Amy Thomas, a 5th grade teacher at Dayton Elementary School has been using a project called the Readbox to enhance reading comprehension skills while utilizing important 21st century skills. The Readbox is an English Language Arts project in which Amy’s 5th grade students independently read a novel. After reading a novel, the students create a book trailer, much like a movie trailer as a way for others to preview the book. The students start by creating a storyboard to plan the video, including the storyline and music. The students use either an iPad or MacBook app to create the video which consists of introductions, highlights, and cliffhangers. Music, images and text are chosen to compliment the theme and mood of the book. The book trailers are then uploaded to the school’s secure YouTube channel and QR codes are created for each one. The QR codes are affixed to a copy of the books’ cover image and displayed on the “Readbox”. All students from the school can scan the QR codes to watch the book trailers with the goal of building interest so that the students will check out the book and read it. This is a great project to get students excited and interested in reading. Below you can sample some student projects by scanning the QR codes or clicking on the links.
Amy Thomas, is a 5th grade teacher at Dayton Elementary School with Mitchell County Schools. She has taught for 12 years (Kindergarten, 3rd and 5th grades) and was a teacher assistant for 4 years prior to earning her teaching degree. Amy recently presented at WCU’s first annual Creativity and Technology Conference: Fostering Creativity in the Digital Age.
Amy Thomas’ poster board at WCU’s Creativity and Technology Conference
Readbox display at Dayton Elementary School
QR Codes for student projects:
links to projects:
The Boy Who Saved Baseball
One and Only Ivan
I am Malala
Making Bombs for Hitler