
Golden Goblet Class Book Trailer
After introducing my class to the concept of book trailers, my students became interested in creating a book trailer for our class study novel The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. This project was truly something generated by student interest and not a project I had planned to do.
I decided to organize it like a movie production in which everyone in the class would have to apply for production roles and acting parts if they wished. Everyone completed the application below in which they described why they wanted a particular job and why they were best suited for it. It was a great example of persuasive writing and students were motivated to give specific reasons why I should consider them for their desired job.
After introducing my class to the concept of book trailers, my students became interested in creating a book trailer for our class study novel The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. This project was truly something generated by student interest and not a project I had planned to do.
I decided to organize it like a movie production in which everyone in the class would have to apply for production roles and acting parts if they wished. Everyone completed the application below in which they described why they wanted a particular job and why they were best suited for it. It was a great example of persuasive writing and students were motivated to give specific reasons why I should consider them for their desired job.
Once the roles were assigned, each student or group was given deadlines by the Directors and me for when their work would be due. Some students had to complete their work before other students could start theirs. For example, the first priority was getting a story board and script written. Once that was done, the Location Researchers, Costume Designers and Prop Master could begin their tasks. The video production crew would be the last group to get their assignment since their work depended on everything else being complete.
The actual script writing and planning took students about a week, of which only about two days of class were given to work. The filming took place over the next two weeks, with about three class periods being used. We used two video cameras, a Flip Mino HD and a Kodak Zi8 HD camera. Both were extremely easy for the students to use. We also used tripods for mounting the cameras so the shots would look more professional.
After all the filming was done, I loaded the raw video on to my laptop and transferred it to an iMac in the school library that had iMovie installed. Most of the video crew were already experienced with some form of video editing (which is why they wanted the job), but I did give them all a brief tutorial of iMovie and showed them the iMovie template we would be using. After that they were on their own. Below is a sheet I gave them with their deadline and notes.
The actual script writing and planning took students about a week, of which only about two days of class were given to work. The filming took place over the next two weeks, with about three class periods being used. We used two video cameras, a Flip Mino HD and a Kodak Zi8 HD camera. Both were extremely easy for the students to use. We also used tripods for mounting the cameras so the shots would look more professional.
After all the filming was done, I loaded the raw video on to my laptop and transferred it to an iMac in the school library that had iMovie installed. Most of the video crew were already experienced with some form of video editing (which is why they wanted the job), but I did give them all a brief tutorial of iMovie and showed them the iMovie template we would be using. After that they were on their own. Below is a sheet I gave them with their deadline and notes.
When they reported that they were finished, the Director for each class and the Editors looked over the project and made any changes they felt were necessary. When they told me they were done, I exported the projects from iMovie and uploaded them to our school's SchoolTube channel.
As a culminating element of the project, I had students write a reflection about the process of making the book trailer.
As a culminating element of the project, I had students write a reflection about the process of making the book trailer.
I also did short video interviews with all of the students about the project and used that footage and pictures I took while they worked on the project to create a "Making of The Golden Goblet" video.
The Making of The Golden Goblet Book Trailer - Lisa Stringfellow
The Golden Goblet Book Trailer - Language Arts 1
The Golden Goblet Book Trailer - Language Arts 3