Educational Tele

1. A summary or demonstration of the
tool/app
How you did/will introduce the tool/app
Important things to know about the tool/app
Areas for more self-discovery
Additional information you find relevant
GOOGLE APPS FOR
EDUCATION
GOOGLE STORY BUILDER
Jill Dallesasse
Education Telecommunications

2. Google Story Builder
I am a 5th grade language arts teacher and
I am always looking for ways to get my 10 year
old students writing. Using a traditional pencil
and paper is always valuable, as is keying in a
story or paper on a computer. However, finding a
tool like Google Story Builder is like finding a
buried treasure! The program facilitates idea
building and story writing, but on top of that,
encourages peer editing, self-correction, and
most of all, collaboration!
Where to find Story Builder: http://docsstorybuilder.appspot.com/builder

3. Description of Google Story
Builder
Google Story Builder is a site where you
create characters, write a story, add music
and publish your story. You are able to show
characters editing and changing the story as
the story builds. It is similar to people
working together to edit a shared Google
doc where many people are creating and
editing a shared document.

4. Application of Google Story Builder
Google Story Builder
allows children to
discuss, create, edit
and share ideas on
one site. The site
allows the children to
go through the writing
process in one step.
They write, edit,
collaborate and
publish all within one
site.
 Here is an example
of a sample story
written, edited and
published on Story
Builder.
 http://goo.gl/ynIe5w

5. Application of Google Story Builder
Discuss:
Students work together to develop ideas for a
story.
Create:
The stories are created and the discussion
continues while the story is evolving.
Edit:
As each child takes a turn adding to the story,
they have the opportunity to edit and enhance
the work by adding stronger words, creating
complete sentences and correcting grammar,
spelling and punctuation.

6. Description of Google Story
Builder
Collaborate:
The students work together to create a complete
story. They learn to listen to each other, respect
each other’s ideas and to understand that when
working in a group, their ideas are not always
going to be used. It builds a sense of
compromise while learning.
Publish:
The students can publish their final story and
present it to the class. Story builder allows music
to be added to the presentation to enhance the
story.

7. Description of Google Story
Builder
Uses:
Although a wonderful tool, it is a learning tool.
This is a great way to introduce and emphasize
the 6 traits of writing, especially ideas, voice, and
word choice.
As each group discusses the story, they can add
ideas, add their personality to the writing and use
descriptive words in order to create a story that
shows off their understanding of the focused trait.

8. Introduction of Google Story
Builder
Our district currently uses the Journeys Common
Core Curriculum through Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. There are
weekly/lesson writing assignments that focus on a genre and a
writing trait. This app will be used by the children to
demonstrate their knowledge of the writing traits and how to
produce writing of a given genre.
IDEAS:
Students create a story
focused upon ideas. Their
ideas are expected to be
rich, creative and relate to
the genre.
VOICE:
Students build upon original story and work to add
voice. They continue with the same “ideas” and
work to add their personality and “flare” to the
writing. This will be a second writing and
publishing of the story.
WORD CHOICE:
Continuing with the story, the students now rewrite the story adding powerful and
strong words to the writing. How can they make the words within the story richer
and more detailed? The story will continue to grow as they make the changes as a
group.

9. Introduction of Google Story
Builder
Once finished with their story, they
will email the link created to their
teacher and the other students in
the class. This way, the students
can view their peer’s stories. The
groups will be expected to present
and discuss their stories to the
class.

10. Important things to know:
 Cannot Edit once Published
 Once the story is published, it isn’t accessible.
 If the students are going to use the same story to
enhance their writing, they may want to copy and
paste the story into a doc to save for the next
topic. They can then re-insert the text into the
appropriate character’s box and edit it as
necessary.
 Cannot Save
 It is a single sitting application. The story must be
published within a single day, as the app doesn’t
allow for saving.

11. Areas for more self-discovery
 Do you need a GAFE account in order to login
to the app?
 As I used the app, I was not able to login and was
not able to save work in order to revisit later. I will
need to dig deeper to find if there is a solution to
this problem.
 Are you able to send the information to Google
Docs to save work?
 Is there a way to insert pictures to the story?
 Are there video tutorials giving tips and “how
to use” information for the app?

12. Areas for more self-discovery
 Using as a stepping stone for
Google Docs.
 Create an initial story within
Story Builder to foster
collaboration and building of
the selected trait for the
 Uasceti vtihtye. story builder creations to create a final
shared project within Google docs. This can be
published and printed as a final project. The story
can also be copy and pasted into other apps, such
as book creator, or made into a slides presentation
where the students can add illustrations.