Librarian Helps Students, Author Create Book Trailers
RSSBy Rocco Staino
A group of elementary students in Round Rock, TX, helped an author in Brooklyn, NY, create book trailers to promote his books—and they did it via Skype with the help of their school librarian. As part of a media literacy project, 25 fifth-grade students from Canyon Creek Elementary School helped award-winning author Phil Bildner create two trailers, the first for The Unforgettable Season:The Story of Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and the Record-Setting Summer of '41 (2011), illustrated by S.D. Schindler, and the second for The Hallelujah Flight (2010, both Putnam), illustrated by John Holyfield, a picture book about the first African American to complete a transcontinental flight. Bildner is a 2004 recipient of the Texas Library Association's children's choice Bluebonnet Award for Shoeless Joe and Black Betsy (S & S, 2002). And this year, The Hallelujah Flight was named to the 2011 Bluebonnet Master List. Following Bildner's visit to Canyon Creek in September, Nicole Shannon, the school's gifted and talented specialist, wanted to celebrate the event by having her fifth-grade students create trailers for Bildner's books. With the help of media specialist Sharon Whisnand, they got in touch with the author, who lived 1,800 miles away. The distance didn't matter because they used Skype, a software application that allows users to make voice calls, chats, and video conferencing over the Internet. Whisnand and Shannon had their students watch numerous books trailers to identify what worked—and what didn't. After their first Skype conversation with Bildner in January, the students went to work creating storyboards for the trailers. February was filled with back-and-forth exchanges with the author, who offered a few suggestions on music and images. After the slides were created, the students made the trailers using MovieMaker. During the entire process the teachers referred to Bildner as their client. "I wanted the students to understand they needed to meet all of his needs while also having the ability to add in their own ideas," says Shannon. "I especially appreciated that the students had to really listen to Phil and work with him as he would work with an editor. This helped them really understand the full collaborative process." On a visit to Bildner's Brooklyn loft during his final Skype session with the students, the author told them, "mission accomplished!" when he learned they had completed their project. In early March, the fifth-grade boys completed a video for The Unforgettable Season and the fifth-grade girls created a video for The Hallelujah Flight, which are both available to view on the Bildner's website. The students plan to enter the videos in the School Library Journal's Trailee Competition, and Bildner also hopes the book trailers will be shown during April's Texas Library Association conference. Whisnand, who has been a school librarian for more than 36 years, says the project was an exciting and collaborative undertaking that allowed all those involved to feel empowered by their contributions. "Students learned that corporation is a mainstay of collaboration," she says. "Each group was able to utilize the strengths of the individual members in order to create a quality product." This article originally appeared in the newsletter Extra Helping. Go here to subscribe. Oh! Oh! Pick me. I want a trailer, too! I've got Skype and work well with
others. Any takers? I would love to do this next year with some students.
Is there a lesson to follow to create a book trailer? * = Required information
Bildner chats with students via Skype.
Reader Comments (2)
Posted by Natasha Wing on March 22, 2011 03:22:37PM
Posted by Christy Carmichael on March 23, 2011 08:18:14AM
