You may be wondering what a slowchat is. Well, it is a Twitter chat meant to last a week. That means that a class will host the chat for a week and send out questions using a specific hashtag, often posting a new question every day, and then moderating the chat for an entire week. Why do we love slowchats? Because we don’t have to worry about having all of our students on Twitter at the same time, it allows for all time zones to participate, as well as for great conversations to unfold at a slower pace.
If you want to be a host, please:
- Sign up on the Google sheet for the book you are reading.
- You can choose to co-host with another class if you would like.
- Please do not sign up for more than one week so that others can have the cnahce to host as well.
- Remember your week and then have students prepare questions. I will/can email you more information as we get closer to the you are hosting.
- You or your class must have a Twitter account to host, but you do not need to have experience with this, have fun, make it your own and make it work for everybody.
If you want to participate:
- You or your class must have a Twitter account to participate
- See the lists of hashtags so you know which one to use
- During the week, answer the questions, ask your own and connect.
- You don’t have to sign up anywhere, just participate when you want.
Where are the sign up sheets?
- Sign up sheet for Amy Krouse Rosenthal
- Sign up sheet for The Year of Billy Miller
- Sign up sheet for Fish In A Tree
- Sign up sheet for Fish
- Sign up sheet for Yaqui Delgado
What will the hashtags be?
The hashtags will be the official hashtags followed by the number of the week, so for example for Fish In A Tree it would be #GRAFIAT1 #GRAFIAT2 etc.
The official hashtags are:
Amy Krouse Rosenthal: #GRAAmy
The Year Of Billy Miller: #GRABilly
Fish In a Tree: #GRAFIAT
Fish: #GRAFish
Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass: #GRAYaqui
Any more questions?
Comment here or contact me
The Global Read Aloud 
What a great idea! Thank you for organizing all of this.
So I just heard of this!! Is this easy to do?? I teach first grade – are there books for first grade level or is this higher grades??
Yes, very easy and there is a picture book author study or The Year of Billy Miller that you could do with 1st grade
I’ve been all over trying to secure 2 copies of Fish. Apparently, they are out of print and up for a new edition? I hope they are ready before October! Have 2 on order through Amazon with a late September delivery date!!
Are all the slots filled for the slowchat? Is it limited to 1 per week?
Yes, they are filled but that just means the moderators has been set and anyone else can participate. Typically we only have on classroom moderate, but you can reach out to those signed up and see if they want to share responsibilities.
Thank you
Hi! This will be our first time participating in the GRA. We are vey excited. If we would like to participate in a slow chat, can we just pick any week to post on twitter or is there a sign up sheet for participants that are not hosts..? Our twitter handle is #BOYLEROADGRA
Thank you! 🙂
Yes, just jump in and use the hashtag for the week – anyone can participate
I’m not that familiar with twitter – do we follow a particular hashtag or just search the tag each week for the questions? Or would we follow the class that is posting the questions that week?