Maria's Mélange

The third annual Battle of the Books has begun! I forgot to put up the full list of 32 books earlier this year. (I know, I've been an awful blogger). Here is the entire list, split into four divisions. Just after winter break, we had our students nominate up to 5 favorite books. I took that list and whittled it down to what you see below. Any surprises? The students have already voted in the first set of brackets, and we are down to 16 books. More on that in the next post.

My students were thrilled to nominate titles for our second annual Battle of the Books! Last year we had the idea at the last minute. This year, we announced our 32 picks before winter break, so students could spend the next few months reading some of the titles they had missed along the way. I had already read 22 of the 32 choices. I've since read several more (though I didn't get all 32 completed). This past week we had our first round of voting. I can't wait to see what they think when they hear about the winners! Second round starts on Monday. I announced the matches on Twitter Friday evening. I tried to be creative, but I lost steam somewhere before the end. Round One of #BookishMarchMadness results are in! 1) Goblet of Fire defeats Deathly Hallows for the JK Rowling spot. — Maria Selke (@mselke01) March 14, 2014 (I've read both of these)   2) Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom squeezes out Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark. #BookishMarchM...

Several coworkers had a marvelous brainstorm last year in mid March - we decided to create our our March Madness for our students with books. It was well received, and certainly got our kids even more excited about books. My colleague had this brilliant brainstorm just as March Madness was about to begin, so we didn't have a lot of lead in time. We had about a week between idea and battles. We got 4 of our 10 elementary schools involved. This year, we decided to start earlier. We wanted to give our students the chance to read some of the books they hadn't yet read, and to do some persuasive work with their favorites. So shortly before winter break we set up a google drive form for them to nominate books. This year, we got all 10 of our elementary schools involved, since we had more time to talk it up with the other teachers. It is just the gifted students in 4th and 5th grade, since trying to do full school involvement would be .... well... darn near impossible. The rules...

The year has flown by - again. It seems like the older I get, the faster time seems to pass. Do you recall being in elementary school, and the endless wait for summer? Now it seems like I turn around and my children have grown another 3 inches or are heading off to middle school... Anyway, it's time for one last "It's Monday" post in 2013. If you're curious, I have already created a " best middle grade reads of 2013 " post, and I plan to do some more end of year reflection and 2014 goal setting. But what did I read THIS week? I'm sharing two weeks worth, since I slacked last week on the posting. Don't forget to visit Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers for more great books to add to your own pile! Middle Grade Reads: I kept meaning to read this one - but when it ended up on our short list for my district's "Battle of the Books" AGAIN - I knew it was time. Lovely story! Another Battle of the Books 2014 book...

When my colleague first mentioned the idea of doing a Battle of the Books for March Madness, I knew it would be fun. What I didn't realize was just how excited the students would become over the results. I guess when you start with 32 books that were culled from THEIR top ten lists, it makes sense that they would be invested in the outcomes, right? Results from the Four School Challenge: The Hobbit beat Goblet of Fire (37-23)  in a battle of might and magic! The Lightning Thief ousted A Wrinkle in Time (39-21) - yes, our students love fantasy and science fiction! The One and Only Ivan beat Phantom Tollbooth (38-22) - who doesn't love Ivan? Capture the Flag over Westing Game (31-29) - my students were thrilled to see Messner win here! Holes beat Eye of the Storm (43-17) - Understandable, but I hope more students read this marvelous near future science fiction due to this battle. Mysterious Benedict Society over The Name of This Book is Secret (42-18) - other...

Voting in my first ever March Madness Battle of the Books was fast and furious. The students kept nudging one another, "suggesting" books for voting. The battle is underway between 32 books, chosen from the "top ten" lists of fourth and fifth grade readers across four elementary schools. The other two teachers and I instruct gifted learners, and wanted a way to give them reason to share and read the book recommendations from other schools. My third graders, though, were none to happy that they wouldn't be included in this event. I'm a sucker, so I set up an entirely separate battle for just my own school. I'll admit to being curious about the differences that would emerge. I know teachers make a difference in the books that students read over the course of the year. Would my own preferences, and the recommendations I've spread through "book talks" be reflected in the choices made in my school? The Battles: Most of the battles tur...

If you haven't already read about the Bookish March Madness event that I'm doing with two colleagues, check out my first post. There, I describe the process we used to select the 32 books for our challenge. The students from the five schools represented in this event are all upper elementary gifted students. Thus, our selections may be slightly different than other 4th and 5th graders would pick. Honestly, though, I think it's only slightly different. Most of the books that made it to our brackets are books I've seen many other kids cradling to their chests and stuffing joyfully into their backpacks. Creating the Brackets: I'm thankful for my colleagues - one of the other teachers actually made the bracket paper. We discussed a few things we wanted to see in the brackets before she began, though. Our main goal was to maximize the chance for multiple genres to make it to later stages. To this end, we made sure that several of the initial pairings were either...

Click here to get Images  & Basketballs Pictures  -  Pictures March Madness - the Bookish Way! It started as many of my best classroom ideas start - with an idea from a colleague. We can plan ahead as much as we like, but those small sparks get me more excited about teaching than any intricately planned unit. So when she sent me a Facebook message asking if I thought it would be fun to set up a March Madness event for books, I jumped right on board. We had to figure out how it would work along the way. How would we choose the 32 books for our brackets? 1) We decided to have students in 4th and 5th grade nominate their top ten favorites using a Google Doc form. This ended up being a lot of fun to watch! Three of us had our students participate (which represents 5 separate elementary schools). As my students entered their favorites, I kept hearing phrases like, "Oh, I thought of another great one! What will I have to eliminate?" and "Yes! I have th...