We've reviewed our criteria - excellence, appropriateness, importance, and appeal - and now it's time to begin reading. This week we read, in this order:
After reading the three books, I asked students to rank them for each of the criteria. I only called upon four children - one for each of the criteria. I was happy to hear students being thoughtful about their responses. Each of the three books took their place in the top spot depending upon the criteria. Some fairly consistent questions/comments for both second and third graders were:
"The Right Word seemed confusing. There was a lot to read on each page."
"Why didn't the gem fall when they dug around it?"
"Why are there so many Sam & Dave's falling?"
"How does the quote in Viva Frida relate to the story with pictures?"
"What does she know?"
I reminded the students that they would each have an opportunity to express their opinion and ultimately rank their top three. The second graders ended the lesson here. The third graders used this grid to express their opinion:
It will be interesting to see how these numbers change after reading the next three books.
Apart from a discussion about the illustrations and the Caldecott criteria, the students HAD to talk about Sam & Dave, so as to not take away from the Mock Caldecott discussion, I put out two papers on the back tables - one for students to share their ideas and the other to ask questions. I created the bulletin board above with some of their responses.
