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Fallacies: How people cheat in arguments (you too)

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Test how smart you are at distinguishing Facts from Opinions.

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Have you heard of BookSnaps yet? This incredibly simple and original idea is transforming the way teachers and students interact with books.

What are #BookSnaps?

BookSnaps is an original idea I founded in August of 2016. Initially, I was searching for a way to use Snapchat for EDU-Awesomeness, and it worked. Later, I realized that many different apps would aid in providing access to this incredibly effective comprehension strategy for students. A BookSnap is simply a digital, visual representation used to annotate and share reflections of any excerpt of a book or text.

#BookSnaps are now implemented in nine countries from kindergarten to graduate students. There is truly no age limit, nor is there a content restriction.

In fact, #BookSnaps has many cousins- #mathsnaps, #labsnaps, #GratitudeSnaps, etc! There is even a teacher in Oregon, Tisha Richmond, who uses #foodsnaps with her culinary students-the list is endless.

Educators and students are finding ways to create a digital visual representation of their learning with their content and sharing it out to an authentic audience.

To me, the best part of #BookSnaps is the unique REALness the strategy reveals about the creator. Therefore, #BookSnaps need not be ruled by a rubric to produce what we want, but rather allow the students to draw connections based on what's meaningful and relevant to them.

[clickToTweet tweet="'#BookSnaps allow students to draw meaningful connections to the text.' - @TaraMartinEDU" quote="'#BookSnaps allow students to draw meaningful connections to the text.' - @TaraMartinEDU"]

A few reasons to create #BookSnaps

Here's just a few of the (many) reasons you might want to create a #BookSnap with your students:

It allows the reader to connect an idea or thought by creating a digital visual representation. The visual representation solidifies the text content within the mind and signals the brain to retrieve the idea from memory.

Diagram the rise, fall, and climax of the plot.

Highlight figurative language and imagery.

Notate character conflict and internal struggles.

To personally connect to the text (this is my favorite!)

Point out the main idea or a supporting argument

It has its own hashtag: #BookSnaps on Twitter!

It's EASY! Just read, snap, reflect, add stickers, share, and repeat.

Now, I'll turn it over to April Padalino, who guest-hosted on my YouTube Channel, R.E.A.L Talk with Tara Martin, to explain how her students are using #BookSnaps with the Book Creator app.

You can watch the video and/or then read her explanation below.

This next section is by April Padalino

April Padalino

April Padalino is a Literacy Specialist at Howard - Suamico School District in Wisconsin. She has been in education for 16 years, as both a Classroom Teacher and a Literacy Specialist. April has a passion for learning and empowering students and teachers to lead their own learning.

Why use Book Creator for making #BookSnaps?

The idea to use Book Creator for making #BookSnaps dawned on me after my students finished reading How to Make a Comic Book, by Micheal Sanders. The kids were enjoying the features the Book Creator app provides especially through the comic layouts. They found it to be a user friendly tool.

I really liked how the comic panels turned out which lead me to think about the kids creating #BookSnaps and being able to collect them all in one place. Students reading longer books were actually using the #BookSnaps like notes about the books. I do the same thing with my professional development books, so I have all my notes in one place.

What I learned from using Book Creator to make #BookSnaps

The idea of using #BookSnaps was to provide a creative and engaging way for all students to be able to express ideas and show understanding. Here are some things I learned along the way:

My English language learners can show their understanding through the creation of a visual representation of what they are thinking.

It was a way to add micro-writing about reading that is fun and motivating.

#BookSnaps became a springboard for conversations and conferencing about thinking, writing, and spelling.

By creating a visual, students remembered more about the books.

Teachers can guide students in learning to use Book Creator by asking questions. Teacher feedback should not tell students what to do, but allow / empower students to reflect on their work.

Students need TIME to be creative and learn to use this tool to reflect their thinking.

How to make #BookSnaps

Read, think, & be creative

Take a picture of the passage that you connect with in some way.

Highlight, underline, or box the part of the text with which you are connecting.

Create a visual representation that shares your thinking.

Use emojis, stickers, speech bubbles, draw pictures, etc.

Include the title and author or book cover to give credit.

Here are some example #BookSnaps from my blog.

Other ways we use Book Creator in the classroom

At our school teachers and students use Book Creator in a variety of ways. Students created graphic novels to represent understanding of books and stories of their own such as fractured fairy tales. They also created informational texts to share what they learned during genius hour.

Teachers created books to help English language learners. They used the books to teach new words and phrases. The Read Mode feature allowed them to hear the words that are represented by text and pictures.

Book Creator allows students the opportunity to integrate multiple apps to create a final project. One student created a #BookSnap using Book Creator, then she inserted it as a background for another app.

Other students create in other apps and then insert them into Book Creator. This versatility allows students and teachers the opportunity to use a lot of creativity to share what they are teaching, learning, and understanding.

The new Publishing online feature allows students an easy way to share their work with their parents. Above, a second grade student is sharing her work with her mother during our school's Showcase of Learning event.

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#BookSnaps and Book Creator - Book Creator app

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Have you heard of BookSnaps yet? This incredibly simple and original idea is transforming the way teachers and students interact with books.

