Today, 4th grade presented their author studies to 3rd grade at our summer reading fair. Each 4th grader was a part of a group reading books by one author. The authors were presented to them in a power point fast-paced book talk. The students then signed up for the author they were interested in and read as many books as possible over the past 3 weeks. Next, students worked in their classrooms to create displays for their table at the summer reading fair. These tri-boards featured summaries of books, vocabulary, and more. One of the new and popular features of each table was an Animoto author trailer. Students created these as an intro to their author during a 90-minutes session with me in the media center.
During the Animoto lesson, students saw a model example and then learned about finding photographs online under the creative commons licensing. Students then planned their author trailer using a graphic organizer at tables. Finally, students went to the computer lab and used Animoto to create their final products. You can view all of their author trailers here. You can also hear a group of students speak about using Animoto here.
Expect the Miraculous 
I LOVE this! I wasn’t able to play the video and hear the students’ comments about using Animoto. I want to get familiar with it–I think our students have used it some. I love how you connected this with an author study and book talks. Great job as always, Andy.