Table #12 The Irma Black and The Cook Prize: Children’ Choice Awards: Children’s Picture Books in the Language Arts Program and The Common Core
Audience: Elementary
Presenter: Lisa Von Drasek
Bank Street College of Education
610 West 112th street
New York, New York, 11201
Library Web site_ http://bankstreet.edu/library/
E-mail _ lisav@bankstreet.edu
Description, Goals, Intended Outcomes:
The Irma S. and James H. Black Award is given annually to a book that exemplifies excellence in text and illustration together. The four finalists have been chosen by 3rd and 4th graders from a semifinalist list selected by a committee of educators. The winner receives a gold seal and the other three finalists become honor books with a silver seal.
Below are some guidelines to assist you through the process of recreating the vetting process in the library. None of the suggestions and sample questions are required, but are meant to give you an idea of how to structure the conversations. This year almost 10,000 children from all over the United States participated in this curriculum.
The Cook Prize is the only national children's choice award honoring the best science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) picture book for children.
Process to Develop and Implement this Project:
Before implementing the Irma Black curriculum, spend time examining previous award winners and discussing the criteria for excellence with the student. Create a checklist to refer to when beginning the picture books study.
Register by email to Kristin Freda, kfreda@bankstreet.edu For curriculum guidance visit Irma Black Award: Book Discussion Guide.
Budget:
Plan for $65.00 for the four picture books. Order through the Bank Street Bookstore by calling 1-800-724-1486 or email books@bankstreet.edu. A complete set of the four titles can be pre-ordered and shipped when available for $65.00 plus $5.00 shipping ($70.00 total). No tax will be charged for books shipped to schools and libraries. Just order the ISB 2012 Award books. A large school might want multiple sets. They are also available from major distributors and other book stores.
Timeline:
Plan at least five to ten minutes to read aloud each title. Plan to have five to ten minutes for discussion. This will include examining the pictures more closely or hearing the language of the text again. Best practice would be to hear the books again and again over four weeks and engage the children in reading response activities.
Registered participants may send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to:
Attn: Irma Black Award
Bank Street College of Education Library
610 West 112th Street
New York, NY 10025
Additional stickers can be ordered for $0.50 a piece from the Bank Street Bookstore.
Examples of reader response activities:
Campaign posters, creating advertising, a wiki discussion, graphing votes, mapping the stories, create original covers reflecting the themes and art, creating art in the style or media of the award books, small group discussions, readers theater from the text, 4th and 5th graders can read aloud the award books to younger buddy students, 4th, 5th and 6th graders can create their own picture books for reading aloud as an extension of the study and creating an opportunity for public speaking as students advocate for their favorites.
Cook Prize (STEM) award extensions.
Intertextual connections in informational texts.
Fact-checking information- what do we know? How do we know it?
Critical evaluations skills
Currency, Authority and Accuracy.
Fact Checking the text, evaluation of content and illustration, comparative value, and comprehension.
Evidence of Outcomes, Possible Adaptations, Lessons Learned:
Benefits of Reading Aloud to Children: In 1985, the National Academy of Education issued a report based on two years of analysis of more than ten thousand research projects conducted in the previous quarter of a century.
Below are some of the key findings:
1. "The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for the eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children."
2. "It is a practice that should continue throughout the grades."
3. Kiefer, B (1995): The potential of picture books: From visual literacy to aesthetic understanding
Common Core State Standard(s) addressed:
Students read a true balance of informational and literary texts. Elementary school classrooms are, therefore, places where students access the world – science, social studies, the arts and literature – through text. At least 50% of what students read is informational.
Speaking and Listening
The standards require that students be able to gain, evaluate, and present increasingly-complex information,
ideas, and evidence through listening and speaking as well as through a wide range of media.
An important focus of the speaking and listening standards is purposeful speaking and listening in
various academic settings—including one-on-one, small-group, and whole-classroom. Formal presentations
are one important way such communication occurs, but so are the more informal discussions that
take place as students collaborate to answer questions, build understanding, and solve problems.
Critical thinking skills
Students will
Assessments:
Resources Used:
Kiefer, B. (1995). The potential of picture books: From visual literacy to aesthetic understanding. Englewood Cliff, NJ: Prentice-Hill.
A well-known theoretical study of the picture book genre through multiple lenses, including verbal and visual literacy, as well as artistic response.
Kieff, J. (2003). Revisiting the read-aloud. Childhood Education, 80(1), 28L-28N.
A concise call to arms about the benefits of reading aloud to elementary school children in an era of time constraints in the classroom.
Rosenblatt, L. (1982). The literary transaction: Evocation and response. Theory into Practice, 21(4), 268-277.
The leading voice of “reader-response” criticism summarizes her main body work and differentiates several different aspects of what she calls a “reading event.”
Sipe. L. (2000). The construction of literary understanding by first and second graders in oral response to picture storybook read-alouds. Reading Research Quarterly, 35(2), 252-275.
A classroom teacher and a professor of graduate education perform descriptive, qualitative research in a classroom of 27 kids. They analyze and code the responses of children who have been read 300 picture books over the course of a single school year.
Sipe, L. (2008). Storytime: Young children’s literary understanding in the classroom. New York, NY: Teachers College.
A graduate education professor outlines a theoretical model, with five key categories, of how young children understand and respond to picture books.
Trelease, J. (2006). The read-aloud handbook. New York, NY: Penguin.
The seventh edition of a classic handbook for teachers, parents and children that extols the benefits of reading aloud. Best known for its booklists.