While we're waiting for the final results from our second ballot, it's your turn to talk!
Did you run a Mock Geisel program in your school, library, or another setting? We'd love to hear about your process and results in the comments on this post! Here are some questions to get you started:
How did you select the contenders?
How many did you include?
How were titles read and discussed?
How did you conduct voting?
How did you share the results?
Special thanks to commenter DaNae, who posted her school's Mock Geisel results on an earlier post!
This year, I decided to try an interactive display at the Children's Library desk. Since the Geisel Award doesn't have a lot of recognition, I called it "The Best Beginning Reader of the Year!" I chose to use 5 titles (Pug, Up, Go, Otto, Go!, Dance Dance Underpants!, and Get a Hit, Mo!) that are cataloged as beginning readers at my library. I really wanted to raise awareness of that specific collection, so I decided not to include any picture books. Kids and families were given a one page ballot with some simple criteria prompts (was the story a page-turner? Would you read a sequel?). We had copies of the books at the desk and kids were encouraged to read as many as they felt like reading and then circle their winner. Although not all kids read all the books, it definitely helped us promote these great books and our collection. After a month of voting, Dance! Dance! Underpants took home the award! It was such a fun and easy way to mock.
ReplyDeleteI began a few months earlier, October or November, by introducing the award to my first and second graders. I had a poster from Bound to Stay Bound which showed 2016 winners. The poster shared space with other awards and it would have been nice to have a dedicated poster. We talked about who Theodore Gisel was and I let them list the books of his that they knew. I was surprised that they mainly stayed with his early readers. I gave a brief origin story of THE CAT IN THE HAT so they could understand the roll of engaging books for early readers. I also read DON'T THROW IT TO MO. A huge hit. When I could fit it in among my other instruction I would introduce other possible titles. The week before we held our mock, I read quite a few.
ReplyDeleteThe week of, I had my eight titles set up at numbered stations around the library. I have classes for thirty minutes so time was tight. I gave a brief instructional period, where I went over questions I'd designed from the criteria. Then I put the students in groups of about 3 and sent them to examine and read a book. A timer went off every ninety seconds and they moved to the next. Once they'd cycled around all eight books, I handed out poker chips in three colors. Blue was for #1. Red, #2. White, #3. I had copied off colored covers of each title and taped them along a window over a counter. I had a cup in front of each one. I asked them to drop their chips in the cups to vote.