Integrating Technology into Reading and Bloglovin' Giveaway!

Good morning!  I'm joining Amanda and Aylin from Learning to the Core for their Tune into Technology Linky!  This week's theme is for how to integrate technology into reading.  I think this linky is great timing since the summer is the best time to explore new sites, apps, etc. and actually have time to play around with them!

After perusing my Twitter feed, I came across an awesome new website called ThingLink.  What I love about ThingLink is that it is super easy to use!  The whole purpose of ThingLink is to make your images interactive.

While reading The Other Side last year, we talked a lot about symbolism and what the fence meant in the story.  I wrote about this book on Sunday if you want more information.  With ThingLink, I found a picture of a white fence and uploaded it to my creation.  From there, it will let you tag anywhere on the image to add more information.  I tagged a place to describe the fence, talk about my favorite moment in the book, and add a link to the author's website.

Here is my ThingLink! It's pretty simple with only a few tags, but remember, this is my time to play!  I can refine later!  The colored dots reflect different tags that I have added about the book.  You may click on it to go to the actual page so that the tags work.

I also wanted to share another one that I found that is all about the song Wagon Wheel, a summer favorite of mine!  This lady has created a great ThingLink with lots of links, information, and even the song. I can't take any credit for it, but notice all of the tags!  Click on it for some good time fun with this song.

So...how can you use this for reading? Let me count the ways!

1.  Symbolism - I find this is the easiest connection since the whole premise is to make an image interactive.

2. Character Traits - We've all seen those organizers that point to different parts of a character's body and students write about what they are thinking, doing with their hands, feel with their heart, etc.  With this site, you can have them copy an image of the character or someone they think looks like the character and tag different parts.  

3. Book Retell or Report - What a great way to tell about a story while embedding links or just typing different parts of the book.  

4. Book Talks - An option with ThingLink is to embed video.  What better way to have students share what they know by video taping themselves and including it in their ThingLink. 

Here are just a few of the different ways I've thought of, but I can't wait to get started with my kiddos this year!  I hope you've enjoyed this!

Bloglovin' Giveaway!
I don't know about you all, but I'm loving my daily Bloglovin' emails!  It's helped so much so that I don't miss great posts!  I'm joining the rest of the Bloglovin' crew for a giveaway of one of my TPT products!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Link up and find all the great people who are doing giveaways!  What a fun way to meet new bloggers, and maybe win a giveaway!  

Alrighty, I gotta run, but don't forget to link up!