how were the books chosen?
The first assignment was choosing the sweet 16. Throughout the year, I have kept track of the books students have been reading and writing, and I have chosen the 16 books that were our grade favorites. if multiple books in a series appeared in the list, it would display the first book in the series. Below are some of our “chosen” books! 🙂 the full list includes harry potter, the hunger games, a wimpy kid’s dairy, i’m funny, soccer genius, stick dog, the witches, the number of stars, marvel, the only ivan, stranded, i survived, nancy drew a track crew, bad kitty, bone and origami yoda.
If you don’t have an active list, you can also ask your school librarian to make a list of your most frequently checked out books. this year (2016), our librarian is running a primary and an intermediate roster for both of our school’s book tournaments. made a list of the most borrowed books for elementary and middle school and we picked the books from that list!
You are reading: March madness tournament of books
how do I do the support?
this is what the progression of bracket creation looked like. I made a fatal mistake around the elite eight (made the distance between the markers too small to hold two books during the sweet 16 round) that added an extra 20 minutes to the experience -boo. luckily it was an easy fix and kids don’t notice when one side of the bracket is a few inches shorter than the other. 😉
After finishing up the bracket with the Sweet 16 books in place, I needed to make the basketballs for the display header. Using my handy dandy Martha Stewart Circle Cutter
(BEST invention ever), I cut 6.5 inch circles and drew basketball lines on them using black marker…yes, I did have to Google what a basketball looked like. 😉 Then, using the school’s dye-cut machine and a glue stick, I added the letters to the overlapping basketballs.
who can vote?
when do you start your tournament?
As soon as our support went up at the end of February, my kids were stoked and reading as fast as they could to finish *a few* more books before our elite 8 vote.
See Also: Loretta Chase – Book Series In Order
I follow the dates of the ncaa tournaments. I set up a google poll so students can easily vote at the beginning of the school day.
how do you do your support?
In addition to voting for the best books of our school year, students will also complete their own group to predict the winners. For each correct answer, students will receive one point. The 3 students with the most points will receive a free book from our next school order! 🙂 we will complete our parentheses with the start of the tournament this Friday!
what does the final parenthesis look like?
so when all these parts come together, it looks a bit like this… 🙂 (click here for the 2014 tournament results)
organize a tournament for the whole school
Since moving schools, our school has adopted a school wide book tournament. it’s the perfect opportunity to build a community around some of our favorite books and it was just plain fun! we launched two stands (which were installed in our cafeteria): one for picture books and one for chapter books. Our school librarian made a list of the year’s most borrowed books: picture books and chapter books. then we remove the series duplicates (always choosing book 1) and then we pit the books against each other. All 750 students and 50 staff members participated in the picture book challenge. different staff members read all the books through morning meetings, library hours, and some through youtube! then our middle grades had many copies of the chapter books for students to read. finally, when it was time to vote, we set our voting windows for 2 days. students can vote on a google form before our morning all school meeting, during reading class, and during the library or computer lab.
See Also: Michael Connelly Books in Order – Books Reading Order
tournaments throughout the country
Seeing the book craze in action across the country is impressive. I love sharing materials and seeing teachers make them their own. I want to share your tournament, I would love to hear from you. share a photo on instagram and tag me – @brownbagteacher.
so what do you think? Do you incorporate the march madness in your classroom? Do you set up your own book stand? If so, I’d love to know. 🙂 In the meantime, make sure you get the free materials so you can get started without a headache!
See Also: Jennifer Donnelly – Book Series In Order