I attended TCEA this past February and several sessions focused on iMovie. One session shared how easy it was for students to use iMovie to create book trailers on in iPad. The finished product was very impressive and professional looking!I have used book trailers in my classroom to introduce read aloud books. I have shown them 2-3 titles and we vote on the book we want to read. I compared book trailers to movie trailers. You want to tease the reader enough to persuade them to go and read the book, but not give away the ending. I showed my students several examples of iMovie book trailers. There are several book trailers on YouTube, but I wanted book trailers that were created using iMovie. I also wanted book trailers that used images instead of filmed footage. I found Tim Jefferson's awesome blog which had storyboards for every theme ready to be printed.
I read a picture book with my students, then I did a think aloud about which theme would best fit the book. I showed them the storyboards and we discussed what should be written for each segment. We discussed which events of the story to focus on, characters, and theme of the story. I modeled how to break apart the sentences into the the different speech bubbles. I then told them every picture box will need to have a picture. You cannot delete anything. We discussed taking pictures of the book and copyright issues.
I paired my students up and gave them a selection of picture books to choose from. After reading their books, they chose an iPad to to view the different themes. Once they chose a theme, they came to me and I once again explained to complete the storyboard. Students thought they had to use the default text. I had to show them in iMovie it could be deleted. The hardest thing my students had was being succinct and not giving away too much of the book. Some students were trying to write entire sentences in the speech bubbles. I told them to break the sentence apart or uses phrases.
After students did their planning they came to me and we conferenced on what they wrote. If any revisions needed to be made, they took care of it and then they were given an iPad. I suggested they get all of their pictures before starting their iMovie. Students used the camera to take pictures from the book, drew them, or looked online.
After their finished product was complete I exported their iMovie directly to YouTube. It was so easy!
Take a look at some of the finished products.
Reflections:
- I borrowed some iPads from a fellow teacher, but if you just have 1 iPad this will have to become a station. Once the planning students took about 15-30 min to complete the entire trailer.
- Exporting the iMovie from the iPad straight to YouTube is the quickest way to share your iMovie. I had students create practice ones on a Mac and the process of getting them onto YouTube was significantly longer!! I a 1 min trailer took 20-30 to upload.
- This could be used in other content areas. I have seen science trailers on YouTube. Using regular iMovie would be better to use because students can put more information in their movie. The iMovie book trailers have a set time limit....about 1-2 min.
- You can introduce a unit or event (Math/Science Night, Book Fair, Open House) going on in school with iMovie.
