Teacher Page
The temperature among students is chilling. Many of them seem to be disengaged at school, they don't read much, and they won't write anymore than they actually must. Many schools, teachers, and librarians have turned to book trailers to engage students in literature. This curriculum unit takes the idea of a book trailer to the next level.
Pitch a Book as a Movie is a curriculum unit designed to engage and assess students in literature. Developed as the final project for the Digital Media and Learning Practicum class at the University of San Francisco, this curriculum unit is not designed to teach students about a book; it is designed to assess their comprehension of a book and to engage them in "new media" methods of qualitative assessment. Movies and film are used as the theme for this unit, to show students that reading a book is not an end in itself, that reading and analyzing a story's plot, characters, themes can be applied to situations and environments which they are familiar with. Each of the activities in this unit are designed to function as an assessment strategy, one that engages the student in discussion and analysis that more exciting than "a book report". These activities are also designed so they can be applied to many different books, depending on the student's grade, level of reading, or subject in class. Activities can be scaled up or down for all age levels, with the teacher being able to provide as much (or as little) guidance as necessary.
The pitching a book to be made in a movie idea, in addition to providing the student with alternative assessment strategies, also introduces students to "new media" literacy. In the 21st century, literacy must include digital, hypertext, images, and the plethora of communication media that make up the complex systems that abound in today's world. The complexity of messages today means that students need to not only know how to read them but also know enough about them to be critical viewers, with the power to analyze and understand the obvious and more obscure meaning of the messages around them.
The eight activities in Pitch a Book as a Movie are designed so that technology is not the goal. It is a means for students to explore a variety of literacies and ways of communicating their response to their reading. The different learning styles and modes of communication these activities use can help reluctant readers and writers by offering them a chance to use methods that interest them and that make use of other strengths that they may have.
The lesson links listed below connect to a Teacher Page for each of eight lessons in this curriculum unit, containing lists of materials, lesson and learner objectives, and rubrics.
Lesson One: Create the Website
Lesson Six: Storyboard a Scene
For more information about book trailers, and why they have emerged as a valuable tool for teachers, please visit Reading-Active-and Engaging.