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Mock Caldecott

Time Frame

2 class periods of 45 minutes each

Group Size

Small Groups

Life Skills

Aesthetics

Authors

Jared Covili
KATHERINE WITT

Summary

Students will learn about the Caldecott Awards for best illustration and participate in a Mock Caldecott vote. The Caldecott awards are given annually by the American Library Association to the picture book that is considered the most distinguished. Students will be looking at the criteria that is used to decide on the best picture book of the year to choose among a variety of picture book contenders. Among the criteria that the committee considers is: marked by distinction, marked by excellence in quality, marked by conspicuous excellence, or individually distinct. Students will also take a look at past winners to get an idea of what was considered excellent and distinguished in the past. The use of technology in this lesson can add to it by giving students the ability to get a better look at the illustrations within the books. It's difficult to show illustrations or a book to a group of thirty students at once. I plan on incorporating the use of the ipad and apple tv in order to showcase illustrations and books that are Caldecott award winners.


Materials

For this lesson gather picture books that are eligible for the year's Caldecott award. Make sure there is at least one title for each student to look at.


Background for Teachers

The Caldecott award is an annual award given by the American Library Services to Children division of the American Library Association. This award celebrates the year's best children's book illustrator.


Student Prior Knowledge

Basic understanding of the genre of picture books. Basic understanding of art concepts: line, form, color, shape, etc.


Intended Learning Outcomes

Students will evaluate the quality of picture book illustrations and be able to defend their criteria.


Instructional Procedures

Attachments

Websites

  • Allen County Mock Caldecott
    Allen County hosts an annual Mock Caldecott program. Usually they do an excellent job of predicting winner and honor books.
  • Aspects of Art
    A checklist for evaluating the art in books for a Mock Caldecott program
  • Caldecott Award Winners
    ALA's list of award winners and honor books.
  • Edmodo
    I've put together a collection of videos on each Caldecott award winning title. I will choose several examples to share with the students from a variety of time periods to show the differences in illustration styles over the years.
  • Pinterest Mock Caldecott 2014
    This list includes titles that are eligible to receive a Caldecott award in 2014.

1. Before beginning the mock caldecott vote have the students browse through, read aloud, or show them a video of examples of Caldecott award winning titles from the past. You may also want to show a much older title compared to a newer title and talk about the differences in printing and art techniques. 2. Give the students a handout where they need to answer questions about the quality of the illustrations and how the y interact with the text. 3. Assign students to groups. Give them each a Mock Caldecott ballot. Give each group the number of titles that there are people in the group. Have them give each book a rank on the ballot after they have read through the titles. Have someone in the group tabulate the number of points each title received. Ask each group which title was their winning choice. 4. Read the winning choice out loud of each group. Have the kids put their heads on their desk and anonymously vote for the book they liked best. Announce the winner of the Mock Caldecott.


Extensions

Attachments

Websites

To extend the lesson students could work together to video tape a book trailer or a book talk about a Caldecott winning book or a possible Caldecott nominee for the current year. Students could also create a pic collage of their favorite Caldecott nominee.


Bibliography

See the websites listed under instructional procedures.


Created: 10/06/2008
Updated: 02/05/2018
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