The Cinematic Books project requires students to create a video trailer that would get others interested in reading a book. The book trailer, as the students and teachers see it, takes the place of a basic book report.
The idea for the project began when Barbara MacDonald, an English teacher, brought her class to the library for the yearly library presentation.
Ruth Soza, the school’s librarian, incorporated book trailers that she had seen online into her presentation.
Within a week after the students had viewed the book trailers, there was a waiting list to check out the previewed books at the school’s library.
“Book trailers are to books what movies are to trailers,” MacDonald said. “It gets students interested in a book.”
MacDonald and Soza saw this as an opportunity to get students more interested in reading, and they decided to turn it into a class project.
MacDonald assigned the book trailers in her freshmen and junior English classes and students immediately went to the school library to find a book.
Both educators have witnessed a spark in students that they have not seen in years. Students began showing a huge interest in reading and really grasped the assignment of creating a book trailer.
Students were more likely to read the books they saw in the trailers instead of the books they knew nothing about, Soza said.
Soza and MacDonald believe the book trailers are more effective than traditional book reports because they require students to grasp the themes and consider the importance of reading.
MacDonald and Soza recognized the need for more books. The library’s budget had taken hit, so the two applied for the grant.
The Cinematic Book project received the largest grant from the program.
“We got bragging rights,” said MacDonald.
MacDonald attributes them winning to the fact that the project is sustainable. The project is designed to continue through the years.
Sunnyside Unified School District is matching the grant and the educators hope to purchase Amazon Kindles, an e-reader device used to download and view e-books.
MacDonald plans on having five Kindles for each of her classes and a student can check one out for two weeks.
Both educators have already noticed a number of positive effects that this project has had on their students.
“I’ve asked some of the kids how many books they had read this time last year and many of them will say none,” MacDonald sad. “It’s a big change from last year.”
Some students are realizing they like books more once they give them a chance.
Alex Martinez, a senior at Sunnyside, chose J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye for his project. Martinez did not want to read the book at first, but started to enjoy it the more he read.
“Once I started making my trailer, I started to appreciate the book more,” he said.
Other students chose their books because they saw trailers for them.
Nicholas Verdugo, a junior at Sunnyside, had seen the trailer for his book in the initial meeting that his class had in the library.
Verdugo has almost completed his trailer and said that he enjoyed all aspects of the process.
“It takes forever to place all the pictures in, but I like putting it together and seeing my work,” he said.
Both Soza and MacDonald hope to see the project incorporated into other English classrooms at Sunnyside. They also plan to continue working together.
“It’s a collaborative work from all aspects,” MacDonald said.
