Online Tools for Motivating Reading

Been to a movie lately? What drew you to that movie? In many cases we find ourselves going to a movie after seeing the trailer for the movie, either on TV or before another movie. The Internet offers ways to capture this process for motivating students to read.

As reading teachers, we know that it can be helpful to build some background on a story or book before reading. Trailers for a movie do the same type of thing. So here are two resources that might be useful in building interest in books and reading.

Book Trailers

Mark Geary, an assistant professor of educational technology and children’s literature at Dakota State University, has assembled a wonderful resource for teachers of all levels. He has worked with a variety of groups to produce “book trailers.” These are 30 to 45 second videos designed to interest students in reading. There are lists for early elementary, late elementary, and adolescents (which I would say is aimed at middle school students). The cool thing about these trailers is that they can not only be used to motivate reading particular books, but teachers brave enough to tackle a video project to have students create their own book trailers in response to reading their own books. You can find the early elementary list by clicking here. From here you can find the other lists.

60 Second Recaps

English teachers in middle school and high school can take advantage of another great site for both building background for typical literature studied in school and deepening student understanding of these books. 60 Second Recaps is like a video version of the old Cliff’s Notes or today’s SparkNotes. For some books, there is simply a video overview or review of the book. But for many books there is much more. And, as the name implies, each video is just about 60 seconds.

In my English class we are studying Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. For this play, 60 Second Recaps has a “teaser trailer,” an overview, an overview of characters, an overview of the plot, two looks at both theme and motif in the play, one on symbols, and a concluding video. The home page has a featured video and a “pick of the week.” There’s even an app for that! Yes, they have an iPhone app for 60 Second Recaps that can be found in the iTunes store.

This is a really cool site that continues to add to its resources. You can check it out by clicking here.