#road2reading Challenge - 2019 Mock Geisel... so far 7.12.18

All journeys have a starting place.

This is a weekly place to find books and tools 

that you may use with readers at the start of their reading journey.

Join in the conversation at #road2reading.

We are halfway through the year and just months away from #mock season starting in schools!  This week I'm looking at some possible books I'll be putting on my list.  These are just possibilities, not definites.  Help me out - is there a title you're thinking about that is not on my list?  Add it to the comments so I can make sure to check it out!

Today I'm looking at books for Mock Geisel!

This is the award that always throws me for a loop.  Sometimes the books that are given awards are completely off my radar - those are often the very easy readers that do not get a whole lot of publicity on social media.  I try to pay attention to them but I can't always find them.  Or the awards go to books that are longer chapter books that I may have thought were too long for this award (even if I love them for readers).  But I still love having a Mock contest for these books because I love getting our youngest readers thinking about the books they read and what make them great.

One place I get a lot of my Geisel titles from is the blog Guessing Geisel.  They haven't started posting for this next award season, but I'll be watching when they do!

My 2019 Mock Geisel Long List... so far!



Peter & Ernesto: a tale of Two Sloths
by Graham Annable


A Parade of Elephants
by Kevin Henkes


Meet Yasmin!
written by Saadia Faruki
illustrated by Hatem Aly


The Itchy Book
by LeUyen Pham and Mo Willems


Nobody's Duck
by Mary Sullivan


New Shoes
by Chris Raschka


My Toothbrush is Missing
by Jan Thomas


My Friends Make Me Happy
by Jan Thomas


A Busy Creature's Day Eating
by Mo Willems


Here are some books I read early on in the year that I want to go back and take a look at:



My Pillow Keeps Moving!
written by Laura Gehl
illustrated by Christopher Weyant


Floaty
by John Himmelman



And of course there are some titles that are not available yet or titles I haven't been able to locate yet, but I'll be looking for them!



Blue
by Laura Vaccaro Seeger


Dance Dance Dance
by Ethan Long


I Lost My Tooth
by Mo Willems



Are you thinking about doing a Mock Geisel this year?  What books are you going to include?  Leave titles that I missed in the comments.

Thinking about doing other Mocks?  
Here's my post on 2019 Mock Sibert.... so far
Here's my post on 2019 Mock Caldecot... so far

Do you work with readers who are starting their journey on the road to reading?  Join Alyson Beecher from Kid Lit Frenzy and me every Thursday as we explore books and ideas to help readers have a successful start to independent picture book and chapter book reading. If you blog or have a Goodreads page, please link up with us!

#road2reading - 2018 Mock Geisel selections 11.14.17

All journeys have a starting place.

This is a weekly place to find books and tools 

that you may use with readers at the start of their reading journey.

Join in the conversation at #road2reading.

It really is the most wonderful time of the year!

One of my favorite times of the school year is the Mock season.  Our school participates in Mock Geisel, Caldecott and Newbery.  I even do a Sibert Smackdown with some groups.  I think participating in these are a perfect example of the way close reading is supposed to look like - digging in deeper, reading with a purpose and questions in mind.  Of course the best part is the book voting and assembly.  Each grade level votes for the book they see having the best criteria for that particular award and then we have an assembly to see our school winners and compare them to what the real committee chooses.  It's quite the celebration of books!

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be sharing our school's choices for Mock books.  Today it's our Mock Geisel books!

I'll be honest.  We have not had a good track record picking out possible Geisel selections.  I always try and tell students when we see books announced that we haven't read, it's ok... we have great new books to read now!  After every Mock Geisel season, we've always had several new books to read!  

I think one of the reasons it's so hard to pick possible contenders for this award is because it's still a pretty new award.  If I look at what won at the beginning, you would find some longer chapter books, but perhaps books filled with vocabulary that may be difficult for a beginning reader to figure out and understand.  Now, we still see longer books being selected (hello The Infamous Ratsos), but they are starting to select these longer books that do support beginning readers.

The other reason I think this award is hard to guess is many of the winners and honorees are from series that are not as mainstream as others.  Some of the recent books have come from the early reader line from Penguin and from Simon and Schuster and I have not read many of them, nor are they as touted on social media.

We'll continue to do our best guessing the contenders, but in the mean time, our kindergarten and first grade students will just have to settle for reading some really great books.... even if they're not recognized by the actual Geisel committee!

Here are our 2018 Mock Geisel titles:


Egg
by Kevin Henkes


It's Shoe Time!
by Mo Willems and Bryan Collier


Ballet Cat What's Your Favorite Favorite?
by Bob Shea


King and Kayla and the Case of the Missing Dog Treats
written by Dori Hillestad Butler
illustrated by Nancy Meyers


Charlie and Mouse and Grumpy
written by Laurel Snyder
illustrated by Emily Hughes


My Kite is Stuck! And Other Stories
by Salina Yoon


Now
by Antoinette Portis


Triangle 
by Mac Barnett
illustrated by Jon Klassen


Frankie
by Mary Sullivan


There's a Pest in the Garden!
by Jan Thomas


Snail and Worm Again
by Tina Kügler


A Pig, a Fox, and Stinky Socks
by Jonathan Fenske


There you have it.  Are you doing a Mock Geisel?  What books would you add?  What am I missing?  What books do you think the Geisel committee are talking about?

