Resources by VT Librarians
The following resources are from previous years. Feel free to use them for inspiration. If you update them for the current year, or create new resources, and would like to share with other Vermont librarians, please send it out on the VSLA listserv or LibYouth Services listservs and we will ensure it is shared on this site as well.
Hannah Fjeld's Red Clover Journals
I use different journals with each grade level.
For K-1, the students rate the book on a 5 star scale and then write or draw about the story.
For 2, students are working on opinion writing through this unit, so explain what they thought and provide supporting evidence, and then they write their favorite part.
For 3, we focus on illustrations in collaboration with the art teacher. In their journal they write about how the book made them feel, and draw and label an element or principle of design that they noticed in the illustrations.
Neshobe Red Clover Journals_opinion writing.pdfNeshobe Red Clover Journals_illustrations and feelings.pdfNeshobe Red Clover Journals_stars and draw.pdfFrom Lisa Baranyay: As for journals or rating, I've created journals in the past, but last year I converted the idea to Google Slides and share them with students in Seesaw. At the end of the 10 books, they can then go through all 10 of the rating sheets and remember their thoughts on each before voting. I found it was very useful.
From Arlyn Bruccoli: Years ago at a Red Clover conference someone shared the idea of giving kids a chance to preview all the books. I start my Red Clover program by putting kids in a big circle on the floor and having pairs look at the books for just a few minutes and then closing the books and passing clockwise. We do this until everyone has had a chance to see each book. It's a low tech way to excite the kids about the upcoming books. It is important to preview expectations for carefully turning book pages.
From Julie Goraj: I print off the book covers and tape them to a red background to make a big poster which I hang on my library wall in easy view of our reading space about.a week before starting Red Clover. During the first week of Red Clover, I have students look at the covers and make predictions based on the title, subtitle, illustration...They get excited when they see the poster because they know Red Clover is starting for the year, and this is a sneak peek at the books. The poster is super helpful as we read the books because it allows us to keep previously read titles in mind as we move forward, and helps us make connections between the books as we read and discuss the next book.
From Nancy Daigle: I am tackling BookCreator this year! Here is a doc with some screenshots. So far so good.
The teachers can all join in (library is not a special this year so they do their reflections in their classrooms after I read to them) which required some directions and screenshots to describe how to join. My students all learned BookCreator last year so this year is their teacher's turn!
The downside is I had to have EVERYTHING ready before I launched. The writing prompts all had to be determined (sometimes those emerge over time) and pages in BookCreator were designed before I pushed it out to each team of teachers (I am sharing with 12 classes in grades 1-3 this year).
Students have been excited with the choices (write, draw or record) to show their learning.
Toward the end of the "season" I do a big Caldecott lesson explaining again their role in voting using a Venn Diagram to compare RC with Caldecott.
I also use a google form for voting. My students love analyzing the data for their class. the school and the state.