Tips for Teaching With Storia

Get tips on using Storia and quick activity ideas from teachers who've been using Storia in their classrooms.

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Rewarding Students With the Role of Page Turner

When I project from my iPad onto my interactive whiteboard, the iPad needs to be near the projector, which is at the back of my rug area. But I find that my read-alouds are much more effective when I sit in front of my students and can make eye contact with them while I read. It's just not the same if I'm sitting behind them.

To solve that problem, I assign the job of "Storia Page Turner" to a student, who turns each page when I point at him. This important page turning job keeps students who normally have trouble paying attention on their toes, and the kinesthetic action of flicking their finger across the iPad screen helps keep their wiggles in check, too. This has become a favorite classroom job, and my students have to earn the privilege.

—Alycia Zimmerman, P.S. 33, Chelsea Prep, New York, N.Y.

Introducing Storia to Your Students

When you introduce Storia to your students, pick a book that you can use as a whole-class lesson and use a projector or an Apple TV so all of your students can see the book and all of Storia's interactive features. This gets students excited about Storia.

Many students will want to download it for use at home, too. (What a great motivator for students who otherwise would not read at home on their own!) So follow up your lesson by sending Storia information home with your students.

—Kelly Eveleth, Willow Grove Elementary School, Poway, Calif.

Managing Storia Within Classroom Technology Constraints

To determine the kinds of books that will work best in your classroom, think about the technology that you have and the amount of time that students will have to access Storia.

If each student has frequent access to Storia, chapter books will work well. But if your students are sharing a limited number of devices, it is best to find books they can pick up and read without needing to follow an intense plot or read the book in its entirety. Non-fiction titles work well for this situation, since students do not necessarily need to read the entire book before their turn on the device is over.

—Kelly Eveleth, Willow Grove Elementary School, Poway, Calif.

Highlighting for Comprehension

I highlight specific words and phrases in advance. Then I ask my students why I highlighted them. For example, the student says, "I can tell you highlighted examples of cause and effect because..." I do this for partners so there can be a discussion between students.

—Victoria Jasztal, Moton Elementary School, Brooksville, Fla.

Rotating Storia so Every Student Is an e-Reader

In my classroom, I created a management log to keep track of students who use Storia. After the first students read their e-books to completion, they pass along their Storia devices to the next students in the reading rotation listed on the chart.

The log is displayed on chart paper and made visible for all students to see. Students even get to enter their Storia reading information on the chart, starting with their name, Storia device number, e-book title, reading start date, and reading finishing date.

This procedure makes my students accountable for their reading and Storia devices, and helps me stay organized and keep track of my students' e-reading progress.

—Debbie Tomasello, P.S. 33, Chelsea Prep, New York, N.Y.

Involving Parent Volunteers

Using parent volunteers to work with students on Storia is a win-win situation, because students can help parents learn how to use the computers or iPads.

—Kerry Araiza, Pomerado Elementary School, Poway, Calif.

Using Storia in Literature Circles

I ask students to complete a task once they have reached an assigned page. Student jobs are assigned, and students use the notes feature in Storia to complete their jobs and share thoughts about the book.

When students make a note on the notepad, they also include their initials so we know who wrote that comment.

—Jennifer Solis, Eucalyptus Elementary School, Hesperia, Calif.

Recording Reading Responses

For accountability purposes, I have students record their responses to Storia activities on large (5- x 8-inch) index cards. At the top of each card I write the student's name and the title "iPad / I Record." After completing an enriched activity, the students write down the date, the name of the activity, and their response or result on their cards.

Then when I check in with the group, they bring their index cards to the book club discussion, and we discuss their answers.

—Marissa Ochoa, Valley Elementary School, Poway, Calif.

3 Ways to Set Up Storia Bookshelves

Sky's the limit when setting up your Storia bookshelves! Which setup you choose depends on the needs of your class and students.

If you use a guided reading program, you can set up bookshelves for each reading level reflected in your classroom.

If you want to foster cooperation and collaboration, you can set up your bookshelves with the names of partnerships or book clubs. Then students within those partnerships and clubs can share and discuss the books.

You can also create a bookshelf for each student in your class.

—Michele Higgins, Midland Elementary School, Paramus, N.J.

Theme-Based Literature Circles

Rather than assigning the same book to everyone, assign a different book to groups of four or five students. All you need is one Storia device for each group. You can use desktop computers, laptops and netbooks, iPads, and your SMART Board. Feel free to mix and match devices, because it is good for students to become fluent using all of them.

Students take turns reading aloud. While one reads, the others take notes. This provides them the opportunity to hone their reading and listening skills. Like in a normal literature circle learning experience, they switch roles periodically, so all students get to read and take notes.

