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Engaging Students with #BookSnaps

Reinventing how your students discuss text within the classroom

Edmund Burke once said “Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.” As a teacher, I am always looking for ways to reinvent how students interact with the text they are reading as well as new ways to facilitate discussion within the classroom. I want students to develop a deep love for reading but also foster the ability to engage in conversations based on their reading. While on my constant search for new tools and strategies to accomplish this goal, I stumbled across BookSnaps, an idea created by Tara Martin ( http://www.tarammartin.com/booksnaps/ ).

In the classroom I have seen BookSnaps allow students to share connections with the text along with evidence to support a central idea or theme. In addition, it has allowed students to use Bitmojis to display emotions the text generates which often facilitates discussion among the readers when the text draws multiple emotions. Through the use of the BookSnaps, students are able to react to others’ reflections and create dialogue around a common text. Often, after creating BookSnaps, students complete a gallery walk to view other students’ thinking while asking questions based on the evidence provided within the BookSnap. They can also be used within small groups to help foster discussion around a common text.

As educators, we are often looking for new ways to engage and connect with our students as well as other colleagues. BookSnaps have provided me this exact opportunity and has allowed me and my students to reflect on our text in new ways!

Want to learn more about BookSnaps? View my 30-minute webinar !

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4 thoughts on “ Engaging Students with #BookSnaps ”

It’s a new way to keep students engaged in reading and writing!

This is a cool way to keep them engaged

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About the Author: Andrea Raines began her career in New Hanover County as a third grade teacher. After several years she transitioned into the role of instructional coach at the elementary school where she taught. For the last two years, Andrea has implemented professional development and on-site support working with her system’s Beginning Teachers. New Hanover County is located in Wilmington, North Carolina, and serves approximately 25,000 students at its 45 public schools.

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I recently commented on a post in the Facebook group and had several people ask for directons, so I thought I would share on the site. Actually, I searched and was surprised that I haven’t shared Bookshaps here before.

I decided to do BookSnaps after hearing my friend  Sarah Soper  excitedly talk about them. I was looking for a way for my students to engage with their choice novels yet not annotate the full text. BookSnaps seemed like the perfect solution, and even though I am not a SnapChat person, I downloaded the app, opened an account, and nervously gave the assignment to my students. There was a little bit of a learning curve since I was unfamiliar with SnapChat, but overall I learned quickly.

If you or your students don’t want to use SnapChat, the assignment can easily be done with Google Slides. Below are videos for SnapChat and Google slides versions, Sarah’s instructions (which have been slightly modified by me), and student samples. The first four exmples through SnapChat and the final three are done through Google slides. I’ve also included Tara Martin’s videos after the examples. I really think you and your students will enjoy this assignment!

BookSnaps Project Instructions

Susan Barber  teaches at Midtown High School in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition to reading, writing, and investing in the next generation, she loves watching college football with her family especially when Alabama is playing.

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Meredith Akers

Grow, reflect, share, #booksnaps google slides template.

Several years ago, while I was an Assistant Principal at Ault Elementary, my awesome partner AP, Julie Clements ( @jclements01 ), and I lead an online book study together. We wanted to have all of our participants create a #BookSnap as evidence of their learning and as a way to process their reading. If you aren’t familiar with #BookSnaps, the original idea was to snap a picture of a page from a book and using the SnapChat app, add annotations, bitmoji’s, and stickers to elaborate, express your feelings, or connect with the quote.

Check out what Tara Martin ( @TaraMartinEdu ), the inventor of the #BookSnap. shares in her first post explaining how #BookSnaps came to be and how to create them by clicking this link .

Here are some examples of #BookSnaps that I have created in the past:

While Julie and I loved this idea and both had experience deepening our own personal learning by creating #BookSnaps, we knew that creating #BookSnaps for our online book study had several constraints:

• Not everyone was familiar with this instructional strategy, and
• Not everyone had SnapChat or would be willing to download it

These same constraints may be true for professional development – or even classrooms with students – that you lead. Here’s what we came up with: A Collaborative Google Slide Deck! Did you know that you can snap a picture using your webcam RIGHT FROM SLIDES?? And, by sharing ONE slide deck with ALL of your students, you don’t lose the social aspect of sharing and learning from each other that we loved about SnapChat!

