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| Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" to the March SOLSC sponsored by Two Writing Teachers. |
In February my students compiled lists of Newbery medal and honor books they had read. They wrote a review of their favorite book. We posted our book lists and reviews to the bulletin board. Our next step was to reach out to our wider school community by inviting participation from teachers and students outside our classroom. We shared the idea on Schoology (our online presence) and invited students to add a heart with their favorite Newbery medal or honor winner to our board. They could either drop by my classroom to fill out a heart or leave a comment on Schoology (and we would add the heart). Students immediately messaged me to let me know that they couldn't respond to my post if they weren't my students. Oops! But apparently, they could send me a message. Also, our midwinter break began on Feb. 14, and most people weren't thinking about school. With a week away, our board lost its momentum. We heard from a few teachers (thank you 6th grade team, library staff, a math teacher, a science teacher, and our school secretary), but that was it.
So maybe it's time to retire the board. But remembering the old adage oft repeated by my dad, "Try, try again," I decide to make a second attempt at inviting participation by adding shamrocks for March to share the Newbery love. Guess who became our first participants in March? Our school board. At Thursday morning's "meet and greet", I gave school board members an assignment - a shamrock with the invitation to stop by and share their favorite Newbery title on our board. During 2nd period, I heard a bit of noise out in the hall and realized they had indeed stopped by!
Now, how do we get more student participation? Do we ask LA teachers to pass out shamrocks? Do I send my students to grade level lunches with shamrocks? What little token could I offer to encourage participation? We're hoping to get some great ideas from this community. I'll share your ideas with my students tomorrow. And we promise to share a picture of the board slathered with shamrocks sometime later this month!
Here's our Share the Newbery Love bulletin board!
Our March update will be filled with the luck of the Irish!
I love your idea! I used to do something similar, changing themes and questions each season. In winter, it was favorite place to read; spring was books we loved; late spring was favorite character. I passed templates out to each teacher, so I think passing them to your ELA teachers sounds great. If you have a televised school broadcast, you could feature a contributor each morning for a week--even have them on for an interview!
ReplyDeleteEither take a Newbery list, or take a stack of a lot of the books themselves, and ask kids to fill it out right then. With the books, they may remember better. You're so dear to keep trying, Ramona. So many don't take that next step to "tell" students about books, just let them search & sometimes that's good, but only sometimes. Best wishes!
ReplyDeleteSorry, I don't have any ideas to add, but just wanted to say kudos to you for all your efforts. I really believe that when you "try, try again," success will come.
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