Developing Buzz and Cultivating Readers (VIDEO)

As a long time educator and advocate for literacy, I am delighted to have the opportunity to join the Huffington Post family of bloggers. Films like "Waiting for 'Superman' " and "Race to Nowhere" recently have brought the discussion of education out of the schoolyards and into the boardrooms of our nation. My involvement with the Empire State Center for The Book, The American Library Association and other groups brings me in contact with teachers, parents and educational innovators that deeply care. As I travel around the country both physically and virtually, I will share the educational successes and occasionally the failures that I encounter.

Back in the 1950's Rudolf Flesch was explaining "Why Johnny Can't Read" and in the eighties and nineties we had what has been termed as the Reading Wars between advocates of phonics and Whole Language advocates. Nevertheless, whatever the methodology for the teaching of reading, it has long been the role of teachers, parents and librarians to encourage a love of books and a desire to read for pleasure. A parent reading a bedtime story or a librarian book talking a series of titles all in hopes that a child will pick up a book and read is all a part of that mission.

In recent years, publishers, authors, teachers and students have been using the book trailer, a promotional video, to develop buzz and cultivate readers for a book. Some book trailers are similar to the familiar movie preview while others look like something you will see on MTV. Teachers and librarians are embracing this medium to promote books and encourage reading. Analine Johnson, school librarian at Centeno Elementary School in Laredo, TX and a blogger for James Patterson's Read Kiddo Read website is a avid creator of book trailers to use with her students. Her video 14 Cows for America (Peachtree, 2009) is a fine example of how a teacher-made video commercial will help kids connect to a book.

Students are also trying their hand in creating book trailers with burgeoning enclaves of video creators springing up at the Springston School in Christchurch, New Zealand and the McKillop Elementary School in Melissa, TX. While other educators have been using various methods to get trailers out to potential reader. Michele Harclerode of Lee County, FL has created a website called Book Trailers for Readers and there is a Facebook page called Book Trailers for All hosted by Teresa Schauer a school librarian from Pettus, Texas.

Jon Sciezska, a children author and the past Ambassador for Young People's Literature for the Library of Congress has developed a web based literacy program called Guys Read whose mission is to help boys become self-motivated life long readers. In addition, the program is developing books, Guys Read Library of Great Reading, that will entice boys to pick up a book. The first in the series is Funny Business (Harper, 2010), a collection of short stories edited by Sciezka. It is being promoted with a video that features a numbers of authors including Jeff Kinney, author of the Wimpy Kid series (Abrams), and Mac Barrnett, author of the Braxton Brothers series (Simon & Schuster).

Want to checkout a variety of book trailers? School Library Journal, a publication for librarians, is hosting the first annual Trailee award to recognize this creative art form. Checkout the nominees and vote!

 

Follow Rocco Staino on Twitter: www.twitter.com/roccoa

Comments

[Jason Greenwood]

11:15 AM on 10/15/2010

The book trailer for this thriller is taking the medium to a new level: http://www.PilatesCross.com

[Jill Berkowicz]

08:06 PM on 10/11/2010

Finally, someone who understands literacy belongs to the times! If the first two comment-ers lived a few centuries earlier, I bet they'd be up in arms about the move from stone tablets to paper! Oh the horrors of paper! Then the printing press and mass production. What would they post then? How should we capture the kids who will be going off to college having only read from a screen and only bought a book by pushing a button. Unless we wake up and pay attention to their world, they will discover reading without us and have lost the value of our appreciation of good works and our direction. Anyone knows if you want to reach people, you have to start where they are, and we all know where our kids are...so let's meet them there! Thank you Huffington Post for having Mr. Staino blog. He knows what he is talking about!

[Doctorloopy]

01:55 PM on 10/08/2010

It's a shame the two previous posters are so short sighted in their scope of understanding reading and how to motivate children. Like it or not children ARE "digitized" and you are making a huge mistake if you don't reach out to them on a playing field familiar to them. Creating digital products goes far beyond teaching children about reading. It makes them think about summarization, main points, being concise and putting thoughts on paper. It gives them an opportunity to work with technology and learn to express themselves through a visual medium. Creating book trailers like these involve the children in reading the book first and then challenges them to persuade others. Projects like these challenge children to think outside the box, arrange elements like music, photos and video in an interesting and informative way. In some cases they gain poise by speaking in front of a camera. What a shame that you don't see this and the potential it has to enhance not only reading, but learning. I for one have seen the changes in children involved in this type of technology and I will continue to turn out students who will be functional in the 21st century.

[swimlapsdaily]

11:24 AM on 10/08/2010

As a noted educator and notorious book maven (he even has a library dedicated to him in Brooklyn, New York) I am disappointed by the alacrity with which M. Staino has apparently embraced this new gimmick. What ever happened to reading the flyleaf or the first chapter of a book to get a bead on it's content? Even reading the bio of the author and his or her past publications will usually be informative as to the nature and scope of the book under consideration. Aren't our kids "digitalized" enough? Sorry, I think these video book promos are a bad idea.

[Sean Taylor Teacher]

01:49 AM on 10/07/2010

MORE ADVERTISING FOR KIDS! “Change a child's life with a literacy not gimmicks! Fairy tales, fables, myths, and legends compel children’s joy and interest like no other literary activity. Creating interest, amusements, and a joy of learning is essential if we are to succeed as reading teachers. The child’s delight in the literary activity will make the learning and adsorptions of the material pleasurable for the teacher and student. Great children’s literature is the stage of childhood where children can laugh, cry, reason, and experience many extraordinary lives. Fairy tales, myths, and legends let children discover who they are and who they want to be. Reading with children is the only reform we need, it is and will always be successful because the literature is so powerful in creating such joy and interest in children. We buy reading software, basil readers, easy read books, workbooks, Dibles, RTI, reading exams, intervention after intervention, and endless teacher training on how to use the predigested programs, software and materials! Yet we are going down the tubes with more and more illiteracy in the US. Why not stop the stupidity and just put great works of literature in kids hands and spend hours, days, and weeks reading magical stories with them. NOT MORE COMPUTER TIME! Great Literature Needs No Advertising!
Sean Taylor M. Ed
http://reading-sage.blogspot.com/”