Twitter-style+Book+Reviews

book reviews!
===Using the Twitter style, students create a short book review that hints at the story, without giving TOO much away - adding a shortened link to the Amazon book listing gives more information, buying, and expanded book reviews. Students also rate the book with an emoticon. =D ===

===If you cannot say something in 140 characters or less, then it is not worth saying. Paring a review down to 140 characters and a rating really forces reviewers to get to the essential appeal or flaw of the work being reviewed --AND it's a challenge! ===

Here are some examples:
 * [[image:http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5121/5723699716_916a518ceb_o.jpg]] ||

= How to: = To do this activity, get ready to have more than one window or tab open. If you like multitasking, then this is the lesson for you!

1. Choose a YA book to review that *you have not read* (non-negotiable!) 2. Read the YA book. 3. Go to Amazon Books and search for your book. Copy & SAVE the URL (highlight + control C).
 * [[image:murrayhill/amazon_books.533.jpg caption="amazon_books.533.jpg" link="@http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/283155"]] ||

4. Shorten the URL using Bit.ly ! Paste URL (control + V) into window & click shorten - then copy! 5. Go to Character Creator & Paste (control + V) the shortened URL 6. Add your Emoticon rating at the very end.

The four ratings we will use are these emoticons:

=D for Squee! I LOVED it! =) for It was good - not Great! =| for Meh...I guess it was just OK. =( GAH! Did NOT like it a bit!

7. Write your Review in FRONT OF the URL & Emoticon

Count your characters as you go along to see if you are close to 140 (including the URL & emoticon review) Cut out words that are unnecessary - re-word, re-think, re-write, re-mix, & be creative! Hints: use "&" rather than the word AND, dashes as breaks,but try NOT to write in leet speak. Like "OMG, UR going to h8 this book" There are times for that kind of informal text - but not for this activity :-O

If you want to post these Tweet reviews you can also add the hashtag #booktweet before the emoticon review so that they can be searched.

Did you do all that and you're under 140 characters? **AWEsome**!

8. CUT and PASTE your Tweet review from the Character Counter and email it to Mrs. Jones @ jennifer.jones@gccisd.net. I will then review them and post them using the class twitter account. @jonesbookworms


 * [[image:murrayhill/www.technologiesblog.eu1_.jpg caption="www.technologiesblog.eu1_.jpg" link="@http://bit.ly/"]] ||
 * [[image:murrayhill/facebook-emoticons.gif caption="facebook-emoticons.gif"]] ||
 * [[image:http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5006/5723027377_504fe35335.jpg link="@http://www.webworldindex.com/countcharacters.htm"]] ||
 * [[image:http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/3.0/88x31.png caption="Creative Commons License" link="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/"]] ||
 * Creative Commons License ||

Twitter Style Book Reviews by [|Gwyneth A. Jones - The Daring Librarian] is licensed under a [|Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License]. Based on a work at murrayhill.wikispaces.com.