As soon as the students can use the past tense, they are ready for a first creative storywriting project.
This little project involves reading a story (or watching the story on YouTube).
Click on the image to see the book on Amazon.
Then the students plan a follow-up story, where they travel to an exciting, imaginary place with GRAN TOURS.
The students get feedback from peers and from the teacher and then produce a final, illustrated version of their story in a simple origami book. Using the origami format motivates the students to revise their story carefully in order to produce a final storybook that they can be proud of. They copy the revised texts into the origami books and illustrate the pages.
For instructions how to fold the simple origami books follow this link.
Tip: Using my FIP method (Forma – Imagination – Pride) leads to much better writing. Students should have a final product in mind. They use their imagination and creativity to write and illustrate the stories, and they can finally be proud of the finished book. This FIP approach triggers a release of neurotransmitters that motivates students to do their best. Try it: You will see the difference to previous work done in the students’ exercise books.
Click on the image below to open the worksheet for the students. The planning sheet helps the students collect ideas for their stories.
Below, you will find an AI chatbot that I have created to be used instead of the planning sheet. It will help the students add lots of interesting details to their story plan. Groovy, the friendly planning assistant, keeps asking questions and encourages them to add lots of colorful details to their story.
Click on the image to open the story-writing assistant chatbot. Try it out to see how it works.
It is really easy to create such an assistant on Fobizz. As a guest user without a Fobizz account, you can only get 10 free queries per month; that is not enough to create a good story, but it will be enough to show you how the assistant works. Ask your school’s administrators for access to a full Fobizz account, or consider upgrading your personal teacher account so you can use their excellent tools with your students. On Fobizz your students can work in completely safe, anonymous spaces that you create for them. They do not need to have their own Fobizz accounts, but work in your shared spaces.
Once you have your own Fobizz account, you can also create your own “remix” of my chatbot and edit and adapt it to your students’ needs.
