This week's post is the product of Dr. Sharon Kane. She is fantastic and a constant source of inspiration. She has contributed before and a link to her previous posts can be found below. Take it away Sharon.
One year ago, in my first post as a guest blogger on YA Wednesday, I discussed ways of using literary awards to enhance reading for pleasure and academic profit. Thanks largely to Steve Bickmore’s response, the following Wednesday, and his ability to take an idea and run with it, I now feel like awards have pretty much taken over my life—in a good way, of course. I had brought up the idea of a hypothetical “Meta-Award,” where readers would study past medal winners to determine, or at least argue for, the best of the best. Steve spearheaded an actual project that now involves teachers, librarians, authors, and students revisiting the 100 National Book Award Finalists in the Young People’s Literature category. Stay tuned for future updates on this now heated contest.
Rude interruption here.
To see the final four in our "Meta-Award" project look at the bottom of this post and feel free to join in the fun.
To see the final four in our "Meta-Award" project look at the bottom of this post and feel free to join in the fun.
Soon after my initial blog post, I introduced students in an alternative high school (CARE Program) housed on the SUNY Oswego campus to the five 2015 NBA finalists; they decided to read them before the November announcement of the winner. They found Laura Ruby’s Bone Gap to be unlike anything they had read before. (Didn’t we all!) They discovered through Steve Sheinkin’s Most Dangerous that nonfiction doesn’t have to read like a textbook. The Thing about Jellyfish, by Ali Benjamin, resonated with both students and teachers; we had all experienced loss, and we had all made mistakes. Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona was a big hit due to the storyline as well as the graphic novel format. Challenger Deep was an intellectual and emotional challenge, but one they accepted and appreciated. I went to the CARE classroom the morning after the awards were announced and we watched clips of the authors reading from their works during the day and evening prior to the award ceremony. Then we watched as Challenger Deep was announced as the winner, and Neal Shusterman gave his acceptance speech, inviting his son Brendan (whose experiences had provided a stimulus for Shusterman’s conception of the novel) to the stage to share the honor. Our classroom was quiet; we were moved to tears. [Link to http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2015_ceremony.html#.V-_DI_krLIU]
Then those kids, so many of whom had considered themselves non-readers, turned to me. “What now?”
I sang my response: “Someday my Printz will Come.” [Link to http://blogs.slj.com/printzblog/] We spent the next several weeks making our predictions for the Michael L. Printz honorees, wondering whether Challenger Deep or other NBA finalists might nab another medal. We also found other titles that were being discussed by avid followers of the Printz blog that we wanted to try. Once again, we chose to be together as the American Library Association awards were announced in January. [Link to http://www.ala.org/yalsa/printz]. Bone Gap, which already displayed a silver NBA seal, was the winner. Hooray!
I sang my response: “Someday my Printz will Come.” [Link to http://blogs.slj.com/printzblog/] We spent the next several weeks making our predictions for the Michael L. Printz honorees, wondering whether Challenger Deep or other NBA finalists might nab another medal. We also found other titles that were being discussed by avid followers of the Printz blog that we wanted to try. Once again, we chose to be together as the American Library Association awards were announced in January. [Link to http://www.ala.org/yalsa/printz]. Bone Gap, which already displayed a silver NBA seal, was the winner. Hooray!
And once again, the teens turned to me to ask, “What now?” Their principal, Robyn Proud, was ready with a visual of the 16 books selected for School Library Journal’s 2016 “Battle of the Books” (BOB) [Link to http://blogs.slj.com/battleofthebooks/2016/01/20/the-2016-contenders/]. The students were thrilled that they had ALREADY read some of the contenders, books that had also been winners or finalists of the National Book Award. They felt like insiders at this point; they belonged to the club. [See the picture of the CARE Program and chart above]
During the literary version of March Madness known as BOB, I facilitated several book clubs, including one in my Literacy Education graduate class; one for the community in our city’s independent book store [Link to http://www.riversendbookstore.com/]; and one online. One of my students, Bird Cramer, adapted and implemented the project in her middle school—“Transmedia responses…”. My students wrote to the students in the alternative high school; combinations of participants from the various venues presented at conferences and submitted their artistic literary responses to an art exhibit. I wrote about some of the books on my blog, www.hhpcommunities.com/youngadultlit. Meanwhile, some of my former students, including Keri Frazer, a third year teacher in a rural high school [see picture below] facilitated BOB-related activities in the schools where they presently teach.
And now it’s autumn again; another round of literary awards has begun. About a week ago, the National Book Award Long List you read about in Steve’s September 12 post was halved to become the list of books that will sport a silver medal [see the images at the bottom of the blog post]. My high school and college students will be shouting hurrahs or bemoaning the elimination of their favorites; it will all be good. And after November 16, after we’ve probably cried our way through another awards ceremony, I will welcome the query of “What now?” You know the answer, and can sing it to your classes as I sing it to mine. http://blogs.slj.com/theyarn/
And now it’s autumn again; another round of literary awards has begun. About a week ago, the National Book Award Long List you read about in Steve’s September 12 post was halved to become the list of books that will sport a silver medal [see the images at the bottom of the blog post]. My high school and college students will be shouting hurrahs or bemoaning the elimination of their favorites; it will all be good. And after November 16, after we’ve probably cried our way through another awards ceremony, I will welcome the query of “What now?” You know the answer, and can sing it to your classes as I sing it to mine. http://blogs.slj.com/theyarn/
If you will be attending NCTE in Atlanta and want to hear more about how we use awards to enhance literacy, please consider coming to our session, “Awards and Advocacy: Using Literary Awards to Encourage Authentic Reading and Writing” on Friday, November 18 from 9:30-10:45 in the Georgia World Congress Center A 401. Steve and I will be joined by Robyn Proud and Keri Frazer. We are breathlessly awaiting the celebration of award-winning books, and of the readers who read them—winners all.
The books on short list of the 2016 National Book Award are:
The "Meta-Award" finalist are below. for several months 20 people have been reading books in different round to get at this finalist. You may or may not agree but we invite you to join us as we read this four novels. The grand winner will be announced at our NCTE session.
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