Micro-Writing with #BookSnaps

Are you wondering how to get your students writing about books? Tara Martin has shared a new idea to spark creativity into the world of books. It is called #BookSnaps. She has provided some great resources to help you get started on her blog. You can check out some great examples of #BookSnaps on Twitter, just search #BookSnaps to see examples. Two of our the students earned the opportunity to be  guest bloggers, with Tara Martin, from her #BookSnaps Challenge. Then, #BookSnaps became contagious and other students were asking how they could respond to books with #BookSnaps too! Since then a classroom has participated in a Google Hangout and  two more students will be guest bloggers on Tara's R.E.A.L. Blog.

To help students and teachers get started I created a video of how to create #BookSnaps with Book Creator. Then, to my surprise and excitement, Tara asked me to be a guest vlogger. The resulting video can be found here. You can also use other apps to create #BookSnaps. Find out more about these on Tara Martin's blog.

​Now, you may be wondering what Micro-writing has to do with #Booksnaps. Micro-writing is just what it sounds like, it is writing in small snippets. The cool thing I am finding is students are choosing to write in a creative way about books. Some are using voice, but they need some work on conventions and expressing ideas in words. #Booksnaps help to provide small pieces of work to focus in on skills each student needs.

​I don’t know about you, but time for writing used to be an issue, because they spent so much time trying to get started. Now, many of them can’t wait to start, even those who are normally reluctant. But, remember students need choice. Make sure #BookSnaps are a tool to achieve the student's goals. They need to be the ones choosing to respond to reading in this way. Let them choose how they respond, including using visuals to express their thinking. Consider how this would work in YOUR classroom, set the parameters, and let them CREATE!