Getting Started | berkshirebookaward

Ideas for engaging students in the Berkshire Book Award

Quick, simple things …

Print off and stick the logo on book jackets for a display. BBA stickers [.doc 604kb] (to be printed on laser labels L7651 or inkjet labels J8651 (65 per sheet).
Display eligible books in piles on tables as they do in book shops. (Students are more likely to handle the books & read the ‘blurb’).
Chat with students about who has read what, make suggestions and encourage peer recommendations and the search for new titles.
Print lists of eligible books to hand to students, with space for them to add their own suggestions.
Print BBA Bookmarks to give to your readers.
Give parents details of short listed books so that they can buy them as Christmas presents.
Have a proper ballot box for nomination forms - Ballot Box Stickers here. (Photocopier paper boxes are a good size and have separate lids, so the returned papers are easy to get to).
Make sure details on how to vote are obvious – have it mentioned in Assemblies and newsletters, with reminders.
Ask students to write mini reviews 9or longer!). Display, and send them to the Berkshire Book Award website.
Tweet about it. Include any relevant authors – you may well get a reply! Ditto Instagram.

Bit more time?

Launch the Award in an Assembly
Display books published in the last year with how to vote and news of the Award, as it happens.
Start a book group or involve a current one in discussing the short listed books, or try a fiction speed-dating session! (There is a wealth of information available on how to do these, so you don’t need to re-invent the wheel!)
Have Head-to-Head mini debates between two readers, with each reader putting a case for their favourite book, or comparing experiences of the same book. Limit the time to 2 minutes so several debates could take place in one session.
Run a competition to see who can predict the outcome of the voting.
Draw up and display a league table of the most popular books.
Have a poster competition to promote the Award.
Suggest staff read books from the list and discuss the titles in registration time or similar.
Set up/ make a simple booth for voting on the short list. A single table/ chair and three sides of a cardboard box covered in black paper, with the obligatory pencil on a string would do.
Celebrate all this wonderful new fiction – have a party!

Above all, empower students: this is their Award and they can nominate and vote for their choices.

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