Check out these images from our #BookSnaps Google Slide deck – our instructions and examples from our Kids Deserve It book study:

Thought of a way you might be able to use this strategy with adult or student learners?

Click here to grab a copy of the Booksnaps Google Slides Template that you can edit for your own classroom! 

Want more ideas for Google Slides assignments like this one? Check out this blog post featuring 5 different Collaborative Google Slides Templates! 

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6 thoughts on “ #BookSnaps Google Slides Template ”

Another winner we can use immediately!

Like Liked by 1 person

Thank you Shira!

I love this idea! I can see using it with a student to show their thinking with Notice & Note, literary elements, and collaborative book studies throughout our district. I am moving to instructional coaching and am busting to share it with teachers in August. I just made a blog post about it that will publish tomorrow! Thank you for the fabulous quick formative!

YAY!!! I’d love to see your blog post! #bettertogether

Thank you very much for this Google Slides version of BookSnaps!

So glad it is helpful!!! Hope you and your students enjoy!

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Trending Post : 12 Powerful Discussion Strategies to Engage Students

Scaffolding a Booksnap Lesson: Amplify Reading Comprehension

Looking for a fun booksnap lesson? Booksnaps are one of the newer trends in reading education. They originated with Tara Martin on Twitter and have steadily grown in popularity in a short period of time. In essence, booksnaps are a way for students to visually show how they are reacting to, processing, and / or connecting with a text. As such, they are more meaningful for the creator than the audience.

Contrary to popular belief, booksnaps aren’t just for ELA. They are for all subjects. Any time you want students to slow down and truly process how they are thinking about a text, you can use them. Change your goal for what you’d like students to demonstrate through their snap based upon the standard and content you are teaching at the time.

Just like one pagers , when I first contemplated trying them, I wanted to know how to scaffold the introductory booksnap lesson. Because I didn’t find much in the way of an answer to that on the web, a couple of my ELA friends and I began experimenting. In this post, I’m sharing the lesson that worked for us after careful planning.

Everyone loves music. Music lyrics are bite-size texts that are quick to digest and evoke strong emotions. We used the song “Brave” by Sara Bareilles. At first, we planned to use the music video  but found that it distracted students from the words. Instead, this is a version you could use with just the lyrics, and this is a combination of the video and lyrics.

Brain Break…

After listening, students stood up and faced a partner. The goal was to get their blood flowing and mouths moving so that they would be more likely to participate in discussion. Next, they talked about connections they made to the song. Here are the directions:

One of you will begin. That person will speak for 30 seconds and explain your reaction to, connection with, and emotions felt as you listened to the song. Please do not evaluate or critique the song at this time.

After 30 seconds, I redirected:

Now it’s the second person’s turn to talk. You have 30 seconds also but with an added responsibility. Begin with, “I heard you saying…” and paraphrase what your partner said to show you are listening. Then, explain how you responded to the song, which is probably different than your partner.

Whole-Class Discussion…

After returning to their seats, more students expressed that they didn’t like the song than those who did. That was perfect! I used that opportunity to help them understand that when we are reading a text we don’t enjoy, it’s critical that we can still connect with it so that we remember it, relate to it, and understand it better.

We then projected the song lyrics on the smart board. After explaining that we can make a connection to a whole book or a whole song, we talked about how we can also make a connection to a specific line or passage that speaks to us. That’s when I modeled a specific connection with the song “Brave.”

When I read the line “Maybe there’s a way out of the cage where you live,” it spoke to me. I have never thought about it from this angle. If we are feeling trapped because we cannot speak what we believe or be who we really are on the inside for fear of judgement, that is somewhat similar to living in a cage, like an animal. Are we truly free?

Then, I invited students to select lines that resonated with them. They did an AMAZING job! So many students who claimed they didn’t like the song raised their hands and shared specific lines and their connections. They shared about bullying, friendships, families, and trust.

Introducing Booksnaps

We transitioned from the song lyrics to the booksnap lesson by pulling up examples I created using Google Slides. Students were asked to study them the night before and to think about how they would define the term booksnap based on the examples, which helped speed up our discussion and promote critical thinking.

