Book Snaps are an interactive and engaging activity for ANY book! The Book Snap is comprised of a snap (a picture) that represents the work and a caption (a quotation from the work). They are perfect for introducing a snapshot of a book during a choice reading unit, like my Literary Lenses Novel Study Unit, or an enrichment activity to engage students in higher-order analysis. As a bonus, they look beautiful printed and displayed around the room for trendy and meaningful classroom decor. Keep reading for my free template so you and your students can make your own.
Introducing Book Options
To introduce the book options for our choice reading unit, I used my own Book Snaps to pair with an excerpt from the novel. This makes the activity similar to a book tasting, but with a social media twist. They were perfect to give students a snapshot of the book without judging it by its cover.
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I wrapped each book in black paper, like a gift, and created a Book Snap for each book (more on that below). Once I had my Book Snaps ready to go, I taped them to the corresponding wrapped books and placed each book with a group of desks. Students moved around the classroom to each station to learn about the books and pick their favorite option.
Enrichment Activity
These Book Snaps also make a great activity for students as an additional analysis for your choice reading assignment or any reading assignment. Sign up below, and I’ll email you my free template.
Ask students to find a picture that represents a “snap” of the book and a corresponding quotation for that picture. I advise students to use images from the public domain or are free for public use, so that they are only using images with a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, which means they are completely free to use without attribution. Unsplash and Pexels are our favorite websites for this project. They should add emojis and hashtags that would enhance that Book Snap. The beauty of this activity is that even if you’re doing a whole class novel, you are certain to have MANY different Book Snaps.
Below is a demonstration for how to create a Book Snap. You can show your students for a quick tutorial.
Once they’re completed, I ask students to present an explanation for their Book Snaps to the class. I ask them to tell us what they did and why. My AP Literature students create Book Snaps as a review for the Open-Ended Free Response Question on the AP exam. They work really well for this review because the visuals and quotations make them particularly memorable. Maybe they’ll even remember that Book Snap quotation to impress the AP readers!
Don’t forget to display your Book Snaps around the room. I love how they look on cardstock or photo paper.
You can check out my entire choice reading unit that pairs with Book Snaps here.
Check out the first post in this choice reading series, “How to Engage Your Readers With Choice Reading: The Set Up,” here.
Happy Snappin’!
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