Making Super Stories,
Brilliant Books and more...

One of my favourite 2Simple programs is 2Create a Story which I've used with children from Year 2 up to Year 6. It lets you make stories / books which can include text, pictures, animation and audio.

All of the children I have used it with have really enjoyed the tasks set. However, some of the older children wanted to try things that the software wasn't capable of, e.g. moving individual characters within an image or having sequences of actions taking place.

2Simple has taken this kind of feedback into account and have developed '2Create a Super Story'. This has improved upon the previous version of the software considerably and I'm really impressed by its potential. Lots of new options have been added to the main menu allowing children (and teachers) to make different types of books... and that's an important thing to remember. This software isn't limited to making stories - you can create a wide range of interactive texts covering all types of genres.

Within each of these options, the familiar 2Simple creative tools are available. You can switch between the simple pens (shown below left) and the more advanced drawing tools (show below right), to adapt the software for the age and ability of your pupils.

When you begin building your 'story', there are spaces to enter text (with options to change the font and text size) and spaces for drawings. Within these drawing areas, you can:

• Draw your own pictures as a background image.
• Import / Paste images from other sources (e.g. your own photos, pictures from a web cam, and images found online).
• Create objects, which can play a more active role within the text. The picture below shows the different types of template that are available for these objects (on the left). Within each of these sections, there are a range of templates, e.g. in the animal section, there are templates for a dog / cat / four legged creature, birds, fish, snakes and dinosaurs! When you choose one of these, a basic outline is given, which children then have to add colour and detail to.
  

You now have much more control over each of these objects. You can set them to move from one place to another, hide from view, change size, rotate... and much more. These actions can occur at particular points within a timeline, or you can make the user click the mouse button to make the object 'act' (giving the potential for much more interactive 'stories').

After spending time using it myself, I'm starting to see it as a fantastic resource-creation tool for teachers. I know that 2Create a SuperStory is designed with children in mind, but adults can easily make interactive texts for children in their class by using the program. Upon saving, SWF files are automatically created which can be embedded onto a school website or a VLE to support the children's learning both in the classroom and at home.

The current topic in my class is 'Italy', so I created some resources which I know that I can (and will) be using with my own pupils. Here's an example of a non-fiction text that I created using the 'Reference' option. Browse through the pages slowly to see the different interactive features that have been set:

I love the way that you can add these interactive elements to make children engage with the content more actively. Here's another example... a story that was created using the 'Aged' setting:

I could play this story full-screen on our interactive whiteboard, showing the photos and discussing the places shown. Alternatively, this could be posted on our school site and I could set related tasks as part of a homework activity. Brilliant!

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