4-Word Story/Snapchat 2.0

Here is a new twist on 4-Word Story which I implemented last week. It was the second day back from winter break, so I wanted to do some review with my Latin 2 students but not make it feel like it was review. I felt that doing 4-Word story would be a non-threatening way to get students back into Latin, but I wanted to change it up a bit to preserve the novelty. For this, instead of having students draw pictures to go with their sentences, I had them create Booksnaps/Snapchats, since we had already been using this tool in class. 

Students turned in their Snapchats and sentences online to our class Dropbox so that I could edit their sentences grammatically and then cut/paste them onto Google Slides so that I could show them in class. 

Student directions

1. Create/illustrate an ORIGINAL 4-frame story which uses at least FOUR of the following words:

• in silva
• vis est
• dat
• occidit
• cibus
• avis
• saxum

     2. Write a sentence or two IN LATIN which narrates your illustration for each frame.

NOTE - you may only use KNOWN words, i.e., you may only use words which we

have learned in class these past two semesters or from last year. Any words which we
have not done this past semester or from last year are OFF LIMITS.

     3. Create a BookSnap/Snapchat for each of your sentences. You must have a minimum 

         of four pictures. DO NOT WRITE YOUR SENTENCES ON THE SNAPCHAT!

     4. This is YOUR OWN original work!

Student examples:

Observations

1. Because students were already familiar with both 4-Word Story and creating Booksnaps/Snapchat, melding the two activities did not seem to confuse them. 
2. The new piece of the puzzle was that students had to submit their sentences separately (instead of writing them on their Booksnaps/Snapchats), because I wanted to edit them and to cut/paste them to create a slideshow. I implemented our class dropbox for this.
3. As you can see, some students wrote at a novice level (basic sentences), while others were able to write at an intermediate level (compound sentences, using clauses). That is perfectly fine. All that matters to me is that students are making an attempt at  communicating in the language.
4. Those students who did not have access to a phone or to Snapchat had to do a paper copy of the activity.
5. Going over the stories in class is a great way to get in more repetitions of the language in a compelling way. 
6. Because the stories are student-created/teacher-edited, they are written at a very comprehensible level for students.

Using Book Snaps/SnapChat

Although I have my Ed.S degree in Instructional Technology and am quite versed in the application of technology to one's curriculum "for the creation of a student-centered, 21st-century, blended-learning, critical-thinking classroom environment" (that last phrase sounds very Educationese, because I constantly had to use those buzzwords in my degree program), at the same time, I have been somewhat hesitant to implement technology in a CI-based setting for the following reasons:

1. Most world language technology is incomprehensible for novice-level students or focuses on forced output.
2. The majority of classroom technology focuses on low-levels of critical thinking, operates at a Substitution level on the SAMR model, and/or serves more as entertainment than true engagement.

(see here for my posts on Technology in a CI Classroom, part 1 and Technology in a CI Classroom, part 2)

Earlier this year, Meredith White, a Spanish CI teacher in my district, demonstrated how she uses SnapChat in her classroom, and while I was VERY impressed with how it can be implemented, I was also a bit tentative in utilizing it for both professional reasons (how can social media be properly applied to the classroom without crossing the line?) and personal reasons (what the heck is SnapChat, since I myself have never used it?).

This past summer, I learned about Book Snaps and realized that this is definitely something which can be applied to the CI Classroom. Essentially, Book Snaps is a SnapChat involving a reading of some kind. It is primarily used for students to interact with, to write commentary on, and to react to a text (think of students writing comments on sticky notes in a text but with SnapChat). Once I learned about this, I realized that Book Snaps could be used for students to "illustrate" sentences from a story!

Here is a video explaining how to make a Book Snap:

For the past few days, I have been going over the following story with students (it is based on a Movie Talk), so today, I had students create Book Snaps of the story:

Rock, Paper, Scissors Story

Ecce saxum. Terra saxum generat. Subito saxum aliquid audit. Aliquid magnos sonos facit. Saxum surgit ut videat quid magnos sonos faciat. Ecce puella in silva! Silva puellam generat. Puella est chartacea, et magnos sonos facit. Saxum puellam chartaceam videt, et credit puellam chartaceam esse valde pulchram.

Ecce forfex in silva! Saxum valde timet, quod videt puellam chartaceam et credit forficem velle occidere puellam chartaceam. Saxum in silvam cadit. Forfex multas arbores occidit. Saxum credit forficem velle occidere puellam chartaceam. Saxum vult fugere cum puella chartacea, sed puella chartacea non vult fugere cum saxo. Puella non credit forficem velle occidere eam (her). Eheu! Saxum puellam chartaceam tangit, et succumbit. Saxum et puella chartacea in silva fugiunt, quod credunt forficem velle occidere eos (them). Vis est forfici, quod occidit multas arbores in silva.

Eheu! Forfex puellam chartaceam occidit. Saxum credit puellam chartaceam esse mortuam, et est valde iratum. Saxum vult occidere forficem! Vis est saxo, et occidit forficem. Forfex est mortua. Saxum est valde triste, quod puella chartacea est mortua. Saxum vult servare (to rescue) puellam chartaceam, sed si (if) tanget puellam chartaceam, succumbet...

Assignment directions

Choose ONE of the following options:

Book Snaps

1. Using SnapChat, take a picture of the story text. This will serve as your background.
2. Type in the text of a sentence or two. NOTE - you cannot use sentences with the word ecce.
3. Adjust where you want the text to be on your picture.
4. Insert emojis, bitmojis, stickers, which apply to the text which you chose. NOTE - As this is an assignment, these emojis, stickers, bitmojis MUST BE SCHOOL APPROPRIATE.
5. You may also write or draw pictures onto your Book Snap.
6. When finished, save to your phone’s photo album.
7. Submit your SnapChat photo to me using your eClass Dropbox for Latin 2.

SnapChat

1. Using SnapChat, take a picture with you as a character depicting a particular sentence in the story. Either take a selfie or have someone take the picture for you. There may be other people in your picture but each person is turning in his/her own picture.
2. Type in the text of a sentence or two. NOTE - you cannot use sentences with the word ecce. 
3. Adjust where you want the text to be on your picture.
4. Insert emojis, bitmojis, stickers, which apply to the text which you chose. NOTE - As this is an assignment, these emojis, stickers, bitmojis MUST BE SCHOOL APPROPRIATE.
5. You may also write or draw pictures onto your Book Snap.
6. When finished, save to your phone’s photo album.
7. Submit your SnapChat photo to me using your eClass Dropbox for Latin 2.

Here are some examples of students Book Snaps based on the story:

My goal is now to create a Google Slides presentation of these slides and show them in class.

Observations

1. Most students opted to do a Book Snap, instead of a SnapChat. I do not know why (considering how often they take selfies in class!).
2. This is another way for students to demonstrate comprehension of a reading.
3. Even though students are very well-versed in SnapChat, I was surprised at how long it took students to create a Book Snap. I thought it would take 5-10 minutes to create a single Book Snap, but it took roughly 10-20 minutes.
4. Even though many students created Book Snaps of the same sentence, no two were alike; many students were very creative!
5. This was definitely another way for students to re-read the story to choose a sentence, thus getting in more subconscious repetitions of the language.
6. For those students who did not have access to a device or SnapChat, I had them illustrate a sentence on paper.