwork. You can type in key words or illustrator names but there is not much variety in what comes up. With such limitation in artwork, students may end up frustrated.

5.     SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATION

StoryBird is a great online resource to help students on the creativity track. Let them be the creators of their own stories with StoryBird. Creating stories are very easy to do. Students should only pick an artwork and they will be able to create a story with that artist’s work. For free, teachers can create a class on StoryBird and their students can create stories. All the artwork is available to use already with more being made every day. Students can share their stories still with many social networks, and you can embed or share the link of your stories still. Although, Storybird asks the students to pay if they want to download, I still recommend students to use Storybird to learn writing narrative text. Teacher can assess the students’ works in this website. So teacher doesn’t need to download it.

6.     BIBLIOGRAPHY

Åberg, E. S. (2014). Children’s story making with digital technologies: Tool-mediated activities in a preschool class. Thesis. University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Giacomini, L. (2015). Using “Storybird” in young learners’ creative writing class. English Teaching Forum, 53(4), 35-37. Retrieved from https://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/english-teaching-forum-volume-53-number-4

Menezes, H. (2012). Using digital storytelling to improve literacy skills. International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age (IADIS), 299-301. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED542821

Pop, A. (2012). Enhancing English language writing and speaking through digital storytelling. The 7th International Conference on Virtual Learning ICVL 2012, 453-458.

Ramirez, Y. E. H. (2013). Writing skill enhancement when creating narrative texts through the use of collaborative writing and the Storybird web 2.0 tool. Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal, 15, 166-183.

Robin, B. (2016). What is Digital Storytelling? Retrieved from University of Houston website:  http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/page.cfm?id=27

Wertz, J. A. (2014). Bitstrips and Storybird: writing development in a blended literacy camp. Voices from the Middle, 21, 24-32.

West, M. (2013). The Storybird has flown the nest. the literary platform. Retrieved from http://theliteraryplatform.com/magazine/2013/03/the-storybird-has-flown-the-nest/

Yueh, N. (2010). Web 2.0 and graduate research Storybird. Educational Psychology ED, 1-6.

Yuksel, P., Robin, B.P., McNeil, S. (2010). Educational uses of digital storytelling around the world.

Zakaria, S.M., Melor, M.Y., Nurhuda, M.N., Parilah, M.S. (2016). Students’ experience of using Storybird in writing ESL narrative text. Scientific Research Publishing, 2109-2120.

http://www.storybird.com