Independent Reading Assignment: Book Trailer

This is one of my all time favorite ways to hold students accountable for having read a text independently.  It integrates skills of summary, theme determination, mood and tone identification with creativity, technology and presentation skills.

The basic idea is that kids create a trailer (advertisement) for their book.  The specific assignment/prezi that I use to guide them is provided on the following link:

http://prezi.com/dj4dbngk-zs3/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

In this prezi I outline all of my requirements as well as some of the resources that I guide students to.  There are also MANY exmaples - some are mine, some are my students.  Feel free to use/alter/adjust as you see fit.

There are many storyboard templates for free on printablepaper.net.

Students are always highly engaged in this project.  This also gives some kids, who may not be such great traditional test-takers an alternate way to show what they have learned.  I am always impressed with some new technology trick that these kids know and are able to integrate.  I also really like this assignment, because it really teaches careful editing. 

I generally spend one day introducing this assignment (including a brief tutorial on how to use Microsoft MovieMaker) and then give 2-3 days of work time.  It usually take me one class period, with a class of apx. 30, to do a "showcase" where we watch all of the trailers.  I encourage the viewers to pick a book for summer reading as they are watching - in the past I have had them pick their next book based off the trailers.