My 5th graders recently began making book trailers. What is a book trailer you ask? It is similar to a movie trailer- a short video that tries to get you to read a book.
We began this with group trailers. I read The Gold Cadillac by Mildred D. Taylor to my class. They worked in small groups of 2-3 to create a book trailer using Photo Story. Students found photographs at Schools Clipart for their projects. They then either used the music maker within Photo Story or music from FreePlay Music for their trailer. We looked at examples of other trailers such as the one here and here. Talked about the role of images and music in the trailer, and learned how to give enough information to hook a person, but not so much that it became boring or gave away the ending. I have posted below a couple of examples from our class.
We are in the middle of creating individual trailers now. I will post an update once the students finish those.
This project was a lot of fun and the students really got into it- even those kids who are virtually non-readers. They all enjoyed reading the books, because they were thinking about how to turn it into a trailer. I am so proud of how they are turning out!
I plan to share any comments left with the student, so if you are as impressed with their work as I was, please leave a comment.
Teaching Tomorrow 
Those are a REALLY good idea! I enjoyed them quite a bit! Good work 5th graders!
Thanks for the reply! The kids love seeing a response to their work!
Dear 5th graders,
It looked like you had fun doing those videos! I told a lot of people about them because I thought it was neat! 🙂 Keep up the good work!
Catherine
Our class wants to thank you for commenting on our projects!
Mrs. Cox’s Class