Annotated Bibliographies!

     I really enjoy reading and to be honest, creating an annotated bibliography was kind of fun: I was able to think about the books I read and try to imagine a way to use them in my classroom to help my students enjoy the books as much as I did and relate them to our studies in meaningful ways.  What I was not prepared for was how much work it actually took for me to finish a thirty book bibliography, I am pretty sure I spent at least 10 hours writing the bibliography and I couldn't even begin to guess how many hours I spent reading for this projects, I know I read well over 40 books in an effort to find thirty that made ideas and connections spring to mind for my classroom. 
     I hope to be teaching soon, I know having this project at hand will be a big asset for me in planning and I intend to continue adding more books to it as I discover them, except the books I add from this point forward will be more geared towards the subject I am teaching or books for my classroom library that I think students will really enjoy.  In regards to the second part, I think maybe I will make an annotated bibliography that includes all the books in my classroom library with a section for extension/application that students could use for sharing the book with the class.  If you are interested in reading my annotated bibliography, please click this link Mr. Balasco's Annotated Bibliography. 

Book trailers

    I thought I would explore making book trailers with iMovie.  It is actually a very easy project and seems like it could be a lot of fun in the classroom.  Students could create these trailers to introduce books as a prelude to a book report and is a great integration point for technology.
    This would be a great project for teaching 5th grade language arts and falls nicely into Florida Sunshine State Standards

• LA. 5.6.4.1 select and use appropriate available technologies to enhance communication and achieve a purpose, in this case a video presentation.
• LA 5.6.4.2 determine and use the appropriate digital tools for publishing and presenting a topic.

     Students could use programs such as word, iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, or Photostory to create a video style trailer that introduces a book to classmates and gains interest.  I think I would have students do this in conjunction with another activity such as a video book report, storyboard, or another project to demonstrate knowledge and familiarity of the book itself in more detail.  I personally found making this trailer enjoyable and engaging, I am still fairly new to Mac computers, so it was both educational and experimental as I toyed with iMovie to create a trailer for The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and I will most likely utilize this trailer as an introduction for the book as part of my language arts curriculum when I am teaching.

      Enjoy the trailer!