Snapchat Summaries

Good morning! I have 5 blog posts half written in my queue and I have set a goal to get them all written and published by the end of the school year, which is June 7th for us! Keep an eye out for upcoming posts about our student-led edcamp, an update on our #slidesyearbook, and a few more tools and strategies that seemed blog-worthy to me this semester!

In today's post, I wanted to share an easy strategy that students seemed to really enjoy:

Snapchat Summaries

(Note: I got this idea from Elizabeth Harmelin at CATE 2019. Thank you OMCHS and OUHSD for sending me to this conference!)

At the end of every Act of Romeo and Juliet, my students select a mini-project from a choice board.  No matter which option they select, the goals are to:

1. Demonstrate/Review an understanding of the play.
2. Connect the Act with the Aristotelian lens through which we are reading.
3. Think critically to create a learning artifact that communicates goals 1 and 2.

This menu has options to make videos, write poems/songs/essays, create art, or a give a snapchat presentation so that students can continue to demonstrate progress toward their mastery goals.  The snapchat presentation is a new one that I added this year after hearing the idea at an English teacher conference. Here is how it works:

1. Students prioritize and plan. 

2. Students go out and take pictures, adding appropriate emojis, stickers, and drawings to reflect the assignment goals. 

3. Students copy each image to a slide deck and share with classmates! 

I was happy with how much fun students seemed to have and also how much critical thinking and discussion went into picking emoji faces and other props based on evidence from the play. I think this strategy could be used in a wide variety of subjects and grade levels!  Let me know if you have any questions, suggestions, or comments.  

 Here are a couple of student samples: