Unit 8

 For this unit, we covered several articles on getting students interested in reading, including using video book trailers to entice potential readers. 

The first article is called "The Digital Age Booktalker: Student-Created Digital Book Trailers." This article talks about the value of book trailers, and not just to those who watch them. When students create their own book trailers, they are able to turn the book and its impacts on them into their own presentation, emphasizing on the parts, plots, and characters that stood out to them and impacted them the most, allowing a form of reflection upon finishing a novel. The author talks about using the free website Animoto to create slideshow videos with music that students can use for a plethora of activities, especially beneficial for book trailers. The author walks the reader through a lesson plan using Animoto in the classroom, including the necessary preparation and steps to make sure it has the intended impact on the students. They provide all of the standards being addressed, as well as a rubric to work with in creating one's own lesson based off of theirs. They wrap up their article by talking about the need for students to "demonstrate comprehension" of what they read, and how activities such as these help make reading a fun activity instead of a chore. I can see how these types of activities are greatly beneficial to students, especially those who are reluctant or disinterested readers. I can see students creating their own video trailers to share with the class, and then having students read a book from another's video to compare their experience and interpretation of it with how the first student introduced it in their book preview.

The second article we read is titled "Using Short Videos to Enhance Reading and Writing in the ELA Curriculum." This article talks about the value of visual literacy in ELA for students, such as developing proficiency and fluency with tools of technology and creating, critiquing, analyzing, and evaluating multimedia texts. The article talks about how technology is the present and the future, and how we as educators are responsible to teach digital literacy as well as general literacy, and how we can utilize both at the same time for the benefit of our students. Just like the previous article, this one talks about using Animoto with students in creating presentations and video/audio lessons. Unlike the previous article, the author here talks about using Animoto in the creation of poetry videos, not book presentations, but still combining text, images, and audio to create a digital presentation. The author mentions how this kind of lesson/project is especially beneficial to students with disabilities, especially in breaking up the monotony of reading and the negative views many students have of reading poetry. The article also mentions the benefits of teachers partnering up with media specialists, which is similar to previous articles we've read across the semester that mentioned teachers working together with librarians. Just as we as teachers are combining technology with our lessons, we should also combine specialists with ourselves in creating and implementing our lessons.

 

The next article of this unit is called "Ditch the Study Guide: Creating Short Films to Analyze Literature Circle Texts." This was a very good read, as it followed the journey of Caspian, a student who never cared about reading in class. The author follows his adventure of using scripting and video recording to create his own mock-rendition of a book he read in class, working together with other students to create their finished project. He was able to work with other students who he normally would not have interacted with (as they were outside of his ordinary "clique"), and said he was able to make friends and experiences with them that he would not have had otherwise. He was able to bring his own hobbies and interests into the activity, such as using a football of his when acting out as the character from the book he was using (with football being a sport he played). Caspian talks about how the project allowed him to explore and enjoy the text in a way that an ordinary essay reading assignment would have, stating that "if this is what English will be like in college, I'm in." The project removed Caspian from his comfort zone and exposed him to new things, leading to him reading more and embracing his love of certain books that he sheltered away from others before. Truly this article shows how reading can be enjoyed by everyone, if done in the right way and supported by a plethora of different assignments and activities that help expose all students to their own strengths and weaknesses.

The last article of this unit is titled "The 20-Shot Short Story." This article focuses on using smartphones, wikispaces.com, digital cameras, and other technologies in having students create short stories. The author works with her students to talk about the benefits of film and camera shots/angles in presenting specific feelings, stories, and intended messages. She works with her students on explaining the differences between different kinds of camera shots and how directors use story boards to plan how their camera shots will meld together and what kinds of messages and feelings they're trying to invoke between them. The students are then assigned a story to focus on and meet in groups the next day to work together on their stories, planning out filming and rationale for why they want to record that way. The students then share their screenings with the on the fifth and final day, to be assessed overall on their storyboard, the video, and their written rationale for the project. The teacher makes sure to tell the students that these are not expected to be perfect, nor is that the intention or desire from the project. Instead she tells them that the purpose of the assignment is for them to articulate their understanding of their assigned short stories using technology and video. This article, and the lesson provided in it, are greatly valuable, especially with how prevalent smart phones are today and the ability to take videos anywhere. I could easily connect this to TikTok or Snapchat stories with my students, creating an assignment where they create multiple posts on their social media (or faux posts for the class if they feel like they'd be embarrassed sharing it with their friends and followers). Again, the use of technology for students is just as critical for teachers to implement than just the subject matter itself, and this focuses on that.