March Madness RESULTS

Our March Madness competition came to an end at approximately the same time that the NCAA tournament ended.  The winner at my school was I Funny by James Patterson.  In addition to voting for the favorite book, we had a bracket competition going.  The boys filled out brackets making predictions as to the winners of each round.  One boy competed his bracket perfectly.

While we had a lot of fun with this reading promotion, I'm not sure if I'll continue with it in the future.  I'm not so sure how many of the books the boys actually read.  There was a lot of lobbying going on for particular books, but it lacked any critical thinking and meaningful discussions relating to the books.  It seemed like completing the brackets, and then tracking the brackets seemed more engaging than reading the books.

The timing of this also coincides with the culmination of our two Black-Eyed Susan book clubs.  Typically as we reach the end of the book clubs, the boys reading becomes more directed, and slightly frantic since they want to be sure to read the books they might want to vote for.  This is in direct conflict with the March Madness competition.  Neither activity can be changed to another time of year since both are tied to external timelines.

Black-Eyed Susan Chapter Book Club

Our 3rd-5th grade participants recently voted for their favorite Black-Eyed Susan book.  We have about 40 boys in the club who independently read the nominated books from November through April.  We get together over lunch every three weeks to discuss the books, and check in about reading progress.  The boys comments are thoughtful and insightful.  They like the freedom to choose which of the 10 nominated books to read.  I require them to read at least 4 in order to vote.  They also like to be able to dislike a book, and can passionately describe why they dislike it. 

We end our reading season with a pizza voting lunch in our school's Alumni House.  The Alumni House is the home of our Development and Alumni offices -- not a place lower school students often frequent.  They love the grown up feel of the Alumni House and it imbues the voting lunch with a sense of purpose and importance. 

All votes are recorded and "count", but the boys love to learn which book "won" at our school.  This year's vote was a close one with only one vote separating the top three places.  Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein was our overall favorite, with This Journal Belongs to Ratchet by Nancy J. Cavanaugh coming in second, and Buddy by M.H. Herlong and I Funny by James Patterson tying for third.  Our statewide winner will be announced on May 2.

Walking to the Alumni House

Voting/Lunch Session

Review: The Screaming Staircase

The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This story takes place in England at a time when "visitors" (ghosts, spirits, specters, etc.) rule the night. Adolescents are most sensitive to and able to fight the visitors. This is the story of Lockwood, Lucy, and George who staff an all adolescent agency that is on the brink of closing, when they are tasked with investigating the most haunted building in Britain. If they make it through the night, their financial woes will be over. Of course nothing is as it seems. The teens are clever, the story pulls from established folklore, and the story is compelling. The author includes a helpful glossary in the back of the book (something I didn't realize until I was well into the story.) Time spent with this book is time well spent for the middle grade reader.



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Any Questions??

The technology coordinator and I have been guiding our 4th graders through the research process in our Research and Digital Literacy Class.  We do everything we can to make it both fun and meaningful.  We're now at the point where the boys are set to conduct relevant research. 

We will be having author Elissa Brent Weissman visit in May.  Her visit is a part of the Authors For Earth Day program. 

Our 4th graders are researching Ms. Weissman's conservation nominees (National Aquarium, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Jane Goodall Institute, Conservation International, and Wildlife Conservation Society), and they will present their research to the 3rd and 5th graders and all 3rd-5th grade students will vote on where the author's donation should go.

We began by having the boys read an eBook about Earth Day and take notes.  This created lively discussions, developed some background knowledge, and started to frame what was to come next.

The first step in conducting any research is to begin by asking questions.  We've been teaching boys to formulate questions using the technique created by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana at the Right Question Institute. 

Sometimes the hardest part of conducting research is knowing how and where to start.  Hopefully creating thoughtful questions will set the boys on the path to success.