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It's award season: Grammy's, Oscar's, People's Choice Awards. The award seasons seems to go on and on. For book lovers, it's award season too! The ALSC (Association for Library Services for Children) gives a multitude of awards and recognizes honorees each year. Most of these books are already in the library or on order! As you can imagine, being put on this list increases the demand quite a bit. Feel free to come up and check out these excellent resources! Next week I'll be writing about the Illinois Book Awards. These are chosen by the students of Illinois! Here are this year's winners!
The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. 2019 Winner
The Geisel Award is given annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished American book for beginning readers published in English in the United States during the preceding year. 2019 WinnerFox + Chick: The Party and Other Stories, written and illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier, and published by Chronicle Books LLC Wily Chick and patient pal Fox star in three charming vignettes in which they explore the fun and frustrations of friendship. The warm and humorous story of these unlikely friends combines the design of a graphic novel with the simple vocabulary and ease of a beginning reader. 2019 Honor BooksFox the Tiger, written and illustrated by Corey R. Tabor, and published by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins PublishersTigers are the best, or so thinks Fox. With a big imagination (and a little bit of paint), he transforms into a growling, prowling tiger. Soon his friends Turtle and Rabbit are likewise inspired to embody their dreams as a zipping, zooming race car and a beeping, booping robot. Despite their rained-out celebration, Fox learns to appreciate that he, in his own special way, is also the best. Pencil, watercolor, and crayon illustrations capture the beguiling humor of this entertaining story. Tabor’s tale for emerging readers is easily navigable and just like Fox himself -- speedy and clever. “Featuring Tabor’s hip art and quirky, surprising twists, ‘Fox the Tiger’ is an inviting tale of the power of transformation and friendship. Repetition, a predictable pattern, and short, simple sentences give readers ample chance to practice their beginning reading skills,” said Geisel Award Committee Chair Sarah Stippich. The Adventures of Otto: See Pip Flap, written and illustrated by David Milgrim, and published by Simon Spotlight, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division Pip wants to fly! With ingenuity and robot know-how, Otto figures out a way to help his rodent friend achieve his airborne dream. In “See Pip Flap”, minimal vocabulary, inventive illustrations, and a funny premise support beginning readers’ explorations. King & Kayla and the Case of the Lost Tooth, written by Dori Hillestad Butler, illustrated by Nancy Meyers, and published by Peachtree Publishers In five short chapters, Kayla and her clever dog King solve the case of a missing tooth. Narrated by the canine sleuth, this simple mystery features creative repetition, predictable action and supportive illustrations that reward children with a successful and satisfying reading experience.
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As the official tagline states: It’s time for something different. It most certainly is! As the Breakout EDU platform continues to grow + morph over time, they have stayed true to their initial mission and vision in providing learners with the opportunity to not only flex their collaboration muscles, but to become self-aware in areas that may be lacking in terms of the highly important 4 Cs: CREATIVITY + COMMUNICATION + CRITICAL THINKING + COLLABORATION. I’ve always made the contention that there should be a one-way mirror involved when players (both students and teachers) are engaged with a Breakout EDU experience because of the wealth of observational data available. From the myriad of social emotional opportunities, to the way in which students communicate with one another, value each other's ideas and build grit, inviting students to become players in the Breakout EDU platform has opened up the possibilities of immersive game play in the classroom. One of the most exciting updates to the platform has been the introduction of the student game design courses. Both offerings, the Digital Game Design Junior and Student Game Design Courses are available to all users with Full Platform Access Beginning next week I will start in with three classes of 4th grade students to begin the journey in examining what makes a great game and begin building our knowledge and skills in digital game design. Up first will be Course I which will introduce students to digital game design and immerse them in the variety of locks available to them. Stay tuned to this blog as I will be sharing out the learning and progress of this new project throughout the coming weeks! I’m planning to include some reflection pieces from my side of things as a facilitator, as well as from the student standpoint to gain insight into their thinking and what is and is not working for them. World Read Aloud Day 2019This week we celebrated World Read Aloud Day! I began each class by asking students what they loved about being read to. They shared that reading aloud made them feel warm, comfortable and happy.
We celebrated all week with a variety of experiences but had a fantastic opportunity to skype with a children's author to cap off the week.
Author Kat Yeh skyped with us and read her book The Friend Ship. Our fantastic new first-grade teacher Jordyn Singer and her class connected with Yeh earlier in the year and she graciously opened up her visit to the whole school.
It was a fantastic week of celebrating reading aloud! We are already making plans for next year! Student Voice and Creativity
I am proud of the students and honored to have had the chance to work with my related arts colleagues to help our students share their voice and creativity with an authentic audience.
I put together a resource site that documents the entire process from idea to post-festival reflection in hopes that it would be useful in communicating the goals of the project with parents, administrators and other educators who might like to do something similar with their students. Click on the photo above to explore the site.
While the article below is not entirely factually accurate, the broad strokes are correct.
What's Next?
The vast majority of students shared that they thought the project should be done next year! Here are just a few of their reflections.
I Wonder What Theme They'll Choose Next Year?Reflection on BreakoutEDU When I learned that our new Technology Integration Specialist would be Billy Spicer @MrBillySpicer the first thing that came to my mind was, ‘I can’t wait to teach and learn with this guy!’ One thing I had learned about him via Twitter was that he was an avid BreakoutEDU trainer. I have to admit, that I’d slid behind the curve on BreakoutEDU. I had participated in one breakout and had helped plan another, but I did not feel immensely confident in my abilities as a facilitator. The locks gave me mini-panic attacks and I had not logged into the new online game portal. That all changed after watching and participating in the Dot Day breakout that Billy introduced to the students. After giving them a quick overview of what BreakoutEDU is, he tied the experience to The Dot by Peter Reynolds. The week before our whole school had participated in activities celebrating International Dot Day. These consisted of sharing the book, using design thinking to design a dot for a partner and creating torn paper ‘dots’ of our own. The focus for all the activities was the book’s message to “Make your mark and see where it takes you!” Each of the clues in the breakout were themed around color, pattern and numbers. After some initial bumbles, almost every single group began solving the clues and applying them to the puzzles that lead them to opening the various locks. While not every group ‘broke out,’ all of them experienced the joys and challenges of working as a team.
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Todd & BillyResource Center Director Archives
April 2019
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