Earlier in the year, the students had read “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi,” so they were familiar with that story. Having a common text to discuss when introducing booksnaps is very helpful. Students quickly came to the conclusion that booksnaps are reactions to and connections to specific parts of a text as represented through various elements, like text, images, gifs, hashtags, and emojis.

A Note about Digital Citizenship…

After explaining my connections to the two example texts, we briefly covered digital citizenship:

• With booksnaps, we should always include the title and author of the text to cite our source.
• Content needs to be appropriate, as the products will be shared with others.
• We should not edit or delete anyone else’s work.

Offering choice…

We allowed students to create their booksnap using any photo editing program they enjoy. PicCollage, Notability, Slides, and Buncee are some common ones. Snapchat is where they originated (if your students are allowed to snap during school). However, we wanted them all to save their final booksnap image in a Google Slides presentation so that the class could watch them all play through and see how their peers responded to the same text.

Students were then assigned one page of “Rikki Tikki Tavi” in order to make their own booksnap. They could select any line(s) from that page. We wanted to give them a group so that they could compare reactions to the same part of the text, but we also wanted to make sure students were moving beyond page one when looking for a line or passage to snap.

Students had about fifteen minutes in class to begin their own booksnaps, which wrapped up Day 1 of our lesson.

Sharing Booksnaps

After reflecting on Day 1, we decided our students needed more scaffolding with the types of content they can put in a booksnap. Simply giving them a list of ideas and showing examples wasn’t enough. We had students who were leaving a lot of white space, who were summarizing, and who were only adding one or two additional components to their booksnaps. Here is an example of what we saw:

A lot of them were really more of a summary collage than a reaction or connection. So, I made a checklist to go with the booksnap lesson.

We began Day 2 by discussing the bad example I created (pictured above) and comparing it to the expectations on the checklist. After, I showed them how I improved upon my “bad booksnap” by discussing the image below. I explained to students that I’m still not 100 percent happy with it but that booksnaps are works of art, always in progress, just like our thoughts about a text after reading it.

Then, students shared their booksnaps with their group members to get feedback on what specific things they can improve upon in the future.

Getting Feedback…

To provide some closure and gather a little more data, we asked students to fill out a Google Form. We asked questions about what they enjoyed, what was difficult, how they reflected, how confident they feel about making one independently, and what questions they still had.

Because our students were just experimenting with booksnaps at an early stage, we decided we were not going to grade them. It’s important for students to know they can take a risk when trying something new without a fear of penalty if they do it “wrong.”

Overall, we loved this lesson, and the students did, too. I think the most important thing when trying your first booksnap lesson is to emphasize there is no one right way to create them. Also, make sure students know that it’s perfectly acceptable for them to make a different connection with a text than their peers. We all bring different life experiences and knowledge bases to the reading table.

Reflecting…

Next time, I want to explicitly model the thought process I put into transforming a “bad” booksnap into a “good” one. This will take time. But, it will help students to hear the internal dialogue while simultaneously seeing the changes.

I also think students would benefit from being assigned a specific passage from the text. Or, perhaps it would have worked to just give them a list of a few options for passages. Letting them choose any part was hard because some of them struggled to make connections, but not enough students had chosen the same passage to be able to see different perspectives on the same lines.

The takeaway is that the booksnap (even if it’s not perfectly designed or executed) should help a student comprehend a text more deeply. Months after finishing the story, students should be able to pull up their booksnap and remember what they read because of the nature of the personal response.

Perhaps you’ve been wanting to try booksnaps but haven’t been sure how to get started, or maybe you’ve never heard of them until now. I hope this post gives you some ideas for scaffolding your booksnap lesson successfully. With some practice, it really is a snap!

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If you are looking for a specific booksnap lesson plan to introduce students to them, you may like this one – spot-a-book . It combines elements of booksnaps with social media platforms. But! Students are not asked to actually use social media to create their snap.

