Sharing the Love
2012 Newbery Winner |
And, since it 'tis the season' our school decided to host it's own book award. For the first time ever, we created the Wolf Award. (Our school mascot is a wolf.) It was a fun process that started back in December, before the break. We took a look at a variety of processes for awarding a book and came up with our own hybrid formula. It worked like this:
1. All students in the Middle School (Grades 4-6 at this point) could nominate any book they had read in 2012 to win the award.
2. A small group of teachers met, looked at the nominations, and narrowed the selection down to 3 books.
3. Any student who wanted to participate in selecting the winner, thus becoming a part of the "Wolf Award Committee," had to read all 3 books and choose one to be the winner.
4. The Wolf Award Committee met on two separate occasions, the first to discuss the books, the second to place a vote.
Last Wednesday (and sadly the day I was sick in bed), two of our committee members presented the award winning book. The book will be purchased for every classroom in our school and will have our own Wolf Award seal on the front cover. We are also sending a copy with the seal to the author of the book.
I know you are all dying to know our nominations. Here are the two nominations that ended up not winning:
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead |
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Steward |
And the winner, of this year's Wolf Award is....
Wonder by R.J. Palacio |
That's right folks! I don't know if I have said enough about this book on the blog but it is the book I believe every person in the world should read. It tells the story of a young boy with a serious facial disfigurement and sometimes you get to hear the perspectives of other folks in his life. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, it will give you hope. My students gave it a standing ovations when I finished reading it. That was the first time in my 8 years as a teacher. Read it. Read it. Read it. Also, it is a strong contender for this year's Newbery Medal so keep your peepers peeled next week!
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