Promoting the Mark Twain Award

1
Promoting the Mark Twain Award

• Missouri Association of School Librarians Spring
  Conference 2009

2
Promoting the Books at the Beginning of the Year

• Using the Video
• Show the video in the spring to encourage summer
  reading of the Mark Twain nominees
• Show the video again in the fall and encourage
  students to think about the books that look the
  best to them
• During the video give them a list or brochure of
  the nominees to take notes on and star the ones
  that look the most appealing to them

3
Mark Twain Scrapbook

• http//www.pbs.org/marktwain/index.html
• A scrapbook explaining Mark Twains life and
  accomplishments.
• Use this to introduce Mark Twain and why we have
  an award named after him.
• Also take this time to point out Mark Twain is
  not the author, he is the person after whom the
  award is named.
• Encourage students or classes to make a scrapbook
  of the books they have read.

4
Placement of the Books in the Library

• Make sure the Mark Twain nominees are separate
  from your fiction section so that they are easily
  accessible for students.
• As money allows, it is also important to have
  several copies of the books that you think will
  be the most popular so that kids dont get
  frustrated waiting on the book and just give up.

5
Keeping Kids Reading Throughout the Year!
6
Mark Twain Passport

• The passport is a piece of paper with the Mark
  Twain book titles, date, and place for the
  teacher/media specialist to initial that the
  student read the book.
• For each 4 books that the student reads they get
  a visa stamp and the student gets a trip to the
  treasure chest. (A tiny red cougar print is
  stamped on the passport)
• If a student reads all the nominees they get a
  trip to the treasure chest and their picture
  framed and placed on top of the book shelf
• Idea courtesy of Spring Valley Elementary in
  Raytown, MO

7
Five Star Book Review Board

• Place a bulletin board in the library and let
  students share a Mark Twain book that they have
  read and how many stars they would give it. -One
  star being the least and Five stars being the
  best. Encourage them to share only four or five
  star books.
• Idea adapted from Teresa Young, Study Middle
  School, Springfield, MO

8
Incentive Program

• 2 books Mark Twain Pencil
• 4 books Certificate and opportunity to vote in
• the March election
• 6 books 4 way pen
• 10 books post-it notes
• 12 books 15 Barnes Noble gift card
• All prizes are bought using book fair profits.
• Idea courtesy of Kay Kliethermes, Blackburn
  Elementary, Indepedence, MO

9
Get Teachers Involved

• The more teachers you get behind the program, the
  more students will follow their example.
• Suggest books for them to read aloud to their
  class and give them the activity packet page that
  goes along with that book.

10
Chat n Chew

• Talk to your sponsors and ask if they need any
  suggestions for books to put on their list.
• Suggest Mark Twain nominees (future or current)

11
Holding Students Accountable for Their Reading
12
Quizzes

• Quia
• 50.00 for a year subscription
• Post your own quizzes for each book
• Students must get four out of five questions
  right
• You can check the scores online
• Keep a chart of them in the library
• http//www.quia.com/profiles/lsell10
• There are usually quizzes for the books already
  prepared and it sends reports to you when
  students finish a quiz.

13
Blogs

• You can create your own school blog for students
  to post on after reading a book or
• You can use the Mark Twain State Blog and have
  them post or respond to posts

http//marktwainaward.wordpress.com/
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Awards and Celebrations
15
Pizza/Voting Parties

• Many schools offer a pizza/voting party to those
  students who read four books by the deadline.
• At the party students can eat pizza, talk about
  the books, and vote.
• If you have extra funds, some schools reward
  those students with a free paperback book.

16
Candy Bar Party

• A more economical alternative to the pizza party!
• Same idea just with candy bars instead of pizza.

17
Mark Twain Day

• Students who complete the requirements, get to
  participate in Mark Twain Day
• Students in English III (juniors study Mark
  Twain) come to the school and host a celebration
  for the 4th and 5th graders who qualify by their
  reading.
• At the celebration there will be games, food,
  skits, etc. (Prepared by high school juniors)
• Idea courtesy of Shellie Foltz, Westport
  Elementary, Springfield, MO

18
Field Trips

• Branson Belle (Riverboat)
• Childrens Literature Festival
• Mark Twain Museum (Hannibal, MO)
• Any other ideas?

19
Awards Assemblies

• Give certificates to those students who read four
  books at the end of the year awards assembly.
• Also give them a bookmark with next years
  nominees on it.

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Kids who read all 12 books

• A Barnes and Noble or Borders gift card.
• An autographed book (last years winner)
• Get them a book of their choice from a bookstore.
• Hang their pictures in a special section in the
  library (use an inexpensive frame)

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Any other ideas you use to promote the Mark Twain
Award?