The ALA Youth Media Awards , the biggest awards in Children's Literature, will be held on Monday, January 27, 2020. Over the past several years, teachers and librarians have been hosting a Mock Sibert group or a Sibert Smackdown at their school or library. This year, some have started earlier with a Mock NCTE Orbis Pictus Group. No matter how you decide to participate, this is a great way to introduce more nonfiction to your students.
If you haven't hosted a Mock Sibert group before, here are some guidelines to help you out.
What is the Sibert Award? The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award goes to the most distinguished informational book published in the United States. To be honored/win the Sibert Award, the book must include these important elements and qualities:
Excellent, engaging, and distinctive use of language.
Excellent, engaging, and distinctive visual presentation.
Appropriate organization and documentation.
Clear, accurate, and stimulating presentation of facts, concepts, and ideas.
Appropriate style of presentation for subject and for intended audience.
Supportive features (index, table of contents, maps, timelines, etc).
Respectful and of interest to children.
Last year, I had the joy of sharing nonfiction books with 3rd to 5th graders in six classes in my District. It was the first time coaching teachers in how to hold a “Mock Sibert”. We had a lot of fun reading through the ten titles that I had picked for us. You can read my summary post from January, here. This year, I hope to encourage more teachers in holding Mock Sibert groups and will be offering a professional development training for teachers along with coaching.
If you are curious about the Sibert Smackdown, Melissa Stewart recently wrote an updated Sibert Smackdown post here. In 2018, Melissa also shared a three part post on evaluating nonfiction by former Sibert committee member, Melody Allen. You can find the posts here: Part I | Part 2 | Part 3
If you are interested in participating here is what you need to do.
Decide whether you will do your Mock Sibert predictions as an individual or with students or children from your school or library.
Go back through the new release posts found at this blog and think about which ones would be eligible (based on the criteria above).
Read, read, read. Either by yourself or with students and begin to create a top 5 list.
Post about your top 5 books and if you have students participating in your Mock Sibert indicate which ones they would like to see win.
By January 22, 2020, share with everyone which of your favorites that you think will walk away with the "gold". If you share your posts via social media, please use the hashtag #mocksibert2020
If you need to tweak the above suggestions in order to participate, please do. Make this fun and no stress.
On Wednesday, January 29, 2020, I will post the winners of the Sibert Award announced on Monday, January 27, 2020
Please indicate in the comments if you think you will be participating in the 2020 Mock Sibert event or a Sibert Smackdown event. And I do hope to see many of you participating this year.
Stop by on Friday, October 25, 2019 to see my Mock Sibert book selections.
