A 'Novel' Idea

Plainview-Old Bethpage School District’s H.B. Mattlin Middle School fifth grade students recently used Instagram to strengthen their reading comprehension skills. Teacher Stacey Peat designed an Instagram-themed bulletin board for students to post selfies of characters from the books they are reading in class and at home.

Students created the selfies from the point of view of a character during a major event in the story. The activity delivered lessons in character analysis (textual evidence describing physical appearance, moods and actions), summary, point of view and visualization of setting and facial expressions.

The students used paper cut-out “likes” to show their appreciation for their classmates’ work, as they would on Instagram. The school plans on revisiting the program for future fifth grade students.

Photo 1: Plainview-Old Bethpage School District’s H.B. Mattlin Middle School fifth grade students place “likes” on a classmate’s Instagram character selfie in order to strengthen students’ reading comprehension skills. Teacher Stacey Peat instructed students to draw selfies of characters from the books they are reading.

Photo 2: Plainview-Old Bethpage School District’s H.B. Mattlin Middle School fifth grade students display their character selfies on an Instagram bulletin board. Students drew selfies of characters from the books they are reading to learn more about character analysis.

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