Blended Reading Idea: A Fun Way To Deepen Understanding

In all subjects, students need to read and comprehend that text at a deep level. A great way to do this is with this blended reading idea that allows students to have fun with the experience by incorporating something known as BookSnaps into how they engage with the reading.

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Enter a Blended Reading Idea based on BookSnaps

Anytime you infuse your instruction with technology you want it to be meaningful, and BookSnaps are a great way for students to interact with text in a super fun and creative way. Basically, it’s about interacting with text by finding a quote, an important idea and then using that to create fun and interactive image that can be shared with the class. It’s also about thinking more deeply about that quote or idea to present it in a way that is engaging and helps enhance the ideas by adding images, callouts and annotations. The idea of BookSnaps was developed by Tara Martin and originally used Snapchat  - but since then educators have found lots of ways to use this idea with all kinds of platforms including: Canva, Flipgrid, Slides, Padlet, Book Creator and Seesaw.  At this point, the use of this strategy lives outside of Snapchat and has moved to other platforms more appropriate for use in schools. 

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Why Blended Reading with a BookSnap? 

We do this to provide students with an opportunity to think more deeply about a text by thinking about what to annotate, what images will add context or enhance the meaning. But mostly, because the activity is fun, engaging and interactive.

• Annotation of text: A book, a nonfiction article, short story or poem
• Allows students to begin documenting their reflections and ideas as they read
• Deepen Understanding by Adding Pictures to Text: Students take a picture or type an interesting selection onto a slide (or any learning tool that works) and highlight, add comments, text and emojis to make your thoughts and ideas come to life
• How to Infuse Reading with a  BookSnap?
  First, students are asked to find text that is meaningful to the understanding of an idea, a character or historical figure or time period - or whatever you might be studying in class. This could be a quote, an important turning point, an idea or theory that changed the world, or anything that gets at the core of the content they are learning. Students then take that text and add it to a slide, into a Canva creation, into a page in Book Creator. Then they begin thinking about the text more deeply. From there they can:
  
  
• Annotate the text - highlighting or underlining the most important words
• Explain why the text is important and illuminate the importance of the text
• Enhance by adding images that help capture or deepen the meaning.
  THE MOST IMPORTANT PART: Share with the class using something likes Slides or Padlet, so students can look at each other's to make connections or find patterns - and learn from each other.

👉🏼Grab the FREE Template 👈🏼

👉🏼Feel free to make a copy of this for your own use and share with your colleagues!

👉🏼BookSnaps are the brain child of Tara Martin - check out her resources HERE.