Amanda Mounce and Christina Millson

Amanda Mounce and Christina Millson Tech Expert Module CRIN 09- Technology October 5, 2010 Story Cove

Overview:

Story Cove provides children of all ages with an interactive exploration of folktales from continents across the globe, including Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Australia. Visitors to the website have the option of watching animated videos or simply listening to the audio retelling of the tales. Students can dive into traditional tales of Africa through Anansi and the Tug ‘o War and Anansi Goes to Lunch, and The Clever Monkey from West Africa. Or they can explore Asian tales, such as A Tale of Two Frogs from Russia and How Tiger Got Its Stripes from Vietnam. Those looking for a tale from the Americas may be interested in Juan Pablo Sends His Pig to Mass or Rooster’s Night Out. To get a taste of Australian folk tales visitors to the site can check out Why Koala Has a Stumpy Tail, and if Europe is more to their liking they can certainly listen to The Ogre Bully.

There are several activities and extensive lesson plans for Grades K-3 to accompany each of the twenty-four stories. Activities range from mazes, coloring pages, hidden pictures, phonics practice, and puppet shows and enable children to extend their understanding of the story through venues that do not necessitate use of a computer. Moreover, the lesson plans support the standards set forth by the National Council of Teachers of English. Each lesson plan includes a pdf document which explicitly maps out the standards from the NCTE that are met when using the specific lesson plan.

Story Cove is sponsored by August House, Inc and visitors to the website will find a link to their online store. Students, parents, and teachers can purchase each of the folktales included in Story Cove for the low and affordable price of $3.95. Due to the affordability of the books teachers can easily purchase a class set to keep in their classroom to have tangible copies of the online stories. How to Get Started With… Registering for Story Cove is quite easy and is entirely free. To sign up copy and paste the following link into the web browser (www.storycove.com) and click on “Register now, It’s free” in the upper right corner of the page.

After clicking on the registration link, a page will appear prompting users to confirm that they are thirteen years of age or older. If a child is not thirteen years of age then they must have their parents complete the registration for them in order to access the website.

Then, fill in first name, last name, a valid email address, and password in the spaces provided. After registering users simply need to click on the links on the left side of the page to explore the stories, lesson plans, activities, and online book store. Be sure the computer is equipped with Adobe Flash player before trying to watch any of the movies.

Classroom Examples iLearn Technology Blog- The blog describes how technology can be incorporated into the classroom and specifically reviews Story Cove. Furthermore, it depicts usage of Story Cove in the classroom and how the technology can be used to tie together the subjects of geography, language arts, and social studies. Story Cove: a world of stories (and lesson plans, fun activities, and more!) – Kevin Jarrett, the K-4 Computer Teacher & Technology Facilitator and District Webmaster at Northfield Community School, wrote a technology blog describing Story Cove. He depicted the system requirements, instructions for registration, and advantages and disadvantages of the website for use in the classroom.

Monica Keenan –Kevin Jarrett mentioned in his blog that Mrs. Monica Keenan, an ESL teacher from Northfield Community School in New Jersey, introduced him to the technology of Story Cove. Unfortunately, her classroom website makes no mention of Story Cove or how she utilizes it in her classroom.

Fairfax County Public Schools- Rob Cleveland is a former special education teacher, the current storyteller-in-residence at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Director of Development at August House Publishers, the company that produces Story Cove. He is also the author of The Clever Monkey, a tale from Africa showcased on Story Cove. Fairfax County Public Schools provides teachers with the opportunity to participate in virtual author visits available by podcast, VHS, or DVD, and Rob Cleveland was featured in 2009. Teachers could use Story Cove to introduce their students to traditional oral folktales and then supplement that with Cleveland’s virtual author visit, which would permit students to hear the folktales in their most authentic form.

Assessing for the Classroom

Pros: -Registration is speedy, easy, and FREE! -Each story has a character-building message (fairness, respect, responsibility, sharing, honesty etc.) hidden inside. -The folktales can be purchased in hardcopy form at an inexpensive cost for classroom use or independent reading at home. -Story Cove is flexible for instruction and allows for multiple classroom uses. For example, it can be incorporated into whole-group instruction, center activities, or homework activities. -The lesson plans that accompany stories build reading strategies, such as making connections, summarizing, synthesizing, questioning, and evaluating. Each of the lesson plans support the standards set forth by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). -Story Cove is also available in the format of an after-school program for Title I or failing schools.

Cons: -The topics approached in each of the stories may not be ideal for classroom use. For instance, the tale entitled Juan Pablo Send His Pig to Mass should be reviewed carefully before use in the classroom. -There are a limited number of folktales but a high concentration of tales from Asia and Africa and very little representation of European stories. -There are no captions or written text on the screen for children who have difficulty hearing. It would even be helpful if the written text had a feature with a bouncing ball to identity the words as they are being read aloud. -Students may not have the valid email address required to register. -Anyone can register if they misrepresent their age and there is no way of determining whether the user has registered truthfully.

Considerations for Teachers -When utilizing components of the website for their classroom teachers should preview all stories to ensure that the material is appropriate. -It is possible to create Gmail addresses for students to register and use Story Cove in the classroom as long as parent permission is obtained. -If Story Cove is used in a center activity then headphones will be needed. If it is used as part of whole group instruction then teachers must check to make sure the sound system is working properly. -The computer must have a recent version of Adobe Flash in order to watch the stories.