| Are YOU interested in helping your students create book trailers of their own for their favorite book? I discovered a wonderful librarian from an elementary school in Nebraska, Cynthia Stogdill, who just finished this terrific experience with her students. She graciously agreed to let me pick her brain on how she accomplished this in the short time span of a mere two weeks! Here's our discussion: Kimberley: How did you first come up with the idea to have your students create book trailers? Cynthia: My daughter's former teacher introduced me to book trailers. She used them in her classroom for different things and she knew I was in "library school." I was brainstorming for different ideas for my after school reading enrichment program, and I thought book trailers would be something we could try. I try to incorporate some creativity, as well as higher level thinking in our activities. My activity units run for two weeks. We meet on two afternoons a week so everyone has an opportunity to participate at some time. For this activity we did the planning one day, filmed on two days, and had our screening party on the last day. Kimberley: How did you choose the books? Cynthia: I let the students pick the books they wanted to feature. The only stipulation was that they had to have read the book at some time.
Kimberley: How was it set up? Did they work by classes or in teams? Which grades were involved? Cynthia: This activity was part of the after-school reading enrichment program. It is open to our students in grades 1-4, and we also have some older students drop by, as well. The students created individual book trailers, but were supported by their peers. They discussed their ideas with each other offering ideas and suggestions before we started the taping process. I really stress character development with my students, so I insisted that they be constructive and supportive with each other. A few of the students chose not to participate, but they stayed close by, watched, and offered support to the other students. We kept the process pretty simple and kept the length to less than a minute. That forced the students to be concise and to the point.
Kimberley: Did they write their own script? Did they storyboard it out like a movie? Cynthia: I provided the students with a brief questionnaire to help them outline their book trailer. It consisted of the book's title, author and/or illustrator, and brief summary of the book. It also included a comment on why someone should or would want to read that particular book. I encouraged them to prepare that ahead of time and use it as a guide when they were practicing. Some students followed their outline very closely, and some didn't use a guide at all. Additionally, I used the questionnaire as a springboard to get them to really think about their book and why they would recommend it to someone. I really wanted them to move to a reflective level of thought. In general, I think they accomplished this because they were discussing their choices with each other.
Kimberley: How did they film the trailers? What technology did you use? Cynthia: I did all the filming with my Flip video camera. It is easy to use, has a two hour memory, and long battery life. My kids use it to film plays, sock monkeys, and our pets all the time. It might sound like a commercial, but it is a great all purpose camera at an affordable price. It was perfect for this project.
Kimberley:Did you use any music/song background for the trailers? Cynthia: Some of the book trailers have a background sound track. I ripped short pieces of music and overlapped them to create a repeating background track. I avoided using whole pieces of music for copyright reasons.
Kimberley: How were they edited? How many book trailers were created all together? Cynthia: I used Windows Moviemaker to create the book trailers - I am a PC person. After doing some research, I chose this software for our project. Ideally, something like Garage Band would have been perfect, but I didn't have ready access to that software. Moviemaker allowed me to edit the clips, piece them together with transitions, add titles and credits, and soundtrack. The software then allows you to transfer the videos onto a DVD. One can also use photos instead of video clips, so that is an option. (Like The Healing Spell - which is a great example of another way to do a book trailer!!!!) Video can be a big challenge but nothing a brave librarian can't handle.
My students were younger, so the editing process rested on my shoulders and we kept it really simple. We created about twelve book trailers that were thirty to sixty seconds long. That translated into about eight hours of editing. I think older students would have a great time creating and editing their own work. If a librarian had access to a good editing program and time to familiarize students with its workings, this would make a great performance assessment.
Kimberley: Did you have any sort of competition with the book trailers? Prizes? Cynthia: Nope, just for fun. In the future, I would have an awards ceremony and find some plastic statues to give to the students - similar to the Oscars. Just for the fun of it. Kimberley: What was your culminating activity to show off the book trailers? Cynthia: We finished the book trailer activity with a screening party. The students had popcorn and pretzels, and they were sprawled out on the floor. It really was like a movie party. We watched all the book trailers and then I created a Blooper video with some of their outtakes and mistakes. That was the last thing on the DVD. I think we watched the entire DVD three times. Our screening also fell on parent teacher conferences and our Book Fair. I had given the DVD to the principal after our party, and she actually had it running in a conference room for parents to stop in and watch. Kimberley: What a great, easy way to let the parents see the book trailers of their children! Cynthia: Looking back, I wish we would have had the DVD running for both nights of parent-teacher conferences and the Book Fair. Unfortunately, we had some snow days and I really wanted the students to be the first ones to watch the DVD. In closing, this was not a complicated process. The Moviemaker program takes a little practice, but it was fun and pretty straightforward. This activity will definitely make an appearance in the future. I am so proud of the students and their focus and commitment to putting together something really special. Kimberley: You make this whole process seem very doable for any school or classroom. Thank you so much, Cynthia, for being with us here at SPELLBINDERS. What a treat! Please go to Cynthia Stogdill's new blog for her elementary school to see the videos they created: http://besbobcatlibrary.wordpress.com/ | 
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