Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday - my 2019 Mock Sibert list... so far! 7.11.18

Artwork by Sarah S. Brannen ©2017

Every Wednesday I join Alyson Beecher from kidlitfrenzy and other

kidlit bloggers to share wonderful nonfiction picture books.

The intention of today's blog post is to give professionals that work in the
education field new nonfiction reading material and ideas to use 

with students to promote a love of reading nonfiction materials.

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 Sibert!

I feel like this is a hard award to figure out, because so often books that are written for older middle grade students are selected.  Or it is a picture book, but one I may not have read for whatever reason.

Disclaimer:  when I put my list together, I am mostly keeping the students I work with in mind.  I am in a K-4 building, and it's usually the 3rd and 4th grade students who will participate in Mock Sibert.  With that in mind, my list will (mostly) consist of picture books.

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


Between the Lines: How Ernie Barnes Went From the Football Field to the Art Gallery
written by Sandra Neil Wallace
illustrated by Bryan Collier


Girl Running: Bobbi Gibb and the Boston Marathon
written by Annette Bay Pimental
illustrated by Micha Archer


Shaking Things Up: 14 Young Women Who Changed the World
written by Susan Hood
illustrated by 13 amazing female illustrators


Water Land: Land Water Forms Around the World
by Christy Hale


Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams
written by Lesa Cline-Ransome
illustrated by James Ransome


Terrific Tongues
written by Maria Gianferrari
illustrated by Jia Liu


There are some books that I have not had enough time with or they haven't been published yet.  Here are some books I'll be looking forward to reading:


Thomas Paine and the Dangerous Word
written by Sarah Jane Marsh
illustrated by Ed Fotheringham


Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries
written by Laurie Thompson and Ammi-Joan Paquette


What Do You Do With a Voice Like That? The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan
written by Chris Barton
illustrated by Ekua Holmes


If Polar Bears Disappeared
by Lily Williams


First Generation: 36 Trailblazing Immigrants and Refugees Who Make America Great
written by Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace
illustrated by Agata Nowicka


Pipsqueaks, Slowpokes, and Stinkers: Celebrating Animal Underdogs
written by Melissa Stewart
illustrated by Stephanie Laberis


Nothing Stopped Sophie: The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain
written by Cheryl Bardoe
illustrated by Barbara McClintock


Otis and Will Discover the Deep: The Record-Setting Dive of the Bathysphere
written by Barb Rosenstock
illustrated by Katherine Roy


And I'm wondering if this one could possibly get Sibert love.... (kind of like Brown Girl Dreaming????)


Hey. Kiddo
by Jarrett J. Krosoczka


Thinking about doing other Mocks?
Here's my 2019 Mock Geisel.... so far post.
Here's my 2019 Mock Caldecott... so far post.

Don't forget to add any titles I may be missing in the comments!  Happy nonfiction reading!

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday - Sibert Smackdown books 11.15.17

Every Wednesday I join Alyson Beecher from kidlitfrenzy and other

kidlit bloggers to share wonderful nonfiction picture books.

The intention of today's blog post is to give professionals that work in the
education field new nonfiction reading material and ideas to use 

with students to promote a love of reading nonfiction materials.

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 the books we're using for Sibert Smackdown.  What's Sibert Smackdown?  You must read Melissa Stewart's post about it!  Here's her wrap up post from last year that showcases several teachers take on the great activity.  I run this one a little different from our Mock units because books really do go head to head in this one.  The kids really dig into the nonfiction craft when they're reading, examining and critiquing these books.  The students walk away with a little more understanding of the ways authors craft nonfiction and they learn quite a bit!  Here are this year's Smackdown books:

One Proud Penny

written by Randy Siegel

illustrated by Serge Bloch

VS

Her Right Foot

written by Dave Eggers

illustrated by Shawn Harris

***

How to Be an Elephant

by Katherine Roy

VS

The Hidden Life of a Toad

by Doug Wechsler

***

Can An Aardvark Bark?

written by Melissa Stewart

illustrated by Steve Jenkins

VS

Robins!: How They Grow Up

by Eileen Christelow

***

Grand Canyon

by Jason Chin

VS

Dazzle Ships: World War I and the Art of Confusion

written by Chris Barton 

illustrated by Victo Ngai

***

The Youngest Marcher

by Cynthia Levinson

illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton

VS

Grace Hopper, Queen of Computer Code

written by Laurie Wallmark

illustrated by Katy Wu

There you have it.  That's how it's going down.  I'm looking forward to the discussions the students are going to have around these 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!

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday - my Mock Sibert long list... so far 6.28.17

Every Wednesday I join Alyson Beecher from kidlitfrenzy and other

kidlit bloggers to share wonderful nonfiction picture books.

The intention of today's blog post is to give professionals that work in the
education field new nonfiction reading material and ideas to use 

with students to promote a love of reading nonfiction materials.

