Toontastic Storytelling

As elementary reading teachers, we are always on the lookout for fun and engaging educational games. Upon searching through Allan Carrington's Padagogy Wheel, we discovered Toontastic. Toontastic is a fun way for kids to build their own stories and learn about the story arc. They can choose their own characters and move them around the screen, creating a story as they record themselves. This would be a great way to teach storytelling and engage students' imaginations. Through building their own stories, students may be better able to understand the structure of stories and to better comprehend other stories.

It would be important to help students learn the story arc as they use this app. A fun way to integrate the app into a lesson would be to ask students what their ideas are on making a good story as an introduction to the lesson. Letting the students work on their own for a while to explore the app and to practice storytelling would help to engage their minds and collaborate with other students. After reviewing the students' initial stories, the teacher would be able to find out what students know and what they are confused about regarding both content and technological issues. As always, when using technology in the classroom, it is important to make sure students are on task so walking around the room while they are creating their stories would be a good idea. Luckily, the app seems very engaging so it shouldn't be a problem!

- Jackie, Amanda, & Liz