Storybird is a website that helps people (adults and students) write and create interesting narratives.
Storybird gives you access to a variety of beautiful illustrations and often these illustrations come in a series of similar pictures (see my story above as an example of a series of illustrations). It is very easy to choose a series of illustrations and then create a narrative around the pictures (this is what I did with my short story).
Students can also search for illustrations using key words - e.g. dog will bring up pictures of dogs, so if they are writing a narrative and there is a dog they will be able to find an illustration that will support their text.
As well as this, students can submit their own artworks (which will need to be scanned and put as an electronic version into their account).
I think Storybird is a great way to engage students in narrative writing, to inspire ideas and to release creativity. It can also be a great way to model narrative writing to a group or to the whole class, as you could display the images on the smart board while you write.
My favourite thing about Storybird is that it is a free website!
If you, or your students, do create a story using Storybird I would love to see it!