Hosting a Mock Geisel with 1st and 2nd Graders

DaNae Leu is an elementary school librarian at a K-6 school in Kaysville, UT. For the past few years she has conducted a Mock Geisel for her first and second grades and is impressed with their passion for evaluating the books created just for them. 

A pile of 2019 Geisel contenders. Courtesy of DaNae Leu. 

For the past few years I’ve put committee power directly in the hands of the readers for whom Geisel books are geared for. When the Guessing Geisel Blog began, I’d been conducting a schoolwide Mock Caldecott for some years and smaller Mock Newbery even longer. I’d never considered branching out to Geisel until I began following the blog. I saw it as an opportunity to work in curriculum standards on evaluating text and critical thinking with my youngest students. I hoped to give them the understanding that certain elements make some books especially great for readers like themselves. 

Leu's students read and evaluate a book together. 

Courtesy of DaNae Leu. 

Since Amy Seto Forrester began her posts on What Kids Say, I’ve begun introducing the books to my first and second graders in the first months of school. Our first lesson usually consists of an explanation of what the Geisel Award is, followed by a reading of the most recent winner. I use the following questions to help them determine whether a book makes a good Geisel award: 

• Does the beginning make you want to get to the end? 
• Do you want to turn the page to see what happens next? 
• Are you learning new words, but not too many? 
• Are the new words repeated? 
• Are the sentences easy to understand and not too long? 
• Do the pictures give you clues to what the words are saying? 

A student reads, while their reading buddy looks on. 

Courtesy of DaNae Leu.

If time allows, I will then read one title from the current What Kids Say list and walk them through filling out the review bookmark that Guessing Geisel provides. This year I read a different book to different classes so I could provide Amy with a wider pool of responses. 

In the following months we work through Amy’s assigned titles (four each month). I try and have two or three copies of each of the four books. When a class comes in, I quickly remind them what they are looking for and then assign one title to two students to read together. They spread throughout the library, most alternate pages, or in the instance of speech bubbles they may take turns doing alternating characters. Once they have finished there are bookmarks to be filled out waiting on the tables. 

Three poker chips. One white, one blue, one red. 

Ready for voting! Courtesy of DaNae Leu

In early January I pick a week to hold our Mock Awards. I select eight likely suspects. These may or may not be titles that they evaluated for What Kids Say. I tend to rely on the books which have the biggest buzz, or the ones I haven’t let get checked out from under me. My pre-setup is to put a copy, or copies, of the different titles on each or our eight tables. I number the tables one through eight. Also, on the table is a small container of poker chips in three different colors, (explanation to come). I arrange a display along a counter with a print of each book cover taped over a container, AKA a plastic cup. 

Geisel contenders and their accompanying plastic cups 

awaiting student votes. Courtesy of DaNae Leu. 

When the class arrives, I quickly review the criteria using the above questions. I let them know that they are going to act as the judges on which books they think make the best Geisel books. I then put them into groups of two or three and assign them a table. They have about two minutes with each book. They will be familiar the titles. Once the groups have rotated through all the books I have them choose one of each of the three different colored chips from the containers on the tables. They will put the blue chip in the cup under their first choice, red for their second and white for their third. I have sixth grade assistants which come in once a who help me tally up the totals. 

There is always a lot of excitement over which title will take the gold. And each book usually has some fierce support. They then look forward to what the other committee choses. 

Have you hosted a Mock Geisel? Share your mocking stories in the comments below!