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| www.booktrack.com |
One of the tools I recently learned about from an ISTE goer is called Booktrack. Booktrack is a free tool that lets teachers and students create a soundtrack to any book -- instantly supercharging any text!
Let me explain how this works.
Basically, there are a few ways to use Booktrack. The first is as a teacher conducting a read aloud. You can choose a book from the Booktrack library or you can upload your own book by copying and pasting (or typing) a text into the upload wizard. If you use a book from the library, the work is done for you! Your text is set to a track of music and sound effects that make your words come alive.
If you upload your own text, you can also select and add music or sound effects from Booktrack's site to help tell your story. In fact, you can even upload your own music and sounds to incorporate into your soundtrack. The site makes it extremely easy to do and allows you to test out your work before making it accessible to others.
Finally, you can upload a cover image and then when you're satisfied, you can publish your work either to your class Bookshelf, which you set up for each of your classes, or you can share it via social media, email, or embed it into your classroom website or blog.
As you read the text aloud, presumably to your class, a little arrow on the right side of the text helps you keep pace with the soundtrack. If you want, you can speed up or speed down the wpm with the click of a button depending on how quickly you read. It is entirely dramatic and adds an undeniably engaging layer to your "performance."
If you can't finish the entire read aloud in one sitting, not to worry! When you're logged in, Booktrack keeps your place and syncs across devices. Which means, you can start reading on your iPad and finish the book on your computer the next day without skipping a beat.
Students can also write their own books in any genre and publish them to Booktrack - personal narratives, autobiographies, non-fiction, how to, etc. Imagine the potential for students to publish a text during Writers Workshop, design their own cover (app smashing, anyone?), and then produce their own soundtrack to bring to life their published work. Imagine how proud parents would be at the classroom publishing party, listening to their child read aloud to a meticulously planned, complimentary soundtrack!
Booktrack is an amazing way to capture the attention of struggling readers, as well. It's new, it's exciting, and the music just might help the reader make connections and visualize the text. Simply hearing the scary music, or sounds of a basketball bouncing, or a car horn blaring, etc. certainly does help paint a vivid picture. Not to mention, can you imagine how helpful this would be when introducing mood and tone to a classroom?
Pro tip: If you're looking to upload a text but don't have time to write your own story, you might want to check out the exhaustive list of royalty free texts by the Gutenberg Project.