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#BookSnaps w/Snapchat (Revised) - R.E.A.L. Talk w/Tara M. Martin Episode 30

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EduProtocols: Teach better, work less, achieve more with easy to use lesson frames to spark student engagement.

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Cyber Sandwich Template — The EduProtocol Field Guide

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Structured pair share with accountability.

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Review student understanding at the class, individual student, or question-level.

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As a former K-8 and HS level classroom teacher, I was always disappointed to see kids who were being trained that a paragraph should have the following elements: I am going to tell you...and then firstly, secondly, thirdly, and wrap up with "thanks for reading my paragraph". This isn't what an authentic paragraph looks or sounds like. It's a nice brief stage for training, but it seems that all too often that's where educators stall out in their modeling.

I am quite a fan of Robert Pinckert and his book Pinckert's Practical Grammar. I very much love his approach to how a paragraph should be formed. Pinckert says that the essence of a paragraph is to pursue an idea. That's the single focus on how I teach paragraphing.

What if there were a faster, more organic way to teach paragraphs? A method that has scaffolds, but allows a less strict approach and ignites student imaginations?

Enter the Random Emoji Power Paragraph.

I love using edtech and I'm a huge fan of kids doing more of the thinking and not using worksheets in my classroom.

I recently had an epiphany that led to a mashup of pedagogy and edtech that can make this teaching of paragraphs task exponentially more interesting, engaging and much easier for teachers to lead.

By using Ian Byrd's super fun Random Emoji Generator website and Socrative Short Answer quizzes together, I've seen a surge in paragraph writing skills. The combination of five randomly generated emoji and immediate feedback via Socrative is pure magic.

How does the Random Emoji Power Paragraph Eduprotocol go?

Super easy. That's the best part. Go to the Random Emoji Generator website. The site is made by an educator (thanks Ian Byrd!) and doesn't have any of the not-ready-for-school emoji. Then start up a Socrative Short Answer quiz. Once the students are logged in, the fun begins. Socrative Short Answer quizzes literally take 5-10 seconds to set up. I do Socrative Short Answer quizzes for all kinds of one sentence, open ended assignments. By doing this 4-5 times a day with immediate feedback until there is over 95%, I have moved this from an assignment to an Eduprotocol. (More free Eduprotocol templates at Eduprotocols.com.)

1. Explain the concept of pursuing an idea. Staying on topic is what defines a paragraph. If you pursue a new idea, it's time for a new paragraph. And for this activity, we are only writing one paragraph.

2. I click the Start Over button on the Random Emoji Generator page until the class yells "yes" to pick the first emoji. This begins the game. I give the students about a minute or two to get the first sentence typed out.

3. Then I hit the And Then button. Another random emoji appears. We repeat this until each student has five sentences typed. When they have five sentences, they hit submit.

4. When everyone is done, I select Start Vote in Socrative, and the students and I can read everyone's paragraphs.

It's great for them to immediately admire one another's work. And I can give pointers immediately, because we will usually do one more paragraph right away. The Start Vote option in Socrative is magical, because all the students see all the work immediately - no "collecting" or handing in.

The Random Emoji Power Paragraph can have endless permutations, making it effective for most any grade level. Once kids can snap off 5-6 sentences on point (should take about 6-8 reps), I will add twists like tense, POV, literary devices, appositives and so on. I can scaffold their writing in a myriad of ways, and the combination of random emoji and fast feedback via Socrative is a total win for kids and teachers.

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Eduprotocol - The Random Emoji Generator Power Paragraph - Socrative

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As a former K-8 and HS level classroom teacher, I was always disappointed to see kids who were being trained that a paragraph should have the following elements: I am going to tell you...and then firstly, secondly, thirdly, and wrap up with "thanks for reading my paragraph".

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Don't do the work if you don't have to.Our templates get your students to work quickly.Download or make a copy. Adjust as necessary. Assign to your

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A free classroom noise level meter, monitor and management tool. Perfect if your school kids are too noisy! Bouncing balls react to sounds from the microphone.

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Play the Fishbowl Game (aka Salad Bowl) - Online & Free

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Play the Fishbowl game online! Also known as Salad bowl, The Hat Game, Monikers, or Celebrities. It’s a free, virtual version of a fun (and mostly hilarious) guessing game, designed for any group of all ages! You’ll need at least 4 to play, but it only gets more fun with more players. Hop on a video…

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This is one of the most efficient, time saving, and user-friendly lesson planning resource that I've used! I wish I was able to pick my favorite feature, but there are so many...color coding, standards searching tool, myriad of templates, downloading capabilities - it rocks!!!!!

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Online Lesson Planner & Planbook. Free for Teachers. Common Curriculum

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Save time with easy templates. Align lesson plans to Common Core & 50 state standards. Organize with unit plans. Share & collaborate with colleagues.

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Easily create surveys and polls to collect customer feedback, measure employee satisfaction, and organize team events.

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ZipGrade - iPhone and Android Grading App for formative assessment and quizzes.

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A mobile device app that turns your iPhone, iPad, or Android device into an optical scanner for grading paper multiple-choice assessments. Great for quizzes, exit tickets, and larger exams of up to 100 questions.