1. What is a book trailer?
A book trailer is actually a sub-genre of digital storytelling.
Specifically, a book trailer is a video/digital advertisement for a book that draws on similar techniques of the more established genre of movie trailers.
Book trailers are short, catchy, and designed to ‘hook’ potential readers.

2. Who creates book trailers?
Publishers routinely create book trailers for new books, especially for those marketed to young adults and children.
Authors, especially self published or new authors often contract to have professional level book trailers created and advertised on their website, social networking site, Youtube, etc. or create their own.
This genre is being picked up by readers of texts as well—especially as a form of response in schools, libraries, and book groups.

3. Types of book trailers Professionally published book trailers
The One and Only Ivan (2012 Newbery Award)
This Is Not My Hat (2013) Caldecott
Seeking Symmetry
All the World (2010 Caldecott Honor)
Intentions
Student/Classroom created book trailers
We’ve Got a Job (4th grade students)
Almost Astronauts
Feathers
QUESTION: What elements might be included in the genre of a book trailer?

4. Variety of formats Still images with text (with or without narration)
Video images/still images with text (with or without narration)
Narration can be descriptive/marketing/book talk
Narration can be readaloud text from the original book
Illustration may be drawn from original text, primary sources, or thematic images

5. Digital Book Talks
Digital book talks are short podcasts that feature librarians, teachers, and/or students previewing a book in the same way they might in a book trailer…but with only audio.
Sample…The Strange Case of Origami Yoda
r_strange.mp3

6. Why Book Talks or Book Trailers?
When viewing or listening to book talks or book trailers, these are a great scaffold for pre-reading strategies--- visualizing, predicting, accessing prior knowledge, drawing connections, etc.
Research has shown that listening to or viewing a targeted book talk or book video can increase comprehension about content as it activates students for the process of learning new materials.
Creating book talks or trailers involves rich literacy skills and draws heavily on content learning and achieves multiple standards.

7. Why Book Talks or Book Trailers…
To intrigue and expand readers choice of genres, titles, and content…

8. Tips for Animoto *also on your handout
-Decide on book choice.
-Review multiple book trailers and discuss how they are created, what they entail, how they hook a reader but don’t “spoil” the ending, etc.
-Consider doing a whole class storyboard to model the process from a readaloud book or something you have previously read as a class.

9. Tips, continued
-Once individual or small groups of students have decided on a book to create their trailer around, have them brainstorm the elements they want to include.
-I generally have students start with the ‘visual layer’—the images they want to include. Create a list of images to find/locate/create ahead of time (before they search online)…this seems to save time. This is helpful to do on a storyboard brainstorm sheet. They can also add ideas around the text they may want to include, etc.
-Review copyright issues with kids and direct them to sites that contain copyright approved images to locate images.

10. Tips, continued
-I generally have students create a citation page to give credits for their images. They can do this in Powerpoint and save it as jpeg which can be inserted as the final image in their Animoto video.
-While building the Animoto and dropping their images in, students may end up deleting some pictures, moving others around, etc. and choosing to highlight certain images, etc. (Especially if students are doing this in small groups, the conversations they have are often very rich and educational—lots of speaking & listening/collaboration standards being met.)
-Students can add music from the Animoto resources or upload their own copyright appropriate/approved music.
-Animoto does the rest of the work once students click “finalize.”
This site is a great one I often walk students through and have adapted various resources from:

11. Scaffolding Students I: immersion in genre
M: teacher modeling/modeling texts
S: shared writing/teacher as guide
C: collaborative peer writing/
conferencing
I: independent work

12. Today…Choices
Create a digital book talk using a simple podcasting tool such as vocaroo (or another covered in your podcasting class with Mary).
Create a book trailer using Animoto. You might want to sign up for your own FREE Educator account at Animoto or you can use one of my accounts.
Spend some time looking at resources online for specific trailers/book talks that center around: a genre you teach, an author you study, content you are going to cover (ex: time period, scientific concept, etc.) Create a “set” of links that you could use to immerse kids in the genre of book trailers before having them create them as well.
RESOURCE: