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Promoting the Mark Twain Award. Missouri Association of School Librarians Spring Conference 2009. Promoting the Books at the Beginning of the Year. Using the Video Show the video in the spring to encourage summer reading of the Mark Twain nominees
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Promoting the Mark Twain Award Missouri Association of School Librarians Spring Conference 2009
Promoting the Books at the Beginning of the Year • Using the Video • Show the video in the spring to encourage summer reading of the Mark Twain nominees • Show the video again in the fall and encourage students to think about the books that look the best to them • During the video give them a list or brochure of the nominees to take notes on and star the ones that look the most appealing to them
Mark Twain Scrapbook • http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/index.html • A scrapbook explaining Mark Twain’s life and accomplishments. • Use this to introduce Mark Twain and why we have an award named after him. • Also take this time to point out Mark Twain is not the author, he is the person after whom the award is named. • Encourage students or classes to make a scrapbook of the books they have read.
Placement of the Books in the Library • Make sure the Mark Twain nominees are separate from your fiction section so that they are easily accessible for students. • As money allows, it is also important to have several copies of the books that you think will be the most popular so that kids don’t get frustrated waiting on the book and just give up.
Mark Twain “Passport” • The passport is a piece of paper with the Mark Twain book titles, date, and place for the teacher/media specialist to initial that the student read the book. • For each 4 books that the student reads they get a “visa stamp” and the student gets a trip to the treasure chest. (A tiny red cougar print is stamped on the passport) • If a student reads all the nominees they get a trip to the treasure chest and their picture framed and placed on top of the book shelf *Idea courtesy of Spring Valley Elementary in Raytown, MO
Five Star Book Review Board • Place a bulletin board in the library and let students share a Mark Twain book that they have read and how many stars they would give it. -One star being the least and Five stars being the best. Encourage them to share only four or five star books. *Idea adapted from Teresa Young, Study Middle School, Springfield, MO
Incentive Program • 2 books = Mark Twain Pencil • 4 books = Certificate and opportunity to vote in the March election • 6 books = 4 way pen • 10 books = post-it notes • 12 books = $15 Barnes & Noble gift card All prizes are bought using book fair profits. *Idea courtesy of Kay Kliethermes, Blackburn Elementary, Indepedence, MO
Get Teachers Involved • The more teachers you get behind the program, the more students will follow their example. • Suggest books for them to read aloud to their class and give them the activity packet page that goes along with that book.
Chat ‘n Chew • Talk to your sponsors and ask if they need any suggestions for books to put on their list. • Suggest Mark Twain nominees (future or current)
Quizzes • Quia • $50.00 for a year subscription • Post your own quizzes for each book • Students must get four out of five questions right • You can check the scores online • Keep a chart of them in the library • http://www.quia.com/profiles/lsell10 • There are usually quizzes for the books already prepared and it sends reports to you when students finish a quiz.
Blogs • You can create your own school blog for students to post on after reading a book or • You can use the Mark Twain State Blog and have them post or respond to posts • http://marktwainaward.wordpress.com/
Pizza/Voting Parties • Many schools offer a pizza/voting party to those students who read four books by the deadline. • At the party students can eat pizza, talk about the books, and vote. • If you have extra funds, some schools reward those students with a free paperback book.
Candy Bar Party • A more economical alternative to the pizza party! • Same idea just with candy bars instead of pizza.
Mark Twain Day • Students who complete the requirements, get to participate in “Mark Twain Day” • Students in English III (juniors study Mark Twain) come to the school and host a celebration for the 4th and 5th graders who qualify by their reading. • At the celebration there will be games, food, skits, etc. (Prepared by high school juniors) *Idea courtesy of Shellie Foltz, Westport Elementary, Springfield, MO
Field Trips • Branson Belle (Riverboat) • Children’s Literature Festival • Mark Twain Museum (Hannibal, MO) Any other ideas?
Awards Assemblies • Give certificates to those students who read four books at the end of the year award’s assembly. • Also give them a bookmark with next year’s nominees on it.
Kids who read all 12 books • A Barnes and Noble or Borders gift card. • An autographed book (last year’s winner) • Get them a book of their choice from a bookstore. • Hang their pictures in a special section in the library (use an inexpensive frame)