Death to Boring Book Reports

Independent reading assignments can be tricky to teach in a fresh new way. A great way to step up boring poster board presentations is to use a video editor like Pixorial to create a book trailer. They are one of our favorite ways we’ve seen teachers in the Pixorial community use Movie Creator. Like movie trailers, book trailers can provide a visual for important settings and prominent themes from novels. Book trailers can also be used later as a great tool for review.

1. It all starts with a free account; educators are eligible for a free Pro account with 30GB of storage space (which you can find here) while students can use our standard 7GB of storage.
2. Once an account is set up, create an outline for the trailer. Does it start with a question? Or a powerful visual? Brainstorm how to get the message across clearly. From there, creating a trailer is as easy as adding visuals, text overlay and music.
3. Students can create their own visuals by capturing photos or videos from smartphones, webcams or digital cameras and uploading that content into their Pixorial Library. Creative commons is an amazing source for ready made visuals be it photo or video. Download what works and upload it into your Pixorial library for editing.
4. Once we have visuals, insert text and transition effects to set the scene. A simple text overlay can name the main characters, locations and themes, while transitions can indicate a lolling tale or a fast paced mystery.
5. Last, add one of our 500 free music tracks to set the mood. Is it old school Dickens or a little more modern? We have tracks that range from electronic to mystical. Find out more about Movie Creator features in, How to use Movie Creator: Creating your own video masterpieces!.

Check out our example: The Grapes of Wrath