—Mary Blow, Lowville Academy Middle School, Lowville, N.Y.

Sharing Details for Understanding

I always tell my students that they know they have a text-based detail if they can go back into the text and put their finger on the detail. When reading Storia books, they can do that by adding a note on the detail and explaining why or how the detail answers the question.

When students are reading the same book, have them work in groups to annotate the text, making inferences, identifying textual evidence, using context clues, and analyzing the author's craft (repetition of words or phrases, tone, mood).

During the last 10 minutes of class, project the Storia book on the SMART Board and have one group's members take turns coming to the board and sharing their notes by annotating the text digitally, explaining why they feel the passage is a relevant text detail. Students in the other groups may modify or add to their notes while the others present.

Save the notes to reference later during writing assignments.

—Mary Blow, Lowville Academy Middle School, Lowville, N.Y.

Interactive Reading Club

Each week we focus on a different reading strategy or skill, such as prediction, evaluation, cause and effect, sequencing, etc. Pairs of students are given iPads and matched up with another duo, who will be their "journal buddies."

Each pair reads a Storia chapter together, and then at the end of the chapter, they type a note relating to the strategy focus of the week. For example, "The cause is that the Titanic hit an iceberg. The effect is that it created a hole that allowed water into the ship."

After their responses, the students each write a question for their journal buddies. These questions should derive from the skills – prefixes, antonyms, homophones — being focused on that week. For example: Identify three synonyms of the word "said." Can you identify the homophone of "principle" located in the chapter? Can you identify and define four words from the chapter that have a prefix?

The next day, the journal buddies exchange iPads. After they answer the questions their buddies wrote for them the previous day, the pair then reads the next chapter, responds to the weekly strategy focus, and each student again types a question for the journal buddies to answer the next day.

—Marissa Ochoa, Valley Elementary School, Poway, Calif.

Highlighting for ELL Understanding

Each student in the ELL group has an iPad and a partner she sits next to and collaborates with. Together, we do a choral reading of a page. Then I ask them to do something, like highlight the antonym for "giant." Or highlight the detail that supports the main idea that the character is upset.

Students independently look for the answer, highlight it, and turn to their partners to discuss their answers and check their responses. Then as a whole group, we discuss the answer and continue to choral read.

—Marissa Ochoa, Valley Elementary School, Poway, Calif.

Using Storia as a Listening Center

For my English language learners, I turn Storia into a listening center. During independent reading time or center time, the students attach headphones to their Storia devices so they can listen to the audio storytelling feature in Storia's enriched picture books.

As my enthused readers track each word as it is highlighted and read aloud to them, they make sound symbol correlations between the words and the audio pronunciations.

To assess their reading and listening comprehension, and to help them practice their writing skills, I give them a graphic organizer to complete. Some organizers will ask the students to draw a picture about the story and then write a sentence or two, while others ask students to identify character feelings, story settings, problems, solutions, or story sequence.

—Debbie Tomasello, P.S. 33, Chelsea Prep, New York, N.Y.

As the Plot Thickens: SMART Notebooks and Storia

It is difficult for students to understand different organizational patterns (cause/effect, spatial, compare/contrast, chronological, etc.). Here's one way you can help them with that.

In the SMART Notebook 11, turn the SMART Notebook invisible, so you can see Storia, yet retain access to the Notebook tools. You can write, highlight, add smiley faces, etc. As you annotate the text, use the capture tool to grab images of the text and your notations.

When you are finished reading and annotating, turn the invisible mode off to hide Storia, but retain the captured images in the SMART Notebook. Have students move the images around to sequence events in a timeline or identify and discuss the organizational pattern. Engage students in analytical thinking by discussing whether or not there would have been a more effective way of organizing the information, explaining why or why not.

—Mary Blow, Lowville Academy Middle School, Lowville, N.Y.

Using Storia to Enhance Reading and Writing Workshop

To use Storia to enhance reading and writing workshop mini-lessons, choose for your mini-lesson a passage from a book that students are familiar with and that teaches a specific strategy or skill. Display the selected passage on your interactive whiteboard for the class to see. While teaching your mini-lesson, you can use all of the whiteboard's tools to underline specific lines, highlight words, and so on.

—Michele Higgins, Midland Elementary School, Paramus, N.J.

Developing Fluency and Intonation

Teach students to read punctuation by having them record themselves reading aloud. (There are many iPad apps that you can use.) Whether they are reading a poem or a story, students will develop fluency and intonation as they practice reading text before they record themselves. And they will be more motivated to practice, or reread, because they want the recording to sound good.

You can also teach them how to read dialogue by assigning students to characters and reading aloud, like in a reader's theater.

