Tools for Differentiating Instruction in ELA: Storybird

Common Core State Standards: 
English Language Arts
Instructional Strategies: 
Drafting
Prewriting
Do you have reluctant readers or writers?  Tailoring English language arts (ELA) instruction to meet your students’ varied needs can be supported with the right technology. Learn about differentiating instruction in ELA with our Instructional Strategy Guides and put the lessons into action with Storybird, a great new online tool that integrates ELA and art. Students who are reluctant to write may find inspiration through Storybird. This engaging online tool allows users to craft unique stories with artwork curated by the Storybird staff. Users can write and illustrate books and poems that can be saved and shared on Storybird. Some ways teachers can use the site to differentiate learning in ELA are: offering opportunities for collaborative writing, creating vocabulary lists with illustrations that may improve memorization of word meaning, and providing access to a story-writing medium that may be more exciting to students than traditional methods.      Storybird is free to use with a basic profile. View this short guide on using Storybird to learn how you can get started, here. Consider using Storybird after viewing the PowerUp Instructional Strategy Guides on Prewriting and Drafting to support the development of clear writing objectives. Let us know how you use—or have already used—Storybird along with PowerUp’s Instructional Strategy Guides to teach ELA in your classroom, by commenting below! Acknowledgement: Special thanks to Arayle Freels for helping to compile this post.

What's New on POWERUP?

AIR Informs Episode #6: Meeting the Needs of Students with Disabilities During COVID-19

Remote learning requires adjustment for all students, but students with disabilities face additional challenges during the COVID-19 quarantine. In the latest episode of AIR Informs, Allison Gandhi, managing researcher and director of AIR’s special education practice area, describes some of these obstacles and shares strategies to help students make the most of this time.