Our locally developed Readers' Choice Award program is designed especially for elementary school readers. The program aims to create opportunities for younger readers to participate in a reading and voting program similar to that developed for the Surrey Schools' Book of the Year Award (#SSBOY).
The central goals of the program are to promote a love of reading for enjoyment and to develop student appreciation for different styles of illustration in picture books.
Ten picture books (fiction) are selected each year. To be nominated for the Surrey Picture Book award, a book must demonstrate:
Committee members, including the chair, are practicing Surrey teacher-librarians, who indicate interest in working on the program. The committee also includes the teacher-librarian helping teacher. Voting for the chair will occur in May of an outgoing program year.
Teacher-librarians may choose to share all of the books with classes in the library, encouraging students to evaluate the stories and illustrations, and to identify their preferred title(s). To be eligible to vote, a student must read or listen to five of the ten nominated books, and in late April, students will cast votes for the books that they have most enjoyed. The book which receives the most student votes will be officially designated Surrey Picture Book.
Alternatively, the collection may be circulated to teachers who wish to conduct the program as part of Language Arts activities, or to individual students who wish to read the books independently. As for the SSBOY award, a tally of votes from students participating at each site will be requested in late April.
The winning title will be announced in May of the outgoing program year.
Committee members create a variety of teaching activities and support materials. These are posted on the Google Doc on the Teachers page of this site.
On an annual basis, Learning Resources Services will provide teacher-librarians with award stickers for the winning title.
Teacher-librarians will receive information about the program from the Helping Teacher or committee members through the district email. Information will also be posted on the website, with a link being posted on the Surrey Teacher-Librarian Group page on the Hub.
Surrey Schools' Book of the Year http://thessboy.weebly.com/
Surrey Schools' Picture Book of the year https://sites.google.com/view/surreyreads
Surrey Schools' Narrative Nonfiction Book of the Year https://sites.google.com/view/surreyreadsnonfiction
Surrey Teens Read http://surreyteensread.weebly.com/