#BookSnaps: Get Social with Books

What is #BookSnap?
If the name reminds you of one of your favorite social media platforms, SnapChat, you’d be correct! I stumbled upon #BookSnaps while looking to see what was happening in the education world in the Twitterverse. Teachers were posting snapshots of a page in a book they were reading and adding their thoughts in the form of emojis and markups with digital tools. They had the #BookSnap tag, so I followed it. It took me to Tara Martin’s website, the creator of #BookSnap. Check her out on Twitter or on her blog.

This stopped me in my tracks. What a great idea!

So many of our students use SnapChat, or know someone who does, so why not leverage this trend in the classroom? It truly is a simple concept but is so much more engaging than your typical reading reflection in a notebook or filling out another worksheet. #BookSnaps allows our students to make connections to what they are reading based on what is meaningful to them and leverages the devices you have in your classroom

How to Start   
Here’s a quick step-by-step to get started:
#1. Read a text. This could be a picture book, a chapter book, a story in a basal reader, a magazine article, an online article or blog post – you get the idea. Any kind of text! You can check out book lists by theme, subject or topic at Titlewave. If you don’t have an account, don’t worry! You can sign up for free.

#2. Take a picture of a passage that connects in some way to the learning goal.

#3. Use markup tools to highlight, underline, or circle the part of the text you are connecting to.

#4. Create a text box with your personal thoughts about the connection you made.

#5. Add digital visuals including speech bubbles, emojis, stickers, Bitmojis, etc.

#6. Be sure to add the book title and author’s name.

#7. Share with your teachers and classmates!

Obviously, we aren’t going to ask them to open up SnapChat on their devices, so we need to be creative about where they can do this.  Anything that allows a student to take a photo and mark it up will work. Here are a few ideas:

• Camera app on iPad
• Keynote or Pages
• Seesaw
• Pic Collage EDU
• Flipgrid
• Google Drawings or Slides
• Book Creator

Not Just for ELA

Don’t stop with ELA. Since its creation in 2016, there have been many offshoots of #BookSnaps.

• #MathSnaps
• #LabSnaps
• #GratitudeSnaps

What else could your students snap?

For more information on #BookSnaps, search the hashtag on Twitter and follow @TaraMartinEDU. Check out her YouTube playlist.

Happy snapping!

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STACIA DIRKS
Stacia has worked in education for nearly 20 years in diverse K-5 classroom settings, as a classroom teacher, an instructional coach, and now as an instructional technology specialist for K-12. She holds a Master’s Degree in Differentiated Instruction from Concordia University. Her passion is providing equity for all students and embedding technology into curriculum to enhance 21st-century skills for students. She provides differentiated professional development to K-12 teachers for successful integration of technology with all content areas and structured curriculum.  
Twitter: @staciadirks


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#BookSnaps: Get Social with Books