—Mary Blow, Lowville Academy Middle School, Lowville, N.Y.

Listen In: Using Storia in Reading Corners

Get headphones! With them, students can utilize Storia while not disturbing others. They may go to the reading corner and have a story read to them and use the special features that use sound.

Inexpensive headphones work well. And if you get a splitter for the headphones, two students can utilize Storia on the iPad at the same time.

—Kerry Araiza, Pomerado Elementary School, Poway, Calif.

Motivating Struggling Readers

A great way to motivate struggling older students to read text on their independent reading level is to give them a Storia picture book on an iPad and send them to prekindergarten or kindergarten to read to the younger students.

I model for my students how I prepare for reading aloud in the classroom, prereading and tracking what my brain is thinking while I read. I also teach them how to design questions for their young students, which teaches them how to be better test-takers.

The "teachers" read their books over and over to prepare, thereby, developing fluency and intonation in their quest to please their young audience. If they struggle with this, they can turn on the enriched component and allow that to guide their lesson.

—Mary Blow, Lowville Academy Middle School, Lowville, N.Y.

Using Video Recordings to Assess Fluency

Having video of children reading can be a powerful teaching tool for them. Have the students practice reading along with the text and then record themselves using an iPad or other recording device. When they watch the video, they often can see and hear what they are doing correctly and incorrectly. And you can use that information to help the student make needed changes, while reinforcing good reading behaviors see and heard on the video.

Save the videos as part of a visual portfolio to help students see how far they have come during the year.

—Genia Connell, Leonard Elementary School, Troy, Michigan

A Web of Words

I have students collect vocabulary words on sticky notes as they read a Storia book. Then as a whole class we come together to create a word web, sorting and classifying the collection of their sticky-note words. They might sort by prefixes, suffixes, synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, meaning, etc. The word wall becomes a reference during writing.

—Mary Blow, Lowville Academy Middle School, Lowville, N.Y.

Encouraging Peer Reading

Encourage students to use Storia with peer reading: One student can read and one can turn the page.

—Kerry Araiza, Pomerado Elementary School, Poway, Calif.

Sight Word Search

Occasionally I will ask students who are using Storia during a literacy center to highlight all of the sight words that they find on an assigned page. Later I can return to that page and check the words they highlighted.

—Jennifer Solis, Eucalyptus Elementary School, Hesperia, Calif.

Identifying High-Frequency Words

In class, we are constantly identifying Tier 2 , or high-frequency, vocabulary words across the curriculum. While students are reading their Storia assignments, they have their Tier 2 journals with them. When they identify a Tier 2 word, they highlight it, record it in their journals along with a definition, and use it in a sentence of their own.

At the end of the week, we discuss in the book clubs the Tier 2 words identified, and each student chooses his or her favorite Tier 2 word of the week to add to the class chart of Tier 2 words.

—Marissa Ochoa, Valley Elementary School, Poway, Calif.

Visualizing Text

Following a mini-lesson on the comprehension strategy of visualizing text, have students highlight sentences that are written with rich descriptive language that allows them to picture what is going on. During response time, students can then draw the scene described by one of the sentences they highlighted. Their drawings can be done on regular paper or using an iPad drawing app.

—Genia Connell, Leonard Elementary School, Troy, Michigan

Using Notes to Make Predictions

Before reading a book, I have my students look at its title and cover. I ask them to make a prediction about the book and record it using the notes tool. This helps them set a purpose for reading. After they have read, students go back into the notes tool and either confirm or revise their predictions.

Students can make predictions for each chapter or whenever they think it’s appropriate throughout the book. The notes tool allows them to track their prediction revisions and their thinking while reading.

—Michele Higgins, Midland Elementary School, Paramus, N.J.

Word Study

As part of our word study program, students look for words in their everyday print that fit their weekly pattern. When they are reading a Storia book and come across the pattern they are working on, they highlight it using the highlighter tool. Then when it is time to record the words they found, they simply pull up their notes and add them to their word study notebook.

This can also be done with small groups by putting the text from Storia on the SMART Board.

—Genia Connell, Leonard Elementary School, Troy, Michigan

Readers Become Illustrators: Post-Reading With Pictures

After reading an e-book as a class, have your students retell the story by illustrating pages you created using text from the book.

—Jeremy Brunaccioni, Conway Grammar School, Conway, Mass.

Using the Notes Tool for Pre-Reading

Before students read, they go through the book to look at titles, pictures, captions, and other text features that may give them an idea of what the book is about. With Storia on the iPad, I have students preview each chapter before they read it and then use the notetaking tool to record notes that detail what they think is going to happen and why.

During conferencing or reading response time, students confirm their predictions or state what happened instead. Then they make predictions for what will happen next using the notetaking tool again.

