Lots of you e-mailed me asking to see the Caldecott lesson plan. I e-mailed
Nancy Kellner and she said it would be alright with her to post it so here it
is!
Many thanks to Nancy for the lesson and the nice words of encouragement!
CALDECOTT LESSONS
First week-"Pictures are Worth a Thousand Words"
We brainstorm different illustration techniques and media. I prompt them by
telling them to think of art class. I have quite an extensive list of
media/techniques so I fill in after they brainstorm. Everything from pencil to
gouache to die cut to collage to photography etc etc. (I make sure I have a
book with an example of each). I can send you that at another point in time.
Then I show books and as a class we try to figure out the media and/or
technique.
Second week-"Award Design"
We talk about the Caldecott award (the medal itself) and discuss what would be
a good design for Peasleecott. We brainstorm things like--school mascot,
picture of someone reading, pictures of books, the year or date, etc. Then
using a worksheet that has a circle predrawn on it they design their own
awards.
Third week-"Get Out the Vote"
I explain that the class will be divided into 4 subcommittees. (I preselect
the groups.) Each student in the group can have a job (leader, timekeeper,
secretary, presenter, arbitrator). I then give each group between 6 and 8
books that are actually contenders for the Caldecott. (Technically any picture
book by an American author published in USA is eligible but I scan
lists, talk to librarians, use my own judgment to pick 24-30 books that are
likely winners.) The group must pick the two that they think have the "most
distinguished" illustrations. Then the presenter from each group presents the
two choices to the whole class. Thus, the whole class has 8 books to choose
from (2 from each of the 4 groups). I do a quick recap of the 8 contenders and
then we vote. Runoffs are held if necessary. I usually have the kids close
their eyes and hold up their hands so that they vote their true feelings. The
winners are then identified and posted in the hall. Each class has their own
winner. If there is one book that is overwhelmingly the winner for the whole
school (there usually isn't), I identify that as well. The hall display is
made up of scanned covers of the winners plus a "border" of all the awards
that the kids designed themselves.
Fourth week-"Write to the Winners"
We wrote a class letter with me as scribe. I then randomly pick one child's
award to affix to the letter. The kids also have the option of sending their
own artwork to the illustrator. This year we received responses from 2 of the
8 illustrators that we wrote to (Hudson Talbott and Mary Azarian). They were
both gracious.
Fifth week-
"Listen to the Winners" I use my favorites of the winners as read alouds.
I do this lesson with 2nd and 3rd graders. The 3rd graders love it because
they have done it before and totally get it. The 2nd graders love it to.
-----------------
This is part of the response from Nancy ...
I have been tweaking it each year.
For example, last year was the first year that we wrote to the authors. I
also forgot to mention that when the real Caldecotts are announced we make a
big deal of comparing our choices to theirs. I do the unit in Nov/Dec to
ensure that we finish before the ALA announcement. I'm sure I'll think of a
lot of little details that I forgot to mention so please preface your post
by saying that it is very much a draft and a work in progress.
Thanks again Nancy!
Shannon Minner
smm2p@mtsu.edu
Murfreesboro, TN
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