Literacy Love via Book Trailer Choice

Roanoke 5th grade is fully involved in book clubs and readers workshop.  Students' journals are teaming with reading responses and reading logs are filling up fast.

So, how do you continue this enthusiasm and encourage the motivation to read more? Let your students create their own book trailers! Choice was all over this project, from the selection of the book to showcase in the trailer to the digital tool to create the trailer, every part was student driven.

The Roanoke Language Arts Teachers provided examples, discussed with the students that elements that made a successful trailer, modeled how to plan out the process to create a trailer and provided a rubric that identified the content needed to show mastery of literacy skills.

Here are two exemplars from the the 5th grade students at Roanoke Elementary.

The Lion Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis- Book Trailer by Michael using Smore

Nothing's Fair in the Fifth Grade by Barthe DeClements- Book Trailer by Amanda using Animoto

These exemplars along with the other 5th grade students' Book Trailers, using a variety of tools beyond what was mentioned here, can be seen on the Standard Based Bulletin Boards at Roanoke Elementary until November 21st, 2014.  All are welcome to come by and see how choice promotes the love of literacy via Book Trailers.

A Smashing Good Book… Google Site Style

Every summer many students sign up for Pre-Ap English Language Arts classes. Students know they will continue their learning through their summer reading projects.  This type of summer reading project, which adds a digital touch, advances literacy, strengthens critical thinking, and authentically engages students to ensure an increased level of academic performance.  One particular project exceeded Mrs. Laynie Johnson's expectations with something that is known as App Smashing. The definition of App Smashing is the process of using multiple apps in conjunction with one another to complete a final task or project all included under one accessible URL.

Emmarie, 6th grader from Wilson Middle School, chose the book The False Prince, by Jennifer A. Nielsen.  She chose to show conflict resolution by using a comic creator called Pixton, figurative language was expressed by a multimedia presentation called eMaze, and her personal connection was showcased in a Smore digital flyer.  To bring all of the tools together she showcased them on a Google Site that is easy to navigate and has eye appeal.  The goal of the project is to CAPTURE the audience into reading the book and she certainly has done a great job.

While this project was intended for this school year, Emmarie has a vision for this Google Site to continually add to it each year to incorporate all of her summer reading projects for her Pre-Ap English Language Arts classes to show growth and curate her reading to share with others.