—Genia Connell, Leonard Elementary School, Troy, Michigan

Rewarding Students With Storia

I position our iPads on a table next to my desk and allow students to use them when they are finished with other classroom work. To ensure all students get a chance to use Storia, I keep a class list check-off sheet on a clipboard.

—Kerry Araiza, Pomerado Elementary School, Poway, Calif.

Leveling Bookshelves

I create Storia bookshelves for reading levels. This allows students to know which shelf contains books at their reading level.

—Kerry Araiza, Pomerado Elementary School, Poway, Calif.

Using Storia Notes: "Look Who's Read Me"

I place a "Look Who's Read Me!" note at the beginning of each Storia book in my library. Every time a student starts the book, he adds his name and date to the list. They love to see who else in the class has read a particular book, and they often find their friends to let them know that they, too, are reading it. It's a great way to build a "social network" around reading.

—Alycia Zimmerman, P.S. 33, Chelsea Prep, New York, N.Y.

Using Storia to Enhance Coss-Age Tutoring

Utilize Storia books with cross-age tutors. The older students will love the responsibility of reading to the younger students and can encourage the younger students to do the Lightning Bolt activities.

—Kerry Araiza, Pomerado Elementary School, Poway, Calif.

Enhancing Nonfiction With Storia and an Interactive Whiteboard

When reading nonfiction, it is so important to pay close attention to all of the text features. The best nonfiction books have complicated page spreads with juicy illustrations, detailed diagrams, important captions, and more. When we read these books aloud, it is important that our students can get up close and personal with these text features, just as we hope they'll do when they read nonfiction independently. But it's difficult to share these features adequately with a "traditional" book — the illustrations are just too small to closely analyze as a whole class.

With a projected e-book, all of your students will be able to see the tiny details and important nuances in a nonfiction book — and you can zoom in even more on your iPad, drawing their attention even closer to important details.

With the heavy emphasis on teaching with nonfiction texts these days, I'm glad I have a way to use authentic nonfiction literature easily with my whole class. In fact, projecting Storia e-books onto my interactive whiteboard is now my favorite way to share nonfiction with my entire class!

—Alycia Zimmerman, P.S. 33, Chelsea Prep, New York, N.Y.

Design Your Own Interactive Activity

After a student has extensive firsthand experience with the range of interactive activities included in Storia's enriched e-books, challenge him to choose one type of interactive activity and to create a mock version for one of then unenriched Storia e-books that doesn't have enrichments.

For text-based activities, the student could create the activity directly in a Storia note. For image-based activities, the student could create a hard-copy enhancement on an oversized sticky note.

To further increase the level of the challenge, ask a student to design an interactive activity that does not currently exist in Storia. In addition to having her design a prototype of this new activity for several Storia e-books, ask her to explain why this activity would be worthwhile, who it would appeal to, and what types of e-books would it be best used for.

—Alycia Zimmerman, P.S. 33, Chelsea Prep, New York, N.Y.

Rotating Bookshelves Among Students

When I initially got Storia loaded on my iPad, I set up 10 bookshelves, one each for 10 students, and assigned one book to each shelf. The students would read their books during our independent/accelerated reader time, and when a student finished her book I changed the name on the bookshelf to assign it to another student.

This proved to really motivate the students. They couldn't wait for their turn, and their focus and attention to the books was outstanding.

—Jennifer Boatwright, Eucalyptus Elementary School, Hesperia, Calif.

Partner Reading and Discussion

Have students write down the reflective questions they have during their reading. When they meet with a partner during reading, they can pose their questions to their partner to guide discussion.

—Genia Connell, Leonard Elementary School, Troy, Michigan

Buddy Reading

To help students see how the writing skills they are learning are applied in "real life," I have two students sit together with a book and look for whatever skill we are using in writing that week. I might ask them to find transitional phrases, verbs, adjectives, commas in a series, or use of quotation marks. Name a skill, and it can be found in a book!

—Jennifer Boatwright, Eucalyptus Elementary School, Hesperia, Calif.

Making Connections

Being able to connect to the text is an important component of comprehension. When students are asked what connections they made (text:text, text:self, text:world) after an extended period of time, they often have trouble coming up with even one. With Storia on an iPad, though, students are able to write down their connections while they read using the notetaking tool.

—Genia Connell, Leonard Elementary School, Troy, Michigan

Teacher's Guide to Using Storia

How do I get started? > How do I use Storia's features? > How can I use Storia for instruction? > How do the assessment and report tools help? > How do I tell parents about Storia? >

Rewarding Students With the Role of Page Turner

—Alycia Zimmerman, P.S. 33, Chelsea Prep, New York, N.Y.