We proudly present our Superheroes Storyproject. We have won the Media Literacy Award 2021 for this project.
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In the Superheroes storyproject we have created 26 amazing storybooks about superheroes who use their powers to make our world a better place. The project was part of an Erasmus project. Since travelling was impossible due to Corona, we have decided to have our kids meet online and create these stories in a virtual workshop on Zoom.
Click on the image above to open the library and read the stories.
Below, you will find a step-by-step description and all necessary instructions for this project. Feel free to copy our project and do it with your own students.
How did we do it?
In this project over 200 learners aged 9 to 13 participated in a 3-day virtual workshop on Zoom and produced a series of cool online SUPERHEROES storybooks. We used the online tool “bookcreator.com” which allows the learners to enter text, illustrations and audio recordings into their online books in very simple steps. The program runs directly in the browser and does not need any local installations. It also works well on Android devices and was therefore ideally suited for young leaners.
The starting point of the project was our wish to deal with the big problems in our world and suggest possible solutions. In order to do this in a way that is appropriate for our young learners, we decided to create superheroes that have special powers to help us solve our problems.
The main project goals were:
- Raising the learners’ awareness of the big problems around us
- Finding solutions and fostering a dynamic mindset that encourages the learners to take active steps to improve our world
- Practicing spoken and written English with international peers
- Improving technical skills (online communication, layouting, voicerecording…)
Click on the image below to open the instructions booklet for the learners. It guides them step by step through the project.
The project was designed by me and then carried out as a workshop together with 5 partner schools in an Erasmus project. In our virtual workshop over 200 children participated actively via Zoom and collaborated in international groups organized in breakout rooms.
During the writing and illustration stages, the youngest learners from elementary schools in Italy, Greece and Cyprus worked mostly in national groups with their teachers. They participated in the Zoom meetings on shared computers or sometimes as a whole class. The learners from lower secondary schools in Austria and Romania planned, wrote and illustrated their stories together in international breakout rooms.
On the first day of the workshop we collectected the big problems of our world in a brainstorming on answergarden.ch
Then we collected the kinds of superpowers our heroes would need in order to solve these problems.
After this brainstorming, the learners participated in a workshop for writers or a workshop for illustrators where they learned how to write a good superhero story or how to illustrate a story. They also got to know the bookcreator tool and had a chance to try out its features.
On the second workshop day the learners kept working in their teams, writing and illustrating their stories. After some teacher feedback and little corrections the writers started to record the voiceovers in English and in their native languages. This can be done directly on the bookcreator tool.
The illustrators needed a bit more time to finish all the pictures. Several groups continued to work beyond day 2.
On the third workshop day we met again on Zoom and shared our experiences in the project. The learners gave feedback about the project and wrote comments for each other’s books.
The last step in the project was a final quiz with questions about all the heroes in the 23 books. The quiz could be filled in online or in a paper-and-pencil version.
Both, the kids and the teachers all liked the project a lot. Some international groups even met online outside of the official meetings and shared personal interests.
Here is what they have to say about our project.
