Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Classroom Book Awards 2013

Last year, I read a post by Colby Sharp about Classroom Book Awards on his blog and I loved the idea! It is a perfect way to reflect on all the great books we read and enjoyed during the school year.  Before reading about this idea, I always had students reflect on our class read alouds by choosing which read alouds were their favorite, sparked the best conversations, had the strongest characters, and taught them important life lessons.  However, I never thought about opening the reflection up to include more categories and to give out book awards, which seems more official and exciting for the kids.  

So last year, I began this tradition of hosting Classroom Book Awards and students loved it! Click here to read my post about the process from last year.  Since the end of the school year is approaching, we started the process of nominating and voting on books this week and we now have our winners! To begin the process, we decided on our award categories as a class and I created a nomination form with categories on Google Drive.  Then students nominated one book per category on their form independently.  I collected the nominations and tallied the books that had the most nominations.  Those books then went to the next round.  I repeated this process of tallying up the most votes for three rounds and then the 4th time was the final round where students were voting between two books for each category.  Below are the winners for our awards: 


Classroom Book Award Winners  2013

Book of the Year - One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Best Social Issues Book - Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

Favorite Chapter Book Series - The False Prince Trilogy by Jennifer Nielsen

Best Middle Grade Novel - The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Favorite Graphic Novel Series  - Lunch Lady Series by Jarrett Krosoczka

Read Aloud of the Year - One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Most Inspiring Read Aloud - The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen

Best Picture Book - It’s a Book! by Lane Smith

Best Historical Fiction Book - The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Best Nonfiction Book - Winter’s Tail by Juliana Hatkoff and Isabella Hatkoff





     
 














Enjoy Reading! :)



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8 comments:

  1. UnknownJune 12, 2013 at 10:51 AM

    What a terrific idea. I will share this with my classroom teachers. I am always seeking ways to demonstrate to kids that their voices matter. This is one reason the Texas Bluebonnet Award program is so successful because students, not grown ups, choose the winner. I like this classroom version of book awards. Very nice post. Thank you.

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  2. Lynda Mullaly HuntJune 13, 2013 at 11:31 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Lynda Mullaly HuntJune 13, 2013 at 11:34 AM

    Hey! THANK YOU so much--I am so grateful to you, Melanie, and YOUR KIDS!! So awesome that they voted One for the Murphys as a winner; I am thrilled and honored. Also, I love the company that Murphys is in here. I think it's so cool to be listed among these other books :-) LOVE them! Wishing you all a wonderful summer filled with adventures--both in real life and in books!

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    1. Melanie Swider Wenz June 16, 2013 at 9:25 AM

      Thank you Lynda! I shared this comment with the kids and they were thrilled to get a comment from you! We are huge fans and can't wait for your next book! :)

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  4. UnknownJune 16, 2013 at 8:16 AM

    I have done book awards simultaneously with Honor's Day for the past 3 years. We give our awards in our classroom. I give out student awards, then the students take over the Book Awards. Days before they decide categories and nominees, then vote. I tally up the votes and make envelopes for winners. I usually write the script for what students say on the outside of the envelope. When students present the awards they show the nominees and say "and the winner is..." and everything. Then that book gets adorned with a sticker I make on my computer to acknowledge the class of that particular year's voting of it. The Lorax is covered in stickers for winning multiple categories three years in a row! Next year, I plan to jazz it up a bit. I want to roll out "red carpet" (bulletin board paper or real red carpet if I find some cheap) and this Christmas I plan to save my wrapping paper rolls so I can make the ropes that go along the red carpet to direct people where to walk.
    I love Book Awards Day!

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    1. Melanie Swider Wenz June 16, 2013 at 9:27 AM

      Hi Nikki, I love your idea about the "red carpet" and the announcements with the envelopes too!! Will definitely try this next year! We also create award stickers to put into the winning books. This year, one of my students created the stickers and they were so excited to put the stickers on the winners!
      Thank you so much for sharing your ideas :)

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  5. KarenJune 17, 2013 at 12:57 PM

    I did something similar this year, but I remember seeing Colby's post as well, and liking it even better than my "May Madness" where only 1 winner was found for the entire year. So many more books get noticed this way. Thanks for the reminder and the book titles!!

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  6. JessieJune 25, 2014 at 6:54 AM

    I love this idea. Thank you for sharing.

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