Website review by Stephanie Trautman, Common Sense Education | Updated October 2015
Booktrack
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Booktrack

Add soundtracks, create an immersive reading experience

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Grades
4–12
Subjects & Skills
English Language Arts, Communication & Collaboration, Creativity
Great for
Creating Media
Price:  Free to try, Paid
Platforms:  Website
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Take a look inside

5 images
Booktrack home page includes genres and books to explore.
Inside Booktrack classroom (a teacher's view)
When users click on a book, this page and its options show.
Teachers can utilize the lesson-plan library.
Make each book full-screen, and control the volume.

Pros: Draws students in by having them think critically about tone and purpose when pairing music and sound effects with written word.

Cons: Constantly changing music may be a distraction to some readers.

Bottom Line: An interesting product to make reading a multisensory experience.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

It's fun to have students create soundtracks for specific scenes, chapters, or an entire story they're reading in class. Teachers could have students add music and sound effects to their own narrative pieces, too. For students who need audio support when they read, teachers could record read-alouds for students to listen to, with the addition of sound effects and music playing in the background. Teachers could also push students to explore an author's purpose and tone by adding music to a story they're studying. This will allow students to think critically about using sound to augment the experience an author creates for the reader with words.

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Standards:

Booktrack is a site where writers can upload their stories and add soundtracks and sound effects to go along with them. Readers can also read stories with music, sound effects, and ambient sounds built in to the background. Booktrack offers a multimedia experience for writers and readers, letting readers interact with their stories in a way they haven't before. It offers thousands of classic and contemporary stories to listen to, some for free and others for purchase.

Some students could develop listening skills by adding an embedded soundtrack, but the sounds could be a distraction to others. Instead, the creation process may be more helpful to students than the finished product they create. Booktrack can enhance students' writing process as they add sound effects and music to enhance the mood they're trying to convey with a piece of writing. The editing features are simple and straightforward, and music can be searched by genre, style, or emotion. Students can also choose a story already in the Booktrack library and add music to it, as though they were creating their own soundtrack or playlist for a book. The site will definitely grab students' attention and engage them with reading in a whole new way.

It would be great if the site could foster more collaboration among students, allowing them to add comments or converse with other creators on their sound and music selections. As a teacher, you'll probably need to scaffold students' use of the site, making sure they're focused on why the music enhances certain aspects of the story, particularly theme, mood, tone, and author’s purpose. Also, keep in mind that this tool works best with Google Chrome, and the playback features might not work if your browser is not up to date. Check on your devices' capabilities before you jump in with students. 

Overall Rating
Engagement

It's fun and engrossing to add music to texts, and students will enjoy the sounds they find along the way as they read. The simple, straightforward design makes it easy to use.

Pedagogy

Learning isn't especially baked in to Booktrack, but students can examine stories for their themes, their mood, and the author's purpose and then choose music accordingly.

Support

Video tutorials, FAQs, and email support offer students flexible, detailed help, but the support materials aren't especially accessible for ELLs or students with learning differences.

Common Sense reviewer
Stephanie Trautman Classroom teacher
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Key Standards Supported

Reading Literature

  • RL.4.7

    Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.

  • RL.5.7

    Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).

  • RL.6.7

    Compare and contrast the experience of reading a story, drama, or poem to listening to or viewing an audio, video, or live version of the text, including contrasting what they “see” and “hear” when reading the text to what they perceive when they listen or watch.

  • RL.7.7

    Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film).

  • RL.8.4

    Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.

  • RL.8.7

    Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors.

  • RL.9-10.2

    Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

  • RL.9-10.7

    Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment (e.g., Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts” and Breughel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus).

  • RL.11-12.2

    Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.

  • RL.11-12.3

    Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

  • RL.11-12.7

    Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or live production of a play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text. (Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an American dramatist.)

Speaking & Listening

  • SL.6.5

    Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, images, music, sound) and visual displays in presentations to clarify information.

  • SL.7.5

    Include multimedia components and visual displays in presentations to clarify claims and findings and emphasize salient points.

  • SL.8.2

    Analyze the purpose of information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and evaluate the motives (e.g., social, commercial, political) behind its presentation.

  • SL.8.5

    Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest.

  • SL.9-10.5

    Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

  • SL.11-12.5

    Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

Writing

  • W.5.6

    With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of two pages in a single sitting.

  • W.6.6

    Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of three pages in a single sitting.

  • W.7.6

    Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and link to and cite sources as well as to interact and collaborate with others, including linking to and citing sources.

  • W.8.6

    Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

  • W.9-10.6

    Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

  • W.11-12.6

    Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.

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