More from Sara on The Book Trailer
What a treat! I was sinking as I thought more about the damage high-stakes testing is doing to our schools so it was so uplifting to read Sara Kajder’s article, The Book Trailer: Engaging Teens Through Technologies in this month’s issue of Educational Leadership.
It tells the story of students creating a two-minute video using still images, transitions and special effects (generated with MovieMaker or iMovie software), voiceovers, and a soundtrack. Students present the central characters, themes, or issues of the book visually and through written and voiceover narration. All trailers have to include the title of the book, the author’s name, and a presentation that is both authentic to the text and that works to “hook” readers. I also require students to submit their trailers with a piece of writing that explores the choices they made, with an analysis of the book that shows that they made decisions on the basis of the text, and not just by using the aspects of technology that would best captivate an audience.
Sara goes on to say that….
But technology is not the goal. Student writers and readers are at the center of our instruction. And we, as mindful teachers, must thoughtfully and deliberately prepare all of our students for success by critically exploring the new technological tools and then using the ones that can help us and our students to powerfully convey what we think and know.
I can’t think of a more exciting time to teach, as we’re immersed in new possibilities for working with words and with one another. When we teach creatively with emergent tools in mind, we stand a better chance of engaging reluctant students by giving what we teach real meaning. Each day is an invitation to examine, play, invent, reinvent, and join in the conversation.
Read the whole article. I’ve posted previously about Sara here and here.
March 19th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
What an interesting way to get people interested in reading! Book trailers are like movie trailers, but for books! You can find them all over the internet now, but here is a site that’s featuring them on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/booktrailers
June 11th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
I find this activity to be quite fascinating. It is a creative way to engage students in the reading process. Because students are engaged by technology, teachers should include more classroom activities that allow students to utilize their technological skills. Book trailers, like movie trailers, are short snippets of the overall story presented in the book. Having students create book trailers requires them to select main points from the book that are representative of the whole story. It is a good way to have them analyze, synthesize, and summarize the material they read. Furthermore, it requires them to be creative as they try to “hook” their viewers. What a great way to achieve a higher level of learning!
May 8th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
What an outstanding idea for a culminating activity in literature and writing!!! I had never thought of “book trailers” before until I read this blog. Ironically, I was looking for a blog to post to as an assignment for a class in Literacy Technology I have just started. I have gotten a two-fold learning experience…one for my own technology development in instruction, and another one for my lesson planning in response to literature. I am really excited about incorporating this into my instruction for the coming year. I have much to learn, but I have a feeling that learning to put together these book trailers will be part of the learning process with the students and not just “for” the students.
Any tips or hints will be greatly appreciated! Thank you.
June 21st, 2009 at 8:12 am
We’ve been doing book trailers with students for over six years now and have had great luck in motivating students in this way. The key to making it work is to have students act out the passages in their trailers and to learn about the story invention process. You can learn more about this on our site: http:www.digitalbooktalk.com