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Create your Own Award
The Irma S. and James H. Black Award has
always involved children in the selection process. Evaluating
books for awards helps children become critical readers through
use of the skills of book reporting:
- Identify why they like or do not like the story
- Acknowledge what doesn’t work for them in the story
- Compare the story with others
Identify recurrent themes
Here is a recommended procedure for involving
children as book-award judges, patterned on the evaluating
procedure for the Irma S. and James H. Black Award. For this
award children between the ages of eight and ten, in four
classrooms, evaluate picture books.
Before you start the process, there are
several factors to consider: which classrooms are best suited
for the procedure, the length of your evaluation process,
the book format (picture books, beginning readers, non-fiction,
etc.). Once you have made these decisions, mark the dates you
have chosen on a calendar.
- Choose 20 to 25 books and divide them into
four sets of books. Try to balance the sets with equal numbers
of folk tales and realistic stories.
- Place each set of books in a classroom for a week or longer.
During the time the books are in the classroom, the children
are to read and discuss the books. The teachers may choose
to read the books to the children as well.
- With the children, establish criteria for recommending books
for the award and review them frequently.
- At the end of the time period, ask the children to vote for
their three favorite books.
- Rotate the sets of books to other participating classrooms.
- After books have been in the classroom, tally the votes and
eliminate all but the top eight to ten books.
- In a session in each classroom, discuss each of the finalists,
inviting volunteers to describe the plot and tell why the
book deserves consideration for the award. Solicit dissenting
opinions as well. Ask the children to compare the books with
one another and then vote.
- Tally the votes of all the classrooms and send the top three
(or, if the vote is close, four) books back to the classrooms
for a final vote.
For more information, Contact Bank
Street via email
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