Mock Caldecott 2016
I love this time of year.
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The Mock Caldecott has become an annual K-4 tradition at my school. We’ve tried it a number of different ways, as you can see in these posts: Mock Caldecott 2015 Mock Caldecott 2014 Mock Caldecott 2013
Here’s how we’re running things this year.
Week 1: I introduce/remind students about the Caldecott – what it looks like and what it is for. We watch the previous year’s announcements, and read a past winner. We also make sure to put every past winner face out – it’s awesome to see those books get checked out like crazy once we start talking Caldecott.
Weeks 2-6: The reading and evaluating begins. Over the course of a few weeks, I read all the books with students. I like to read two stories back-to-back so students are able to compare and contrast.
After we read, we discuss the books. This is often the best part, when kids notice all sorts of interesting things. I like to ask the basic question, “What’s something you noticed in the illustrations?” to get the ball rolling.
With K-2nd grade students I do a simple “give this book a 1, 2, or 3” for the illustrations. 3rd and 4th grade students will respond by posting a comment on our library blog:
Week 7: Voting. I tried this last year, and thought it went well. We review all the books, then students head to the voting booth. I create a ballot with pictures of all the books and students circle the one they feel is the strongest. The book with the most votes get the medal, and those that were close behind get honors. I announce the Mock Caldecott winners to all classes.
Follow-Up: After the actual Caldecott winners are announced, I show the video to students, and we read the winner.
I’m always trying to find the right balance between replicating the Caldecott process, yet also making it streamlined enough for kids as young as 5. I try to keep the big picture in mind (reading and thinking critically about some of the best books of the year) and not get too bogged down in “Is this how the Caldecott committee does it?” details.
Here are the books we’ll be reading and evaluating for our 2016 Mock Caldecott:
Are you doing a Mock Caldecott where you are? Any tips to share?
Filed under: Articles
About Travis Jonker
Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.
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I love this. I really need to start doing something similar. Maybe next year.
So many great books!
My library does a not-very-Caldecotty Mock Caldecott — the children’s staff selects a list of books (24 this year) and we get multiple copies in, and for the next eight weeks patrons will read those titles and register their opinions (the options are “I liked it,” “It was okay,” and “I didn’t like it.”) on a big bulletin board. Just before the ALA YMA announcement, we’ll tally the “votes” and hope that one comes out sufficiently on top to declare it a winner (it always has so far, but we don’t have the option of re-balloting, so I always worry that there will be, like, an eight-way tie).
We don’t attempt to mirror the Caldecott process — our purpose is more to increase visibility of some of the year’s best picture books and to get our patrons talking about them and reading them together. And after the ALA YMA announcement we have a pizza party and announce our winners and compare them to the real Caldecott winners.
Thanks for sharing, Misti – ours is a pretty loose rendition as well. It sounds like you have a good thing going!
We are in our third year of a Mock Caldecott, thanks to you and other bloggers who generously share their ideas! All our students (we are a PreK-3 school) read our nominated books in their library class; 2nd and 3rd grade students have a quick rubric for each book kept on paper through the process. At the end we all vote on a large hallway display of the book covers by placing a color-coded sticker around the edge of our favorite book. Each grade level is a different color. That way all our students can see what books are the favorite of each grade, the staff, and the school. It has become a fantastic whole-school experience for our school community. Thank you for the inspiration!
After you presented this idea at Oakland Schools last month, I could not wait to try a mock election with my 4th Grade writing classes. We examined the rules together last week, and now the books are flying out of the bin. It makes my heart happy to hear conversations about illustrations matching text, artist style and pictures matching mood. Thank you for helping me excite and inspire my kiddos!
Way to give it a shot!
We’re doing a Mock Caldecott for the first time this year! We’re also reading BOATS FOR PAPA, WAIT, and LAST STOP ON MARKET STREET; our other titles are THE NIGHT WORLD, SUPERTRUCK, and (since the committees seem to be expanding what they’re considering) DROWNED CITY.
Thanks for sharing how you do your mocks…I’m always interested in how others do theirs. When I first started in the library, only 3.5 years ago, I thought there was a RIGHT way, an ONLY way, a PROPER way… and that was hard, as in China, getting the English picture books in, and hot off the press is very very difficult. With Newbery, at least we can go digital, but not with Cal.
I’ve had so much angst about not having THE books here, the hot ones, the buzzed about ones, however, I am getting such sublime satisfaction over the kids looking forward to this time of year, voting, chatting, sharing and comparing… that I know I’m at least on the right track.’
We are 4 years in, and a bit like Misti above in that we staff scour blogs like yours, and choose our favs, most buzzed about etc, then try and fly them in (via our #BarefootMules) from the USA, and share, read and discuss them as much as we can…
The kids are so cool. You read something like “It’s Only Stanley” they all scream and yell that that will win…then you share “Float” to oohs and ahhs and “that will win” then “Waiting” then “Wolfie” and on it goes…
LOVE this time of year, thanks for all you do
Barefoot Librarian
I do a mock Caldecott every year and my students love pouring over the books. One book that we really enjoyed is We Forgot Brock! It’s a lot of fun and exemplifies:
“Excellence of presentation in recognition of a child audience.” ALA
I am a school librarian and we are doing our third Mock Caldecott this year with our K-8 students. I begin, as many of you, by reviewing the Caldecott criteria, and reading and discussing a few past Caldecott winners. I select 15 books and have four teachers (one preschool, one lower school, one middle school, and our art teacher) vote to help me narrow that down to 10 titles. That process has worked well. I then share and discuss the 10 books with the classes during their library period over the four weeks in January. ( Unfortunately the results will be released this year before we finish, but I don’t think that will dim the enthusiasm.) At the end, each student gets three votes, which they can use on one, two or three books. The slips of paper are color coded and have the grade number on them so I can track results by grade–which the students enjoy seeing. I place a voting box (with slot on top) in front of each book, for the benefit of our younger students who can’t read. Thanks to everyone for sharing. I am always looking for new ideas.
Thanks for sharing your process, Nancy!