Using Book Trailers to Entice Readers

Greetings! I'm Sarah and I blog over at Tales of Teaching with Tech.  I was so super jazzed when I was asked to guest blog on iTeach Third. Okay.... I have to be truthful.... I literally was doing a happy dance on the inside! (But tried to keep it cool on the outside!)

Last fall, I went to a Cue Rockstar training and my biggest takeaway was book trailers.  The only problem was the presenters used iMovie in their classrooms and I have chromebooks.  I was on a mission to find something that was FREE and just as exciting as iMovie.  Well, I found it... Animoto! And the best thing is they have a Animoto Plus account for educators!!!

Book trailers put a new spin on the traditional book report.  We want our students to be enticed to read more books, right?

As a class, we watched the latest movie trailers and discussed the different elements of a trailer. (music, pacing, wording, mood etc)  Then I showed them two book trailers created by students. Skippy Jon Jones and Stellaluna (And of course I had to run to the library and read these books after recess because my kiddos were so eager to read them.)

I created a storyboard worksheet to help my students be inspired.  I really didn't give them much direction.

 

I was 100% blown away with what my students came up with.  Here are a few examples.  Now...remember... these were created in the first trimester of third grade. (Sooo.... what I am getting at is... there are some grammar/spelling issues!)  

So "it" totally worked.  My students were super eager to read the books that were showcased by their classmates' book trailers. Plus, my students begged to make more book trailers just for fun.  I call that a win-win! 

Thanks iTeach Third ladies for inviting me to be apart of this fab blog. 

Happy Reading!