Top 10 Reasons to use Google Docs in School

Lit2Go

I heard about this through a webinar that I attended a few weeks ago. Lit2Go is a project by the University of South Florida. They are reading/recording books in the public domain and posting them to their website and iTunesU for public use. I counted over 200 books, & they are adding more all the time.

There are 2 ways to get the audio files:

1. Search the iTunes store for "Lit2Go"
2. Go to the USF website

Just to name a few...

• "A Was an Apple Pie"
• "About Florida Oranges"
• "Age"
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat
• "The Adventures of Kintaro, the Golden Boy"
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• Aesop's Fables
• Agnes Grey
• The Age of Innocence
• "Ain't I a Woman?", Speech by Sojourner Truth
• "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp"
• "Alphege, or the Green Monkey"
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
• "Alligator Hunting with Seminoles"
• "Ananzi and the Lion"
• Anne of Green Gables
• "The Ant and the Grasshopper"
• "The Ants Go Marching"
• "Anticipation"
• "An April Day"
• "The Arrow and the Song"
• "The Arsenal at Springfield"
• "As I Was Going to St. Ives"
• At the Dry Tortugas
• "At the Summit of the Washington Monument"
• "An Autobiographical Sketch by Abraham Lincoln"
• Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
• "Autumn Sonnet"
• "Avaricious and Envious"

• "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep"
• "The Badger's Money"
• "The Bald Man and the Fly"
• "The Bamboo-Cutter and the Moon-Child"
• "The Bat and the Weasels"
• "The Bats, the Birds, and the Beasts"
• "The Bear and the Fox"
• "Beauty and Brownie"
• Behind the Scenes
• "The Beleaguered City"
• "The Belfry of Bruges"
• "The Belfry of Bruges, Carillon"
• "The Belly and the Members"
• "Bell Horses"
• "Belling the Cat"
• Beowulf
• Beyond the City
• "Billy Beg and His Bull"
• "Billy Bowlegs and the Seminole War"
• "Bird Thoughts"
• The Bird's Christmas Carol
• "The Black Bull of Norroway"
• The Blithedale Romance
• "Blockhead-Hans"
• "Blue Beard"
• "The Blue Mountains"
• "The Bluebell"
• "The Boy and the Wolves, or the Broken Promise"
• "The Boy Hunting Locusts"
• "The Boy Who Could Keep a Secret"
• "The Boy Who Cried 'Wolf'"
• "The Boy's Life of Lincoln"
• "The Brave Little Bowman"
• "The Bridge"
• "The Brown Thrush"
• "The Bundle of Sticks"
• "The Bunyip"
• "Burial Mounds in South Florida"
• "Burial of the Minnisink"
• "The Burning of the Rice Fields"
• "The Busy Blue Jay, Chapter 1"
• "The Busy Blue Jay, Chapter 2"
• Buttercup Gold and Other Stories

Book Trailers

As a kid in school, just a few years ago, I can remember doing book report after book report. The books we had to read weren't all that interesting and the reports were even less so.

Lately it seems to me that some really good books for kids have come out. Great plots, interesting characters, and just all around good stories. In fact, many of these books have such great stories that they seem to turn into movies overnight.

As a result of these read-worthy books and the advancement of technology, our students have started started to create book trailers instead of book reports. We don't want them to give the story away, but rather give the viewer enough information and curiosity to make them want to read the book.

Check out the following trailer created by one of our students using Microsoft Photostory 3:

Here is what you need:

Devices - Digital Camera (cell phone, pocket camcorder, etc), a computer, (microphone optional)

Programs - Photostory 3, Animoto, Garage Band, iMovie, Windows MovieMaker, PowerPoint/Keynote

Important Teaching Points when creating book trailers:

• Create a storyboard as a rough draft
• Mood & music are very important to a trailer
• Time vs. Attention - think about movie trailers and t.v. commercials
• Text cannot be read easily when it is overtop of a picture
• PPT/Keynote can be used to create jpegs of text (text slides)
• Copyright & Permissions - Use pictures/music in Public Domain and cite your sources (see comments below for listing of recommended websites)
• Do not claim images or music as your own if you did not create them