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How to Use Book Snaps to Engage Your Students

Book Snaps are an interactive and engaging activity for ANY book! The Book Snap is comprised of a snap (a picture) that represents the work and a caption (a quotation from the work). They are perfect for introducing a snapshot of a book during a choice reading unit, like my Literary Lenses Novel Study Unit , or an enrichment activity to engage students in higher-order analysis. As a bonus, they look beautiful printed and displayed around the room for trendy and meaningful classroom decor. Keep reading for my free template so you and your students can make your own.

Introducing Book Options

To introduce the book options for our choice reading unit, I used my own Book Snaps to pair with an excerpt from the novel. This makes the activity similar to a book tasting, but with a social media twist. They were perfect to give students a snapshot of the book without judging it by its cover.

I made these fun *Book Snaps* to introduce students to the eight book options to start our choice novel unit tomorrow.  I {love} how they turned out! 😍🤓 #janeeyre A post shared by Dr. Jenna Copper (Doc Cop) (@doc_cop) on Mar 20, 2017 at 2:15pm PDT

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I wrapped each book in black paper, like a gift, and created a Book Snap for each book (more on that below). Once I had my Book Snaps ready to go, I taped them to the corresponding wrapped books and placed each book with a group of desks. Students moved around the classroom to each station to learn about the books and pick their favorite option.

Enrichment Activity

These Book Snaps also make a great activity for students as an additional analysis for your choice reading assignment or any reading assignment. Sign up below, and I’ll email you my free template.

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Ask students to find a picture that represents a “snap” of the book and a corresponding quotation for that picture. I advise students to use images from the public domain or are free for public use, so that they are only using images with a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, which means they are completely free to use without attribution. Unsplash and Pexels are our favorite websites for this project. They should add emojis and hashtags that would enhance that Book Snap. The beauty of this activity is that even if you’re doing a whole class novel, you are certain to have MANY different Book Snaps.

Below is a demonstration for how to create a Book Snap. You can show your students for a quick tutorial.

Once they’re completed, I ask students to present an explanation for their Book Snaps to the class. I ask them to tell us what they did and why. My AP Literature students create Book Snaps as a review for the Open-Ended Free Response Question on the AP exam. They work really well for this review because the visuals and quotations make them particularly memorable. Maybe they’ll even remember that Book Snap quotation to impress the AP readers!

Don’t forget to display your Book Snaps around the room. I love how they look on cardstock or photo paper.

You can check out my entire choice reading unit that pairs with Book Snaps here .

Check out the first post in this choice reading series, “How to Engage Your Readers With Choice Reading: The Set Up,”  here .

Happy Snappin’!

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Book Snaps: Reading Activity for Any Work + Classroom Decor

Description

Book Snaps are a great activity to create excitement before, during, or after reading ANY text. Students will assume the role of a character from any work. Then, they will “take a picture” as that character would for their Book Snap. The image will represent an important aspect of the work. To finish their Book Snaps, students will select a quotation from the work that pairs with the image, and they will add a text bar with the quotation in true Snap Chat style. An editable rubric is included if you would like students to present their selections and rationale to class.

As a bonus, they make beautiful classroom décor! You can read about how I use Book Snaps to introduce my choice reading unit here . This assignment pairs with my favorite unit of the year: The Critical Reader’s Novel Study Unit .

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42 Creative Book Report Ideas for Students

Inspire your students to share their love of books.

Responding to what you read is an important literacy skill. Reading about other people’s experiences and perspectives helps kids learn about the world. And although students don’t need to dive deeply into every single book they read, occasionally digging into characters, settings, and themes can help them learn to look beyond the prose. Here are 42 creative book report ideas designed to make reading more meaningful.

1. Concrete Found Poem

This clever activity is basically a shape poem made up of words, phrases, and whole sentences found in the books students read. The words come together to create an image that represents something from the story.

2. Graphic Novel

Have students rewrite the book they are reading, or a chapter of their book, as a graphic novel. Set parameters for the assignment such as including six scenes from the story, three characters, details about the setting, etc. And, of course, include detailed illustrations to accompany the story.

3. Book Snaps

Book Snaps are a way for students to visually show how they are reacting to, processing, and/or connecting with a text. First, students snap a picture of a page in the book they are reading. Then, they add comments, images, highlights, and more.

