Animoto. I gave them no instruction, just helped them log on and told them to explore and work together. Their job was to create a trailer that would give a brief summary and encourage others to read the book .

Objectives:

            Since students are so visual the use of book trailers to entice them to read is a big draw. Regularly, when I show students book trailers there is much more interest than when I do a traditional book talk. I needed to see evidence the students had clearly understood their reading. To tell a whole story in just a couple minutes of video forces students to pull out only the most important details, character traits and events. A lot of analysis had to be done to accomplish this.

            Additionally, I chose to let the students discover through experimentation, how to actually create the video. There was a lot of collaborating along with some trial and error, hypothesizing, testing and reworking as they found graphics, music and other features within the Animoto website.

Once these students finished their product, we shared it with the other students in their group and in our class. The entire class was ooohing and ahhhing the whole time. We also shared their trailer with students around the world by posting it on my class website. Parents, relatives and students around the world were able to watch this video. That was a truly energizing force pushing these students to create a quality piece.  

Finally, students are given an opportunity to create something that is visually stimulating , entertaining and helpful to others around the world. Traditional book reports and posters pale in comparison. 

 

Future changes and improvements:

            Asking students to explore and figure out how to create an Animoto trailer worked well, although it was important to have students work as a team. Together they collaborated to find ways to present information and figure out how different tools worked. The students who created the Animoto video for this project, however, were among my top students, so they already had a lot of problem-solving and collaborative skills. Other students may not be quite as adept at this, so I will want to ensure students are ready to collaborate on something such as this or be ready to support them. Having the students work independently is also an option if I am willing to give up on the collaboration part of the project.

            In the future, I also may want to teach students how to use their own images or Creative Commons images. While there are lots of images available directly from the Animoto website, they are limited is scope, which may prove to be difficult for students looking for a specific image.  This, of course, will require teaching students about the appropriate use of images found on the web and how to cite them appropriately. .

            Finally, if working with a whole class, it will be advantageous to have the whole group create a collaborative trailer. This would be a modeling exercise for students to better understand how to create the video, but also on how to summarize and present an entire book in a short video. This could easily be done at the conclusion of a class read aloud and would fit well with lessons on summarizing and main idea and details.

 

Connection to ISTE Standard 1B: Promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness

            Since this resource was given to students with a minimal amount of instruction, they were required to make a hypothesis and test it before being successful. They had not idea where to begin and had to experiment. With a time limit of about 30 seconds for their video, these students had to be very creative in how they presented the important ideas from their reading and get their message across.