Story Teller goes right to the heart of the creative process by encouraging children to be spontaneously imaginative - no planning, no writing, just 'what happens next?'. There are no right or wrong answers, no good or bad stories, just the great ideas your children come up with.

The process is simple; choose the kind of story you want to tell - there are 27 different themes with over 4000 pictures including dinosaurs, Egyptians, fantasy, myths, Vikings etc. - and Story Teller gives you a picture from that theme. Record your story until you want another picture; you can have one, but only from the random selection Story Teller offers you. What new ideas will they spark? How will your narrative have to change? Does you're story go off in a completely different direction? And, if you're working with a partner, group or the whole class and a whiteboard, you'd better make a good case for what you think happens next. Of course, because this is a recording, improvised sound effects and silly voices are encouraged.

When your story is finished you can save it and play it back with the pictures. If you want to, you can use the built-in listen and type screen which lets you play back the story, pause it and type it out. The sound files can easily be saved as evidence for progress in oracy.

Use Story Teller as a whole-class warm-up exercise for any creative work, use it help children overcome blank-page phobia, use it with groups to provide the basis for written stories or with individuals who can benefit especially from creating something of their very own on a par with all the other children. Use it to develop speaking and listening skills.

Other things on this site:
Download a demo
Frequently Asked Questions
Download the latest Classroom Guide (Oct '07)

Walkthroughs:
Story Teller pupils' walkthrough (Flash)
Story Teller pupils' walkthrough (Windows Media Player)
Story Teller teachers' walkthough (Flash)
Story Teller teachers' walkthough (Windows Media Player)

Example stories:
The Adventures of Froggy
Dark Dragon

Bonus Picture sets:
The following link will download a zip file containing a picture set folder. The folder it contains has the extension .storypics. Open the zip folder and drag the storypics folder into the storypicsets folder in the Story Teller application folder. The most obvious location will be C:\Hopscotch\Story Teller 7-12\storypicsets, but you may have it installed elsewhere. If you have no idea where the damn thing is, use Search Files and Folders to find for storypicsets. Once you have dropped the new folder in with the rest of the picture sets, it will appear in the 'Choose pictures for your story' list. You can view all the pictures using the Organise pictures button.

Hospital This picture set contains photographs of various situations in a hospital, involving both children and adults. You may want to check it through before using it with younger children, or if you think the subject matter might upset a child. On the other hand, if they all watch Holby City they'll probably love it.

Useful Links:
School creativity 'needs support' - BBC
StoryQuest 2007 - The Princes Foundation for Children & the Arts
Report will back creative ICT for engagement - Merlin John
Children Talking - short BBC R4 article on improving primary school pupils talking skills

Curriculum links
Primary Framework - ICT applications in Literacy

Reviews
Simon Midgley's Review
Education Guardian review

Whose idea was this?
Marshal's

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