4. Diary Entry

Have your students place themselves in the shoes of one of the characters from their book and write a first-person diary entry of a critical moment from the story. Ask them to choose a moment in the story where the character has plenty of interaction and emotion to share in a diary entry.

5. Character To-Do List

This fun activity is an off-the-beaten-path way to dive deep into character analysis. Get inside the head of the main character in a book and write a to-do list that they might write. Use actual information from the text, but also make inferences into what that character may wish to accomplish.

6. Mint Tin Book Report

There are so many super-creative, open-ended projects you can use mint tins for. This teacher blogger describes the process of creating book reports using them. There’s even a free template for cards that fit inside.

7. Fictional Yearbook Entries

Ask your students to create a yearbook based on the characters and setting in the book. What do they look like? Cut out magazine pictures to give a good visual image for their school picture. What kind of superlative might they get? Best looking? Class clown? What clubs would they be in or lead? Did they win any awards? It should be obvious from their small yearbooks whether your students dug deep into the characters in their books. They may also learn that who we are as individuals is reflected in what we choose to do with our lives.

8. Book Report Cake

This project would be perfect for a book tasting in your classroom! Each student presents their book report in the shape of food. See the sandwich and pizza options above and check out this blog for more delicious ideas.

9. Current Events Comparison

Have students locate three to five current events articles a character in their book might be interested in. After they’ve found the articles, have them explain why the character would find them interesting and how they relate to the book. Learning about how current events affect time, place, and people is critical to helping develop opinions about what we read and experience in life.

10. Sandwich Book Report

Yum! You’ll notice a lot of our creative book report ideas revolve around food. In this oldie but goodie, each layer of this book report sandwich covers a different element of the book—characters, setting, conflict, etc. A fun adaptation of this project is the book report cheeseburger.

11. Book Alphabet

Choose 15 to 20 alphabet books to help give your students examples of how they work around themes. Then ask your students to create their own Book Alphabet based on the book they read. What artifacts, vocabulary words, and names reflect the important parts of the book? After they find a word to represent each letter, have them write one sentence that explains where the word fits in.

12. Peekaboo Book Report

Using cardboard lap books (or small science report boards), students include details about their book’s main characters, plot, setting, conflict, resolution, etc. Then they draw a head and arms on card stock and attach them to the board from behind to make it look like the main character is peeking over the report.

13. T-Shirt Book Report

Another fun and creative idea: Create a wearable book report with a plain white tee. Come up with your own using Sharpie pens and acrylic paint. Get step-by-step directions .

14. Book Jacket

Have students create a new book jacket for their story. Include an attractive illustrated cover, a summary, a short biography of the author, and a few reviews from readers.

15. Watercolor Rainbow Book Report

This is great for biography research projects. Students cut out a photocopied image of their subject and glue it in the middle. Then, they draw lines from the image to the edges of the paper, like rays of sunshine, and fill in each section with information about the person. As a book report template, the center image could be a copy of the book cover, and each section expands on key information such as character names, theme(s), conflict, resolution, etc.

16. Act the Part

Have students dress up as their favorite character from the book and present an oral book report. If their favorite character is not the main character, retell the story from their point of view.

17. Pizza Box Book Report

If you’re looking for creative book report ideas that use upcycled materials, try this one using a pizza box. It works well for both nonfiction and fiction book reports. The top lid provides a picture of the book cover. Each wedge of the pizza pie tells part of the story.

18. Bookmark

Have students create a custom illustrated bookmark that includes drawings and words from either their favorite chapter or the entire book.

19. Book Reports in a Bag

Looking for book report ideas that really encourage creative thinking? With book reports in a bag, students read a book and write a summary. Then, they decorate a paper grocery bag with a scene from the book, place five items that represent something from the book inside the bag, and present the bag to the class.

20. Reading Lists for Characters

Ask your students to think about a character in their book. What kinds of books might that character like to read? Take them to the library to choose five books the character might have on their to-be-read list. Have them list the books and explain what each book might mean to the character. Post the to-be-read lists for others to see and choose from—there’s nothing like trying out a book character’s style when developing your own identity.

