March Madness
On March 1st, Sward students began the March Madness Tournament of Books. Mrs. Keblusek, Sward’s Librarian explains: “This Tournament is similar to the March Madness basketball games but played with BOOKS! The event started with the “Sweet 16”. These 16 book titles are chosen yearly by teachers from Ohio, Scott Jones and Tony Keefer. In 2015, they decided to share their chosen titles and it has been a popular activity in classrooms and libraries around the world ever since. I am thrilled to be sharing these stories with the students at Sward School, and hoping for this to become a yearly tradition.”
Mrs. Keblusek read bracket pairs to students in Library class. After reading, Mrs. Keblusek had the students vote on their favorite book from that pair. Since library classes only meet once per week, the classroom teachers wera active participants and read aloud some of the Sweet 16 titles as well. These books were the talk of the hallways, on the way to gym and lunch students were discussing their predicted winners.
Kindergarten student Hailey said, “ I love being able to vote for my favorite book each week”
Mrs. Keblusek stated: “16 books were read and over 1700 votes were counted to get to The Final Game. On Friday, the last day before spring break, Sward School Eagle Readers voted for the winner of our March Madness Tournament Of Books! It came down to the final 2 books: “Everynight is Pizza Nighty” by J.Kenji Lopez-Alt and “Norman Didn’t Do It (Yes He Did)” by Ryan T. Higgins.”
Fourth Grade Student Zoe thinks “Norman Didn’t Do It” will Win, “That book is a favorite of many students.” Thus far “Norman Didn’t Do it” is winning 75% of the votes. It is a very close game.
