Close Reading Portfolio from Snap Learning

Hey ya’ll! I’m here today with a product that I was asked to review called: Close Reading Portfolio from Snap Learning! 

This is a really neat tech tool that I think will impress the observers and keep the kiddos inspired at the guided reading table! My first thoughts after watching the tutorials were when can we get started! Kids love books, but when they can use the computers and read, that's even better! Next year, all of our benchmarks and state tests are supposed to be online as well. For 4th grade, reading online can be a chore, so this tool can be a big help! Keep scrolling to learn more about how to use it and some of the cool things I found! 

After you log in you come across your dashboard and you can see recent activity from your students, which is great! I can keep an eye on what they are doing from my Guided Reading Table while they are in a center!

Input all of your kiddos easily!

Enter your students in with a user name, password, and then sort into a group. I would do my group names for Guided Reading.

When you’ve entered all of your lovelies into the system, you can start assigning collections for them to browse though. You can sort the books by lexile, by the Fountas and Pinnell, or by grade levels. Then you can decide whether you want non-fiction or fiction. After you decided what books you want sorted into your collection, name it! 

Lesson plans make life easier!

Here is something neat about the books in the collection. Under the image it tells you a lot of info: the levels, standards it covers, and it has a LP: Lesson Plan button!! A neat little pdf pops up with step by step lesson plans. The lesson plan packet also has sheets you can print to help with synthesizing information. I think I’m in love!

What’s even better? These books are so exciting! My students are begging to use the site just to read the books. How can I say no? 

What does the student view look like? Well, it’s very similar to what you would see on your own if you click on it. They click on their portfolio and see a list of books with a reminder about Close Reading. Students click on the story that you want them to work on, then a pop up with what they are to do pops up (and it does it on every page). Students can choose to listen to the story by clicking on the play button, or they can read it on their own. Personally, I don’t like the robotic voice that reads to the kids since I want them to read with expression and fluency, but it would be fine for kids who are struggling reading the texts.

Student's view after logging in.

Students can click on which number read it is at the top, and the messages that launch on each page visit changes based on what number read it is.

On the second read, students can highlight words to add them into their flashcard bank. A great activity for them would be for them to highlight words that you have gone over with them from the book. It asks them to type in their understanding of the word. (Look at their Job and Career Readiness get worked!)  During this section, kids can even take notes for the main idea of each paragraph and summarize each page. 

When you turn a page in the story a reminder pops up!

During read number 3, students are asked questions to think thoroughly through the text. For example:

Reread paragraph 1. Identify the point of view and purpose of the text for this introductory paragraph. Underline the sentences that support your answer.

There are highlighters with different colors, and the questions are different colors as well! Bonus!! On our writing tests kids can use highlighters on the computer! 

Finally, on read number4, students are asked to do a quick write for the passage.

 After their reading, there is a book check section. I really like this because it’s split screen. In Tennessee, our computer tests are beginning to look like this. The exposure is a plus! There is a mixture of types of questions on this part. There are matching, drag and drop, and multiple choice. I don’t think this section is perfect, however, since sometimes when you get to the question for the matching they are already lined up. Luckily, at the end of the test, it tells the students their score!

Book Check!

I’m just unearthing the possibilities for this unique product. I can see myself using this at the Guided Reading table with the netbooks we have in our classroom. Then as they became better at this, then I could have them read the story on their own, and when we come together start on read 2 together!

If you want to know more about this product head to Snap Learning right away and get your own Close Reading Portfolio!

Would you like to try this product out? You can request a demo here!