Our 2019 Nonfiction March Madness reading tournament is in full swing! On Wednesday, February 26, we kicked off our annual event with a school-wide assembly to announce our sixteen outstanding nonfiction picture books.
My colleague, Valerie Glueck, and I created Nonfiction March Madness four years ago as a way to celebrate our school community's love of reading. I love that this event has become a highly anticipated tradition for our entire school! During the next month, classroom teachers will read aloud books on both sides of our bracket as students select their favorite books. We've found that our March Madness read aloud selections help students build background knowledge on a variety of topics. More importantly, this event fosters creativity and instills an appreciation for nonfiction in our readers. Many teachers have shared that their daily nonfiction read aloud and classroom discussions are their students' favorite part of the day.
As you may expect, students have very heated debates about each book pairing! I love listening to students articulate why a text is worthy of moving onto the Elite 8 or the Final 4. This year many teachers have spent valuable time asking students to find connections or common messages between each pairing. One student recently shared that it was so hard to choose between Rescue & Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship and Joan Procter, Dragon Doctor because both of these amazing books had such inspiring messages. Tough decisions lead to rich discussions and a deeper analysis of texts.
Stay tuned for the announcement of our Final Four on March 27!
ANNOUNCING OUR ELITE 8!
The decisions were tougher than ever this year. Some of the books in our Elite 8 only "won" by less than five votes! All of the books in our March Madness bracket were selected as outstanding nonfiction books, so they are all winners in my eyes. I would highly recommend the following books for classroom discussions to spark wonder and foster deep conversations with students.