21. File Folder Book Report

Also called a lap book, this easy-to-make book report hits on all the major elements of a book study and gives students a chance to show what they know in a colorful way.

22. Collage

Create a collage using pictures and words that represent different parts of the book. Use old magazines or print pictures from the Internet.

23. Book Report Triorama

Who doesn’t love a multidimensional book report? This image shows a 3D model, but Elisha Ann provides a lesson to show students how to glue four triangles together to make a 4D model.

24. Timeline

Have students create a timeline of the main events from their book. Be sure to include character names and details for each event. Use 8 x 11 sheets of paper taped together or a long portion of bulletin board paper.

25. Clothes Hanger Book Report Mobile

This creative project doesn’t require a fancy or expensive supply list. Students just need an ordinary clothes hanger, strings, and paper. The body of the hanger is used to identify the book, and the cards on the strings dangling below are filled with key elements of the book, like characters, setting, and a summary.

26. Public Service Announcement

If a student has read a book about a cause that affects people, animals, or the environment, teach them about public service announcements . Once they understand what a PSA is, have them research the issue or cause that stood out in the book. Then give them a template for a storyboard so they can create their own PSA. Some students might want to take it a step further and create a video based on their storyboard. Consider sharing their storyboard or video with an organization that supports the cause or issue.

27. Dodecahedron Book Report

Creative book report ideas think outside the box. In this case, it’s a ball! SO much information can be covered on the 12 panels , and it allows students to take a deep dive in a creative way.

28. Character Cards

Make trading cards (like baseball cards) for a few characters from the book. On the front side, draw the character. On the back side, make a list of their character traits and include a quote or two.

29. Book Report Booklets

This clever book report is made from ordinary paper bags. Stack the paper bags on top of each other, fold them in half, and staple the closed-off ends of the bags together. Students can write, draw, and decorate on the paper bag pages. They can also record information on writing or drawing paper and glue the paper onto the pages. The open ends of the bags can be used as pockets to insert photos, cut-outs, postcards, or other flat items that help them tell their story.

30. Letter to the Author

Write a letter to the author of the book. Tell them three things you really liked about the story. Ask three questions about the plot, characters, or anything else you’re curious about.

31. Book Report Charm Bracelet

What a “charming” way to write a book report! Each illustrated bracelet charm captures a character, an event in the plot, setting, or other detail.

32. Fact Sheet

Have students create a list of 10 facts that they learned from reading the book. Have them write the facts in complete sentences, and be sure that each fact is something that they didn’t know before they read the book.

33. Cereal Box TV Book Report

This book report project is a low-tech version of a television made from a cereal box and two paper towel rolls. Students create the viewing screen cut-out at the top, then insert a scroll of paper with writing and illustrations inside the box. When the cardboard roll is rotated, the story unfolds.

34. Be a Character Therapist

Therapists work to uncover their clients’ fears based on their words and actions. When we read books, we must learn to use a character’s actions and dialogue to infer their fears. Many plots revolve around a character’s fear and the work it takes to overcome that fear. Ask students to identify a character’s fear and find 8 to 10 scenes that prove this fear exists. Then have them write about ways the character overcame the fear (or didn’t) in the story. What might the character have done differently?

35. Mind Maps

Mind maps can be a great way to synthesize what students have learned from reading a book. Plus, there are so many ways to approach them. Begin by writing a central idea in the middle of the page. For example, general information, characters, plot, etc. Then branch out from the center with ideas, thoughts, and connections to material from the book.

36. Foldables

From Rainbows Within Reach , this clever idea would be a great introduction to writing book reports. Adapt the flap categories for students at different levels. Adjust the number of categories (or flaps) per the needs of your students.

37. Board games

This is a great project if you want your students to develop a little more insight into what they’re reading. Have them think about the elements of their favorite board games and how they can be adapted to fit this assignment. For more, here are step-by-step directions .

38. Comic strips

If you’re looking for creative book report ideas for students who like graphic novels, try comic strips. Include an illustrated cover with the title and author. The pages of the book should retell the story using dialogue and descriptions of the setting and characters. Of course, no comic book would be complete without copious illustrations and thought bubbles.

