I love the new project the students are embarking on:  Book Trailers.  Book trailers are a way for students to express what their independent reading books were about utilizing multimedia.  It also ignites the students’ interest into a variety of books.  If you look at the top of the blog, there is a a page which has some examples of book trailers created by students in previous years.

Students utilize so many skills in the process of creating a book trailer- summarizing and evaluating a book, understanding the mood of the book and the tone the author intended, deciding on images and words to use to express their thoughts, music and background to create atmosphere, citing sources, and of course manipulating the technology.

I love this project because students learn to use Animoto – a web based video making program.  Students can access the application from anywhere- home or school.

Each student received an Animoto account, which I control. I can access the account and check on what the students are creating at any time.  They learned how to manipulate the program yesterday.  I gave them time to explore Animoto to see what it has to offer.

Once students understood the program, we discussed the project- creating a book trailer- .  Students had seen examples of book trailers throughout the year, so they knew what they were going to create.

Before students started the project we discussed the importance of using copyright free images and citing our sources.  We utilize the program NoodleTools for this.  Students learned how to use Google Advanced Search to find copyright free images.

Students also learned how to save pictures on a Google Chrome book-

Alt and Click on mouse

Save as

Pick Google Drive (picture saves directly in student’s Google drive)

Students learned the skills to successfully navigate Animoto and find/cite images.  Once this was accomplished, students started to plan their book trailer.  Then the bell rang.

I told the students to experiment this weekend with Animoto, and we will revisit this on Monday.

I look forward to sharing their finished products!