Using Book Companions for Virtual Home Practice & Therapy

Photo by Agung Pandit Wiguna from Pexels 

I love using book companions for in-person learning. Once the initial prep is completed, my planning is usually done for at least 2 weeks, sometimes longer. With distance learning being a reality, how can you use book companions for virtual home practice? It takes a little bit of planning, for sure. I've begun using a lot of virtual learning techniques with my in-person students. Sometimes I will let my students choose if they want paper homework or Boom™ decks. Guess which one most of them choose? 

Steps for Getting the Book Ready

1. Take pictures of the book with an iPad, then crop so only the book is showing.
2. In the photo app, choose "Select" & then "Select All". 
3. Tap the download icon, then "Save PDF to Books"
4. When the pdf opens in Books, tap the send icon and send it to an email address. Or, you can just use it in the Books app if you are going to use an iPad to record or if you will be reading it during a teletherapy session.
1. To use in a teletherapy session, just open the pdf in a separate window and you're all set to read it to the students!

Now for the Fun Part!

Now comes the fun part: recording the book for your students! I use Screencastify and Loom, but I'm partial to Screencastify. Probably because that's the one I used first and am more familiar with. Both have free versions, but if you have a school address, you can upgrade to Loom Premium for free! (Screencastify's upgrade is $29/year, which is still a bargain! With the free account you will have up to 5 minutes of recording time.)

1. Pull up the pdf on your computer. There may be a way to record the pdf on your iPad using Loom; I haven't quite figured it out yet.
2. Once you have the recording service of your choice open and recording, make sure the pdf is in full screen.
3. Scroll through the pdf, reading the book as you go.
4. Once the book is read, you can snip out the parts you don't want the students to see. I usually snip the beginning and the end of the clips off since those are the parts where I am getting the book ready or have finished the book. 
5. You can save to your Google Drive, YouTube Channel, to your computer, or just to the Screencastify or Loom website.

Sharing Your Recording for Home Practice

       Options to share through Screencastify:

Loom appears to only have the options to download and to copy the link. If you wanted it on YouTube or Google Drive, you could always download and then upload it to your preferred site. 

My school system is using Seesaw for elementary schools. This is an example of an activity using a Loom recording I shared with my students:

Here is an example of a Seesaw activity using Screencastify:

One of the advantages of using a Loom link is that the site will notify you of the number of times the video has been viewed. The negative for Loom is that when the student clicks on the Loom link, he is directed to the Loom website. With Screencastify, the video plays in the window where it is clicked. 

I just happen to have several book companions in my Boom Store. They may be purchased as a bundle, or, if you only need pieces of the companion, decks may be purchased individually. 

I am enjoying extending the use of book companions to virtual home practice. When my school system was in the extended closure, I used them with my students through teleservices. Book companions are a great way to pique the interest of reading while practicing speech and language skills. My students prefer to be assigned Boom Cards as opposed to paper homework. It looks like it's going to be a new way of doing things from here on out!

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