39. Timeline

Create a timeline using a long roll of butcher paper, a poster board, or index cards taped together. For each event on the timeline, write a brief description of what happens. Add pictures, clip art, word art, and symbols to make the timeline more lively and colorful.

40. Cereal Box

Recycle a cereal box and create a book report Wheaties-style. Decorate all sides of the box with information about the book’s characters, setting, plot, summary, etc.

41. Wanted Poster

Make a “wanted” poster for one of the book’s main characters. Indicate whether they are wanted dead or alive. Include a picture of the character and a description of what the character is “wanted” for, three examples of the character showing this trait, and a detailed account of where the character was last seen.

42. Movie Version

If the book your students have read has been made into a movie, have them write a report about how the versions are alike and different. If the book has not been made into a movie, have them write a report telling how they would make it into a movie, using specific details from the book.

What creative book report ideas did we miss? Come share in our We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.

Plus, check out the most popular kids’ books in every grade..

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Educational Technology in the History Classroom

Search this blog, analyzing primary sources with #booksnaps.

What are #BookSnaps?

Washington's Farewell Address #BookSnaps

A history spin on #booksnaps - Ss analyze Washington's Farewell Address with @Snapchat #sschat #iusdedtech #irvineusd pic.twitter.com/CQtA5CNmp8 — Stacy Yung (@stacyyung) February 7, 2017

Students evaluate to what extent the U.S. followed Washington's Farewell Address with booksnaps! #irvineusd @BookSnaps #booksnaps pic.twitter.com/F0DVeEBiod — Kim Patrick (@Kimpat3edu) February 8, 2017

What else can I #BookSnap?

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Toda-lly Comprehensible Latin

A recovering grammar-translation Latin teacher's journey into Comprehensible Input

• Views on Classical Literature
• Story Library
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Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Using book snaps/snapchat.

• Most world language technology is incomprehensible for novice-level students or focuses on forced output.
• The majority of classroom technology focuses on low-levels of critical thinking, operates at a Substitution level on the SAMR model, and/or serves more as entertainment than true engagement.

• Using SnapChat, take a picture of the story text. This will serve as your background.
• Type in the text of a sentence or two. NOTE - you cannot use sentences with the word ecce.
• Adjust where you want the text to be on your picture.
• Insert emojis, bitmojis, stickers, which apply to the text which you chose. NOTE - As this is an assignment, these emojis, stickers, bitmojis MUST BE SCHOOL APPROPRIATE.
• You may also write or draw pictures onto your Book Snap.
• When finished, save to your phone’s photo album.
• Submit your SnapChat photo to me using your eClass Dropbox for Latin 2.
• Using SnapChat, take a picture with you as a character depicting a particular sentence in the story. Either take a selfie or have someone take the picture for you. There may be other people in your picture but each person is turning in his/her own picture.
• Type in the text of a sentence or two. NOTE - you cannot use sentences with the word ecce. 

• Most students opted to do a Book Snap, instead of a SnapChat. I do not know why (considering how often they take selfies in class!).
• This is another way for students to demonstrate comprehension of a reading.
• Even though students are very well-versed in SnapChat, I was surprised at how long it took students to create a Book Snap. I thought it would take 5-10 minutes to create a single Book Snap, but it took roughly 10-20 minutes.
• Even though many students created Book Snaps of the same sentence, no two were alike; many students were very creative!
• This was definitely another way for students to re-read the story to choose a sentence, thus getting in more subconscious repetitions of the language.
• For those students who did not have access to a device or SnapChat, I had them illustrate a sentence on paper.

