Persuasive Writing with WOW Factor

“To Sell is Human,” claims Daniel Pink in his book with the same title. Everyone is selling something – an idea, a hope, a rule, etc. What do students sell? My partners and I considered this question and decided that students frequently try to sell a peer on their favorite book. To make this process more authentic and engaging, we had students develop a sales pitch and added augmented reality for Wow factor.

How to:

·      First, students created a Book Talk in written form. We asked for a hook, a brief summary, a counterargument and a close – about 7 – 10 sentences.  When read aloud, the average time was 1 minute.

·      Students then rehearsed with a partner, adding expression and gestures.

·      Small groups worked together to videotape each other giving their Book Talk.

·      Students then used the free Aurasma app to turn their video into an overlay or aura. Next, they took a photo of the book cover and used it as a trigger. This means that when anyone scans the book cover with Aurasma, up pops the video sales pitch for the book.

·      Finally, Aurasma stickers were placed on the book spines. Now, when students are looking for a book in the library, they can scan with Aurasma and listen to a persuasive book talk. 


Here's a photo of me demonstrating to students what it looks like when you scan and the video sales pitch pops up.