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 nonfiction books the Sibert committee may be taking a look at.  One thing I will say about the Sibert Award - I wish it was split into age levels.  I think sometimes the nonfiction picture books don't get the same notoriety that the longer books do.  Because of the age I work with, I usually concentrate on the picture books.  You'll see that in my list.  I'll be looking at these books and more later this fall to make my Mock Sibert list:


The Youngest Marcher
by Cynthia Levinson


Two Truths and a Lie:  It's Alive!
by Ammi-Joan Paquette and Laurie Ann Thompson


Grace Hopper, Queen of Computer Code
by Laurie Hallmark


Balderdash!
by Michelle Markel


Grand Canyon
by Jason Chin


Soldier Song
by Debbie Levy


Can An Aardvark Bark 
by Melissa Stewart


Dazzle Ships
by Chris Barton
publishes Aug. 1st


Do you have any books that you think might be on the Sibert committee's long list?  Leave your ideas in the comments or tweet me (@knott_michele) a title!

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday - Sibert results

(photo credit to Sarah Brannan)

Every Wednesday I join Alyson Beecher from kidlitfrenzy and other

kidlit bloggers to share wonderful nonfiction picture books.

The intention of today's blog post is to give professionals that work in the
education field new nonfiction reading material and ideas to use 

with students to promote a love of reading nonfiction materials.

Were you surprised with the results of the ALA Youth Media Awards on Monday?  These fabulous books won the Sibert Award and Honors:

Honors:

 Award:

Here is my prediction post from last week.  I also gave an update on our Mock Sibert/Sibert Smackdown.  This week I wanted to share the culminating project.

In a time when we find it hard to get everything done in a school day that needs to be done, that we're not sure if it needs to be done but feels like it should be done, and things that we want to get done - it's hard to know what exactly to teach.  Because somewhere in all of that, it seems like we need to teach everything.  I see so many teachers shy away from doing Mock units, so many say they are just too busy, say it's just an extra thing. I beg to differ.  Just take a look.

Over the course of two and a half weeks, students have been listening to texts, determining which books mean criteria and support their thinking using Sibert criteria.  This past week, my third grade reading intervention students looked back at the notes they took and chose the book they thought was most worthy of winning the Sibert Award.  Next step was to go back to the criteria sheet and revisit the books on their own, see if they needed to add any additional information.  Next, they wrote about their selection.  They wrote why it deserved the Sibert Award, citing textual evidence and criteria in their writing.  Students also added what they learned about the topic into their writing - picking out key details and explaining this new learning.  Finally, students were able to record a video.  On the video they read their findings and shared a page that really wowed them.  The videos were compiled to a Padlet page so they could listen to each other's choices and share them with parents and other classmates.

If you needed more evidence that a Mock unit is the way to go, take a look at how many 3rd grade standards this unit used:

• RI.3.1 - ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers
• RI.3.2 - determine the main idea of a text, recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea
• RI.3.5 - use text features and search tools to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently
• W.3.4 - with guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the developments and organization are appropriate to task and purpose
• W.3.6 - with guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others
• W.3.10 - write routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences
• SL.3.1 - engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions... building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly
• SL.3.4 - report on a topic
• SL.3.5 - create engaging audio recordings... that demonstrate fluid reading at an understandable pace, add visual displays when appropriate...

This unit would not be what it was if not for the valuable insights of authors, educators and librarians, in particular Melissa Stewart, Alyson Beecher, Stacey Rattner and Jenny Lussier.  They all shaped this project in some way and my students learned more from their ideas.

What books did my students pick to win?  Here are their choices:

Although this was a Mock Sibert unit, it could be adapted to any Mock unit of study.  Is this giving you ideas for next year?  I hope so!  I think the work the students do around these incredible books is so invaluable!  

Until next year!

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday - Sibert guesses 1.18.17

(photo credit to Sarah Brannan)

Every Wednesday I join Alyson Beecher from kidlitfrenzy and other

kidlit bloggers to share wonderful nonfiction picture books.

The intention of today's blog post is to give professionals that work in the
education field new nonfiction reading material and ideas to use 

with students to promote a love of reading nonfiction materials.

Alyson Beecher at kidlitfrenzy.com and I have had a lot of fun playing with Sibert guesses.  Have you been playing along?  Check out our previous posts:

My Mock Sibert intro post
My Mock Sibert picture books guesses
My Mock Sibert longer nonfiction guesses

and

Alyson's Mock intro post
Alyson's Mock Sibert picture book  guesses
Alyson's Mock Sibert longer nonfiction guesses

I've also been having my 3rd grade reading intervention students participate in a Mock Sibert/Sibert Smackdown.  Here is more about that:

My Mock Sibert/Sibert Smackdown post

With all of this talk about Sibert, I have some guesses about what the committee may be presenting on Monday.  Here are my guesses for the 2017 Sibert Award:

Award:



Some Writer!: The Story of E.B. White  
by Melissa Sweet

Honor Books:


Giant Squid 
by Candace Fleming


Animals by the Numbers: A Book of Infographics 
by Steve Jenkins


Jazz Day: The Making of a Famous Photograph 
by Roxane Orgill


A Poem for Peter
by Andrea Davis Pinkney


Tune in next week to see how my picks did!  Be sure to tune in to the Youth Media Awards on Monday, January 23rd!  Next week I will also share what my students chose as their top Sibert Smackdown books.

How did my picks compare to Alyson's?  Visit her post and see!  She also has a wonderful Mock Sibert giveaway you won't want to miss!

Happy nonfiction reading!