By Steve Oldfield
Children Inc.
Young readers at the Boone County Library in Burlington are getting some high-tech help choosing books, thanks to video reviews produced by their peers.
Second graders at Yealey Elementary have created videos for some popular books like “Cleo The Cat” and “The Pigeon Wants a Puppy.”
Signs for each review are posted throughout the Children’s Area on the 2nd floor of the main branch.
Teachers Judy Zureick, 2nd grade; Craig Dunlap, Blended Learning instructor
The project is just one of many of the service learning projects being coordinated by Children Inc. throughout the area.
The 2nd graders’ book commercials feature a picture of the book and a QR-code that connects visitors right to the videos.
“We’re making book commercials for younger kids to get interested in books,” said Kella, a 2nd grader at Yealey. “We want to make sure they don’t check out something and then go home and say, ‘I don’t like this book.’”
The students learned how to create the videos on laptop computers during class time. The second graders wrote, directed, edited and hosted each review. Each video is about one-minute in length.
“Yeah, I’d like to do it again, it’s fun,“ said Lucas, a second grader who recommended “Eloise and the Big Parade” in his review.
His classmate Kella went even farther in her praise of the project. ”I would do ten-hundred books if I could,” she said.
Photos by Chad Brady, Boone County School District
I love the idea of the kids doing their own book reviews and allowing people to access it by their own QR code. How did you make the videos? Did you have to upload them to the internet?
Any links to tutorials?