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The View from 518

If you are on Twitter and follow any of the same people that I do, you have probably noticed people posting pictures of text, sometimes with highlighting, adding emojis, bitmojis, or text, and then posting it on Twitter with their own comments.  Normally if you look at the comments, you will see the hashtag #BookSnaps linked to it.  Even if you aren’t on Twitter, you can see what people are posting by clicking this link: Twitter #BookSnaps

If you go to Twitter and check this out, you will probably notice that most of the posts here are educators who are sharing their personalized professional reading with their Twitter followers.  If you look closely though, some of what you will find is teachers sharing BookSnaps that students created in their classroom .  It got me started thinking about how some of you might be able to use them in your classroom.  Check out this student created BookSnap that the teacher then added some additional comments to:

Most of the ones that you see are using SnapChat in order to create and share.  For those of you that know what technology your students are using, SnapChat is a pretty popular app.  But here’s the thing, there are ways that BookSnaps could be created using other apps that don’t involve the social network aspect of SnapChat.  Any app that allows you to pull in your own pictures and add text, drawings, and emojis could be used in the same way.  The student created example to the left was created using SeeSaw.  Some other examples that come to mind are Skitch, Google Drawings, various PDF annotating apps, and even Instagram.

Think of the potential engagement for your students if you asked them to create their own BookSnaps.  Could you imagine what they would say if you told them to open SnapChat or Instagram in class?   In ELA classes, you could have students create a BookSnap when they run into a Notice and Note signpost.  You could have them create one to identify the climax in the book they’re reading, or create one based on their own writing, identifying specific plot points.

And don’t say “I’m not an ELA teacher, this doesn’t apply.”   I could see real potential for BookSnaps in nonfiction reading as well – identifying the main idea in a science article.  Sharing things that surprised them as they are reading about some historical figure.  Responding to the 3 Big Questions from Reading Nonfiction by Beers and Probst.

I could even see integration into math class – MathSnaps could be a thing (acutally I just checked, and it is a real thing on Twitter)!  You could have a kid snap a picture of the answer to a problem and then add text describing how they came to that answer.  Or there could be  ArtSnaps ,  MusicSnaps , or  GymSnaps .  The limitations are only bound by the creativity of how to integrate this technology.

As for how to share, again, the options are probably endless.  If you’re already using SeeSaw, that’s an easy option.  Other ideas I’ve seen include Google Slide Decks, a class shared PowerPoint (these options allow everyone can see what BookSnaps other kids have created based on the same reading assignment), or even something as basic as emailing it to you (although a way to share with classmates would make the audience so much more authentic and meaningful).  Once kids have shared them with you, find a way to share beyond the walls of your classroom.  If you’re on Twitter, tweet it out with the #BookSnaps hashtag – others will see it.  You could also put it out on Instagram or Facebook – both have people actively using this hashtag.  If you don’t have social media, you could have students print them out and put on their locker, or create a BookSnaps bulletin board.

If you are still at a loss for how you even create a BookSnap, there are some great resources from Tara Martin.  You can find her on Twitter at @TaraMartinEDU or @BookSnapsREAL .

On Martin’s blog, she’s also created some how to videos that could be useful to see how she puts a BookSnap together.  Check it out here: http://www.tarammartin.com/resources/booksnaps-how-to-videos/

I know I’ve got some creative people in my audience.  If you have an idea for how BookSnaps could be used in the classroom, please share in the comments below.  My ideas above are simply ones that have come to me in the past couple of days.  You might have something that I haven’t thought of – or possibly never would.  Let us know!

If you begin using BookSnaps in the classroom, please share them!  Use the #RSIHawks or #RSIReads hashtag in your post!

Share this:

• Best Practices
• Connected Educators
• Growth Mindset
• Lifelong Learning
• Student Centered

One thought on “ #BookSnaps ”

Thanks for sharing the love of #BookSnaps, Brian. I appreciate it. #BookSnaps serve as a type of digital highlighter when connecting to text. When the reader personally connects to text and recreates the image in their mind using a language of emojis, bitmojis and digital stickers, the chances of memory recall increase drastically. I am honored and in awe of how BookSnaps provide students with a “voice” all over the world!

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CLC BookSnap (Mrs. Beebe-Murphy)

• CLC BookSnap Assignment
• Books from the Nerinx Hall Library
• eBooks from St. Louis County Library CONNECTed Program

Booksnap Assignment

This guide is to assist with the BookSnap Assignment for Mrs. Beebe Murphy's Christian Life Commitments class.

View the Book Snap assignment

View a BookSnap example

• Next: Books from the Nerinx Hall Library >>
• Last Updated: Sep 15, 2020 3:10 PM
• URL: https://nerinxhall.libguides.com/CLCBookSnap