I've been working on coming up with assignment ideas to really make YA books come alive in my classroom. As book bloggers are well aware, book trailers are becoming increasingly popular, especially with YA books. I think this could translate well as a classroom activity and a much more engaging assignment for students than a traditional book review or even a book talk. I think for the next independent reading assignment or lit circle reading assignment, I'm going to show students some book trailers, and maybe even movie trailers to get the point across. Then, their assignment will be to create a book trailer of their own, using powerpoint, photostory, windows movie maker, i-movie etc. I'll set up a screening party the day the assignment is due, and each student or group can show their trailer. The class could then rate the trailers with movie ratings - thumbs up/down, how likely they are to read the book based on the trailer etc. Hopefully by allowing the assignment to translate into multimedia terms that the students already engage with, it'll create more interest in not only the assignment, but in the book as well.
An example that I think will get the students' attention, from P.C. Cast. (I'm having trouble figuring out how to upload the video. For now, here's the link - )
So while I think this is a fantastic idea, some of the less, how shall I say it, technically savvy beyond IM and Facebook may have trouble doing it... maybe you could make a short one in class over a projector or something to show them how? I love this idea! I wanna make one :-p As long as you rate them on paper though. I'd be mortified to have someone be like 'oh I wouldnt read that. thumbs down' in front of a whole class :-x
ReplyDeletebtw I told Danille about me being The Book Club and she said she'd show up to the next one so she could be in the pic :-p
Thanks, Renee. I agree that some kids will need help with the technology part, but that might be a worthwhile lesson as well. And I'll definitely issue a grade not based just on classroom reaction to balance out the difference in reading interests.
ReplyDeleteGlad Danielle will come to the next book club - hopefully we'll get lots more interest with Hunger Games.
I think that's a great idea! I never knew these existed until recently, and I think they are pretty cool and can see how that age group would really get into that kind of thing!
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