Story Starters

      I have re-discovered an old favorite that I used to use a lot in therapy and forgot about. I first found this tool in 2011. I used it for a variety of purposes. It is designed to facilitate writing and it certainly can be used for that, but I found a lot of different ways to use this tool.

Scholastic Story Starters, http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/story-starters/index.html, will generate a writing prompt with 4 themes and various grade levels that you get to choose.

Some ideas for using this online tool in speech and language therapy:

1. Generate a prompt, brainstorm, and write together as a group with your students orally saying the sentences. 
2. Have speech students write a sound loaded story with their target sound. 
3. Write a single sentence that includes who + did what + where + when + why. Then write 5 WH questions about the sentence. 
4. Have students write a past tense story/paragraph and include past tense verb forms. 

Here is an example of number 3 above: Using this to generate WH questions/answers. 

I chose scrambler theme with K/1 grade level. I spun the lever and got: Write a question about a yellow fox who rides zebras. You can keep spinning the larger lever or push the small buttons to just change parts of the prompt until you get something you like and want to write about. I chose to change the second part "a yellow" because that seemed like a strange color for a fox. 

I got this: 

When you are happy with the prompt, hit next and choose a format for your story: notebook, letter, newspaper, or postcard. I chose notebook and I wrote a sentence and 5 questions. Then you can either draw a picture for your story or leave it blank. After you are finished you can print it out and let the students draw their own pictures after they write the answers to the questions. 

I also like to pull up "how to draw" step by step instructions and let the students read the steps to me as I do a quick draw or for them to draw if I print it out. Then I can ask all kinds of great sequencing questions like what did I draw first. What do/did I draw after the.... etc. It really depends on your goals! Here is what I came up with for this prompt: The old fox rides zebras to the store everyday because he is too old to walk. 

You can then print it out and/or download it as a PDF to save it. This particular activity could help with these language goals: 

• Writing more detailed sentences
• Formulating/asking questions
• Answering WH questions

You can use this tool prior to therapy time and print it out or use it during therapy and have the students help you write. 

I hope you find some creative ways to write sentences, paragraphs, and stories using this fun interactive story starter tool!

Ms. Coyle MS CCC/SLP