With so many people familiar with college basketball’s March Madness, FJC started its own version to encourage students to strengthen their skills and love of reading.
Second grade teacher Mrs. Danielle Youngs expanded on the March Madness idea with Book Madness, a gradewide challenge, complete with a huge bulletin board fashioned with brackets, surprise guest announcers, students who introduce and give a synopsis of the books chosen and so much more, as books compete for the championship title.
The tournament started with teachers receiving 16 book titles in their Google Classrooms that they introduced to their students to read over eight days. Students have read popular books like Ryan Higgins’ “We Don’t Eat Our Classmates” and Andrea Beaty’s “Ada Twist, Scientist”; and fast becoming perennial favorites, Andy Lee’s “Do Not Open This Book” and Drew Daywalt’s “The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors.” Students voted on their favorite books in the brackets, which are then posted on the bulletin board and announced over the schoolwide intercom to claps and cheers throughout the building.
Excitement from the teachers is palpable with Mrs. Emily Ferraro, Mrs. Jennifer Golding and Mrs. Nichole Schirtzer, along with Mrs. Youngs and her co-teacher Dr. Nicole Fernandez, noticing visitors from other classrooms coming down their hallway just to view the bulletin board set up in the same tournament-style format in which the professional basketball teams compete.
“It has become a highlight of the day and something everyone looks forward to,” Mrs. Youngs said, including students who are at home, learning virtually. “It is keeping us all connected,” she added, meaning not only the students but the teachers themselves, as they continue to help develop reading as a daily routine and ritual for their students.