Still More March Madness for your 6th graders: The last weeks

Last week I blogged about creating a March Madness Book Tournament for your students.  It's a great way to get them reading, talking, and writing about their favorite books!  If you missed it, you can read that blog post here.

🏀🏀If you choose to move the basketballs to the next bracket when students are not there, let me tell you, you need to be prepared for a level of excitement that almost rivals the actual games!

Let's take a look at what to do as you narrow the field down from 16 books to the ✨WINNER.✨

Week 3:

This week, your students will work together to create a poster to highlight their book.  Students whose books advance to this round get to be the team leaders and the other students join them.  

You can assign students to groups or let them choose.  Students need to pick book groups they most are interested in.  You decide what works best for your students, but everyone must be in a group. 

At the end of the week, posters get hung and students vote on their top four choices.

 

Week 4:

With 4 books remaining, students prepare to have the main character from the book "interviewed." One student is designated to play that role.  

The groups are given 20 questions, some with more immediate answers and some that require making inferences.  

Students choose 5 from each category and prepare their answers.  Then, they can create costumes or add anything else that they think will make an impression.  It's fun to watch them prepare for the interviews and help the main character answer the question thoroughly.

After the interviews, students choose their two favorite characters.  If you teach multiple sections, it's possible that no one from one class makes it to this round.  At this point, we got all of our students together to listen to the interviews.

Week 5:

For the final two books of the reading bracket, students create a video book trailer.  They can use whatever movie app feels comfortable for them; most choose the video feature on their iPad because they're more comfortable with that.  Upload the videos to your school's shared drive or Google drive (we had limited access to outside apps) so that students can watch them and vote.

Should there be March Madness Bracket prizes?  I sometimes gave small prizes like a candy bar, but I also gave these certificates.  And of course, students get bragging rights!  If you'd like a free copy of the certificates, you can download them here.

✅  Want to try a March Madness Book Tournament and just don't have the time to create it yourself? Click on the picture below.  I've got you covered with plans, graphic organizers, bulletin board letters, and more!