2 class periods of 45 minutes each
Small Groups
Aesthetics
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.
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.
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.
Basic understanding of the genre of picture books. Basic understanding of art concepts: line, form, color, shape, etc.
Students will evaluate the quality of picture book illustrations and be able to defend their criteria.
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.
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.
See the websites listed under instructional procedures.