Book Trailers

For our culminating projects of Literature Circles, the boys have created book trailers to promote their book. I first heard about this idea from our tech coach and on the English Companion Ning. When I first started researching book trailers, I found a great website called Digital Booktalk that was started by research students at the University of Central Florida. I showed my students the examples of student contributed work on the site and told them we would be submitting our book trailers to this site. (Immediately their interest was piqued!)

We began the process by having our tech coach, Melissa Smith, come into our room to teach the boys about iMovie. They then used storyboards to plan their movies, keeping in mind the requirements for their movie (they needed to include the book's main characters, theme, conflict, and setting). They used Flip cameras and a "green screen" (actually a green sheet) to film reenactments of important scenes from their books. I had no idea how much fun they (and I) would have with this. I was excited to see all the props and costumes they were bringing in-- they were even getting their groups together to film scenes at their houses over the weekend!

I also met with the instrumental music teacher to see if he could use some of his class time to teach the boys about creating their own music in Garageband. They spent two class periods with him composing music that mirrored their story's plot. We spent most of this past week editing, and the final products are pretty impressive. One example is below on the book The Liberation of Gabriel King. I will definitely do this project again-- I think using book trailers fosters a love of reading and encourages deeper understanding of the texts. This kind of project reminds me that learning CAN be engaging and exciting.

Article from Educational Leadership about book trailers

Book Trailers from Courtney Humphreys on Vimeo.

The Language of My Classroom

I keep a flashcard on my desk that is a great reminder for me (especially at the end of the year when the schedule, my students, and life in general feels hectic and out of control.) The flashcards says:

Language of my classroom:

-language of community

-language of identity

-language of agency

-language of noticing and naming

-language of knowing

As I strive to develop a culture of thinking in my classroom, I remember that the language of my classroom is an important facet of the culture I am trying to create. Ron Ritchhart focuses on these languages in his book, Intellectual Character (an amazing read!) It is important to foster these languages in my classroom, and Literature Circles have helped us become more "fluent" in them this year. We have developed into more of a community because the students have been working with the same small group and have rotated their jobs. I find myself saying, "We need to figure out..." or "We need to meet and discuss...." becaues I am constantly rotating around and joining in on the conversations taking place. My students need to see themselves as writers, creators, co-collaborators--and they have done just that as they have been given specific jobs and responsibilities to complete. They feel a sense of agency and autonomy when my classroom is student-centered, not teacher-centered, and they are in charge of their own learning.

I asked my students for feedback about Literature Circles in a recent Edmodo post, and their comments confirmed what I have observed all quarter. They love what we are doing, and they wish we had done more of it.

Chalk Talk

After a great first day of Literature Circles, we had some time to "debrief" on Friday to discuss everyone's impressions of how their group worked together, what they would like to improve upon, and what they accomplished. I decided to use the Chalk Talk routine I learned about at PZ, and I asked the boys these two questions: "If Mrs. Droke or Mr. Burns (our assistant headmaster and headmaster) walked in our room during Lit. Circle meetings, what would they be excited to see? What do you believe good learning looks like in the context of Lit. Circles?" Chalk Talk is basically a conversation on paper, and the boys generated excellent ideas about what good learning looks like. One of my favorites was the shot at the end that says, "Cooperation + organization + creativity + facts x fun = learning." I love that this student chose a mathematical relationship to express himself. The incredible thing about these routines is that it's not necessary to review as a class what everyone wrote. I just had them walk around at the end, and then I put the butcher paper up on our walls as a reminder. I encouraged them to remember those ideas and implement them in their groups when they meet next.

Chalk Talk from Courtney Humphreys on Vimeo.

What Learning Looks Like

I've been reflecting lately on what learning looks like, and I was excited to see a true picture of it yesterday. When Marie and I set out to try Literature Circles this quarter, we were definitely apprehensive and completely unsure about what we were doing. With a lot of help from our tech coach, we were able to set up completely paperless (except for the texts!) Literature Circles. Last week, I presented the four books they would be able to choose from: Code Talker (by Joseph Bruchac), A Long Way from Chicago (by Ricahrd Peck), The Liberation of Gabriel King (by KL Going), and Jackie and Me (by Dan Gutman). We chose books at a variety of levels, and the boys used Survey Monkey to select their top three choices. We passed out books last week, and I gave them the "job" that they would be starting with (we aren't sure how the jobs will work, and we may end up doing away with them completely after a few meetings). We had our first official meetings in class yesterday, and I was incredibly impressed with what I saw. As I walked around the room and listened to the conversations taking place, I heard boys making connections to the text, pulling out examples of figurative language, and sharing reflection journal entries from the night before. When I ponder what learning looks like, I'm sure that it looks more like the videos below and less like the way I was taught. It is student-centered, student-led, and that is what makes this venture so exciting. As I continue to read about Literature Circles (Harvey Daniels' books have been very helpful, especially Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles and Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in Book Clubs and Reading Groups), I think this will be something we implement throughout the school year next year. We'll continue to supplement with short stories and will definitely continue to do whole-group reading.

Literature Circle 3 from Courtney Humphreys on Vimeo.

Literature Circles 2 from Courtney Humphreys on Vimeo.