Chapter 6: Introducing Story Cubes for Creative Writing

Chapter 6: Introducing Story Cubes for Creative Writing 

Date/Time: 25th March 2024/Monday 3:35 pm - 29th March 24/Friday 2:25 pm

This is a very interesting blog post based on my experience of teaching young early and primary students at the Ranaa Child Welfare Foundation - an amazing school for street children in Peshawar. As a part of my project “Technology for a Cause - Enhancing Skills Empowering Kids'' I work voluntarily at times at Ranaa and SOS Children's Village Peshawar. This blog post will reflect on the amazing teaching and learning experience of working with the amazing children. The focus will be the lesson on writing creative stories using a story cube strategy.

The lesson started with the introduction of the teacher and the students. I had explored and searched for the story cube strategy online. I tried , practiced and was able to create 5  different story cubes using paper. I watched a few interesting videos on YouTube about creating a story cube, a video or a visual demonstration is much better than reading text. I saved the video so I could share with the students too. I wrote a lesson plan with objectives, activities and resources. This would help me remain focused and not deviate.

After the introduction I distributed the story cubes to the groups, students were sitting class wise in groups of 6. They were asked to read the words on the cubes. Most of the students could read the words on cubes, a few had difficulty. Students were then asked to make sentences using the words on the cubes. This was followed by reading the sentences individually.To my amazement most students were able to read the full sentences. They could translate words into Urdu. While checking the written work I found some errors in spelling mistakes,capital letter concerns in sentences. In the next class I shared the errors in sample sentences , it was a whole class activity on white board that proved effective.

Next, students were given a challenging task to make story cubes using papers. They found the task very interesting and engaging but challenging. Though I demonstrated the process of creating a story cube to them, still they found it difficult to follow all steps. And I had to revise the lesson for the next day. Based on my observation I showed them the video of making a story cube. To my sheer amazement most students tried and were able to create the story cube this time, some needed my assistance.

In the next class students completed a worksheet about making sentences and drawing the sentences to illustrate the meaning of the sentences. Most students have done well in the worksheets and only a few spelling errors were found. Students will check their errors. Students will create a story book online in abcya story maker in next class. They will explore the edtech resources. They will type the story, save, download and print their story books. Once done they will read the story books to the whole class.

In today’s class students were supposed to work on storymaker in abcya online. I had to revise the task a little. We started off with a mind mapping activity on the white board about I can statements. Students came up with a number of activities they can do. They made the same cloud/mind map on the back of their worksheets on the blank side. Almost all students were able to do the task. It was great to see students come up with different activities they can do. In the next activity students had to complete a worksheet about I can statements. The worksheet was helpful since I added a word bank and images to support the students. They could identify the actions in the images and select the right words to complete the I Can statements. Most students were able to do the worksheet task smoothly.

The ICT task of creating a story book in story maker proved to be challenging. It was tough and I did not realize most students were working on the laptop for the first time. They could open but needed assistance in opening the links. Some needed assistance with cursor movements on screen and keyboard strokes. They had difficulty in selecting objects on screen using the cursor , moving objects on screen using the cursor etc. nor do they seem to have any idea of saving work, downloading work etc 

To be honest, I did not think of doing a survey to gather information on the ICT skills of students , which was a must before letting students work on the laptops. The task could have been revised in light of the survey. That was one of the reasons students found working in abcya story maker is quite challenging. A few could type a few sentences in story maker, but drawing using the cursor was way challenging for them, using the eraser, the paint palette and bucket tools was tough. They needed practice with working with the keys on the laptop and the cursor control on screen. 

I did try letting three students do a coloring activity online. It just needed simple movements, using a cursor to select the color from the color palette and clicking on the space where it needed to be filled. After practicing the students could not only choose colors but also choose the different coloring pages from the given coloring pages. It was a great sight to see them come up with amazing colored drawings. It was creative. They wanted to practice more and I told them, in the next class I can let them practice. 

There seemed to be some issues with the abcya link as well, it was not loading on some laptops amidst the internet connection. The laptops were charged but somehow students were not comfortable sharing with their peers. They wanted to work individually on the laptops. I would though encourage peer work and sharing of resources among learners. 

Overall, I think it is a great learning experience for me and my students. It is a great learning journey and I have always enjoyed being a part of it. It is my way of contributing to the society of well deserving children in a very positive way.  Enjoy reading till my next blog post soon, I will keep you all posted and updated with my new creative & innovative activities at the Ranaa Child Welfare Foundation in Peshawar.

Regards and prayers

Sheeba Ajmal