One of the easiest tools to use during the Global Read aloud is Twitter.  Why?  because it allows you to share what your students are doing, allows you to connect with the authors, and also allows you to connect with others.  It is not time consuming, students all tweet throughone class account and you can still be connected to the entire project without having to connect with just one class.

So how do you use Twitter?

Here is a nice video from Howcast that explains it well.

What are the hashtags for this year?

The official hashtag is #GRA15 – this is for anything Global Read Aloud related.

My account is @pernilleripp – tag me in your tweets so I can share your tweets!

Each group has it’s own hashtags as well

• Amy Krouse Rosenthal Picture Book study #GRAAmy
• The Year of Billy Miller #GRABilly
• Fish In A Tree  #GRAFIAT
• Fish  #GRAFish
• Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass #GRAYaqui

Some of the authors are on Twitter as well:

Amy Krouse Rosenthal @MissAmyKR

Lynda Mullaly Hun @LynMullalyhunt

Laura Dron (L.S.Matthews) @LauraDron

Meg Medina @Meg_Medina

Slowchat on Twitter Info:

One of the easiest ways to get connected during the GRA is to participate in the slowchats on Twitter.  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 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.

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 dpending on the week we are in.

There are slowchats for all of the groups with classrooms moderating (sending outt he questions) each week.

I hope this helps!  Let me know if you have any more Twitter hints for the Global Read Aloud.

If you like what you read here, consider reading my book Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students.  The 2nd edition and actual book-book (not just e-book!) just came out!