Book Hooks- A Great Alternative

This week~ I want to share a project idea that might satisfy your students need for creative expression.

When finished reading a book~ I offer my students the option of creating a book hook (a mini commercial for the book). The goal of the hook is to get other children interested in reading that particular book. The project serves another purpose: it provides students with an additional outlet or assessment for demonstrating their understanding of the book.

When you give students the option to think visually by using images and pictures~ verbally by using text and captions~ and even in an auditory manner by being able to insert narration and sound bytes~ you are tapping into theories such as Howard Gardners multiple intelligences~ which states that people learn in different ways and having different learning strengths. While there is nothing necessarily wrong with having students write a summary of a book to determine comprehension~ I believe it should not be the only option if we want to develop our students strengths and keep them engaged.

To create the book hooks~ my students use a slideshow program called Adobe Premiere Elements 9. Adobe currently offers an Elements 12~ (http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere-elements.html) which must be purchased~ so please check with your school system to see what programs you can access. There are other programs that work just fine for this project~ such as Microsoft Movie Maker.

These programs allow students to download images~ insert sound~ add text~ and use other technology tricks such as transitions between slides to create a top-notch book hook. My suggestion is that you teach a beginners class that demonstrates the basic features to students then let them go from there.

In designing the hook~ I like to lay out some general requirements~ such as students must include the name of the book and the author~ the hook should present some of the most interesting or best parts but NEVER give away the ending~ and the hook should illustrate~ if possible~ the main characters~ setting~ and other literary elements. You can set other guidelines such as time limits. Normally~ one to two minutes will suffice. The hook should be just long enough to wet the readers appetite but leave them wanting more.

You can create a rubric for hooks~ which formally rates the above categories. Other ideas include having a preview day~ where students play their hooks for classmates. If youre really ambitious~ you could even invite parents to watch the presentations!

There are web sites where students share their hooks. To get a sense of what the hooks might look like~ you can visit one elementary schools website at https://sites.google.com/a/guilderlandschools.net/elementarybooktrailers....

I have seen how creative and engaged students become when asked to create book hooks using technology. It is a great alternative assessment to paper and pencil.

Thank you~
Steve