With what do kids often dislike and struggle? Reading. What are kids these days seemingly obsessed with? Snapchat. Booksnaps take something kids don't like and struggle with, smashes it with something they love, and helps them engage in reading in a manner they didn't imagine. Don't just take my word for it. Check out what some of my students have said about Booksnaps.
"Booksnaps helped me understand a topic more thoroughly. Being able to use Bitmojis, I was able to better me sum up what was going on in the text instead of having to read everything blandly".
- Valerie Guzman, Class of 2020
"Doing Booksnaps, I got to annotate text and insert images that connected to that text. I also was able to explain my understanding in my own words. This really helped me because it made me read the text in a different manner, multiple times until I understood it enough to explain it with words and images".
- Melanie Figueroa, Class of 2020
For Snapchat users, you begin a Booksnap by taking a picture of text that resonates with you or is evidence of a claim or theme. You use the annotation tool to circle or underline the part of the text that resonated with you or is evidence. Use the text tool to rationalize why the circled or underlined text resonates or is evidence. You complete the Booksnap by inserting an emoji, Bitmoji or sticker to support what your circled or underlined and what you wrote as a rationale.
I know what many of you are thinking. We don't allow cell phones at our school. Snapchat is blocked by our network. What's BItmoji? Since Bitmoji is logged into via Snapchat, and Snapchat is blocked, how can we access it? Never fear, there are options for getting around those constraints.
Personally, when I Booksnap a book I'm reading for professional learning or pleasure, I use Snapchat. Actually, this the only thing for which I use Snapchat. When training teachers and students to do Booksnaps, I eschew Snapchat in favor of Google Slides. If Powerpoint is your preference, you can do the same with Powerpoint. If you're working with younger learners in Seesaw, you can do this with Seesaw (Check out this video for doing Booksnaps with Seesaw). For the purposes of this blog post, I'm going to explain how to Booksnap with Google Slides.
There are two types of Booksnaps I use frequently with students. One type I like to call a "Clue Booksnap". The other type I like to call "Picture Surprise Booksnap". Below, you'll find steps for teachers to create and students to engage with both types of Booksnaps.
Clue Booksnap: Teacher
The Clue Booksnap is way to get students to mark text, identify themes & claims, cite textual based evidence, rationalize and support thinking and more.
- Start a slide deck template in Google Slides
- Use Blank Layout
- Screenshot a snippet of text (This requires you to have access to digital or scanned version of text)
- Insert text box for clue (Clue should be what claim or theme of what you want students to identify evidence)
- Insert text snippet image to slide (Be sure to know where on your computer the screenshots are saved)
Repeat steps for each Booksnap within the slide deck. I recommend 3-5 for primary grades, 5-8 for middle school and 8-11 for high school. Once your template has been created, assign via Google Classroom making a copy for each student.
Clue Booksnap: Student
- Read text and scan for evidence of the clue
- Use scribble tool to circle or underline evidence of the clue
- Click line color button to change the color to orange. Orange is easier for teacher to see.
- Click line thickness button and change thickness to 4px. This makes it easier for teacher to see.
- Insert rectangle across width of text. Double click to type 1-2 sentence rationale
- Insert 1-3 images or emojis to support your rationale (png preferred)
Picture Surprise Booksnap: Teacher
The Picture Surprise Booksnap is a way to get students to answer text dependent questions, color code, make inferences and think empathetically. Color coded text dependent questions should look something like "In (insert color), how did the character respond to the situation"? The picture surprise prompt should ask kids to "Copy and paste an emoji or image that represents how (insert character, person, group) might have felt when (insert scenario).
- Start a slide deck template in Google Slides
- Use Blank Layout
- Screenshot a snippet of text (This requires you to have access to digital or scanned version of text)
- Insert text snippet image to slide
- Insert text box with questions and color coding “rules”
- Insert text box for picture surprise prompt and arrow
Picture Surprise Booksnap: Student
- Read text and scan for evidence of the clue
- Use scribble tool to circle the part of text that best answers the question
- Change line color to instructed color and line thickness to “4” (Makes it easier for teacher to see)
- Copy and paste picture or emoji based on picture surprise prompt (png preferred)
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