Visit Alyson's blog to read about some more upcoming books.


I'm so excited because some of my favorite weeks of the year are coming up!  This week is is NCTE week and I'm so happy to be catching up with friends I don't often get to see!  NCTE is a conference that rejuvenates me and gets me excited to start the next half of the year.  I can't wait to find some new book titles and talk books with friends!  Are you going to be at NCTE this year?  I hope we run into each other!  I'll be presenting on Friday from 12:30-1:45 in Rooms 120/121.  I'll be presenting along with some of the authors I've been currently spotlighting:  Jennifer Ziegler, J. Anderson Coats, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Joan Paquette and Lisa Yee.  Stop by!
And then the week after is Thanksgiving Week!  It's one of my favorite weeks because it's filled with family and tradition!
I'll be taking off next week from blogging while I enjoy some family time.  I'll be back the following week with some end of the year posts, including My Favorites from 2017 and what to look forward to in 2018!

Want to talk about books for readers who are on the #road2reading?  Link up here!

#road2reading Challenge - my Mock Geisel long list... so far 6.27.17

All journeys have a starting place.

This is a weekly place to find books and tools 

that you may use with readers at the start of their reading journey.

Join in the conversation at #road2reading.

We're about halfway through the year and before we know it the season of "Mock" will be here!  You know, when we read the current year's best of the best titles with students to try and figure out what will be presented at the Youth Media Awards next February!  I love sharing new titles with students, getting them to understand the award criteria and look deeper into these stories.  

Today I'm looking at some titles that I have on my Mock Geisel long list.  These are books that the current Geisel committee may be taking a look at.  If you know anything about my past Mock Geisel history, you'll know I usually get one title right!  Not all of these titles will end up on our school's 2018 Mock Geisel list, but here are books we'll be thinking about this fall:


My Kite is Stuck! and Other Stories
by Salina Yoon


Noisy Night
by Mac Barnett


Egg
by Kevin Henkes


What's Your Favorite Favorite?
by Bob Shea


Snail and Worm Again
by Tina Kugler


Frankie
by Mary Sullivan


I Got a New Friend
by Karl Newsom Edwards


A Pig, A Fox and Stinky Socks
by Jonathan Fenske


The Good for Nothing Button
by Charise Mericle Harper


King and Kayla and the Case of the Missing Dog Treats
by Dori Hillestad Butler


What This Story Needs is a Clang and a Bang
by Emma Virjan


The Nuts: Keep Rolling! 
by Eric Litwin


Charlie and Mouse
by Laurel Snyder

What titles do you think the Geisel committee are looking at right now?  Leave book titles in the comments below or tweet them to me (@knott_michele).

Alyson has a great post about some of the books she found at ALA.

Want to talk about books for readers who are on the #road2reading?  Link up here!

#road2reading Challenge - the results are in! 1.24.17

All journeys have a starting place.

This is a weekly place to find books and tools 

that you may use with readers at the start of their reading journey.

Join in the conversation at #road2reading.

Getting young readers excited about reading is a goal for many teachers and parents.  Having books in their hands that they are excited to read and excited they can read is even better.

Last week I shared with you a Mock Geisel update from our school.  On Friday, all of our kindergarten and first grade students voted on their favorites.  It was a hard choice for many! I had the opportunity to talk with many of the students before and after they voted.  In a day and age where so much is put on a teacher's plate...  When they've been asked to do so much and thanked so little...  When we really need to think about every experience we give these little minds, I know doing this - giving experiences to young readers to read and explore and talk about great books - is what we need to continue doing.

These young readers showed doing a Mock Geisel is important because:

• As we waited for their classmates, they were talking to me about the books they had read.  They could name titles and characters - clearly the conversations their classroom teachers had had with them were important enough that these books stuck with them.  They were very excited to hear that 2017 has many of their favorite characters returning in more books!
• I had conversations with readers who told me about finding these books at the local library.  A few of them were reading the books to their younger siblings.  It's so powerful for a young reader to know they can find these books and read them by themselves.
• The books we choose to read to students are often complex picture books.  Books that may be daunting to pick up and read by themselves.  The books that are listed on Geisel lists are chosen because they are distinguished literature FOR beginning readers.  These books support our readers who are beginning their reading journey.  Teachers who have a Mock Geisel unit are making sure they expose their students to books that will support their reading.  They read the books, they allow students to have conversations about these books.
• Part of my day is spent with students who receive reading interventions.  The last few weeks they have spent their book check out time scouring my books looking for current Mock Geisel books and books that have won the Geisel Award in the past.  They know these books have fun stories.  They know they can read these books.

A Mock Geisel is a powerful unit and one I hope teachers continue giving their young readers!

Now, onto our winners!  How did they compare to the winners the real Geisel Committee chose?

At our school we had a tie for the Mock Geisel Honor winners!

Snail and Worm: Three Stories About Two Friends

by Tina Kugler

We Are Growing!

by Laurie Keller

And we had a tie for our Geisel Award winners!

Groovy Joe: Ice Cream and Dinosaurs

 by Eric Litwin

Ballet Cat: Dance! Dance! Underpants!

by Bob Shea

And how did we do against what the real committee chose?

Honors:

Award:

Already looking forward to 2018!

Join in on our conversation about beginning reading.  Add a comment below or link up with us!