In practicum 490, one of my most exciting lessons in literacy was Battle of the Books. This lesson was based on something that I viewed another teacher, from a different school, complete and I immediately fell in love with the concept of it. Since I was only in my practicum class for a month, we did a book battle 2-3 times a week to make sure that we would complete it before I was done at the school, but this could easily be done in a faster or slower motion, with more or less books as well. It can be very simple or something that could go for much longer, though it would be very repetitious in the end if it went on to long in my opinion after fully completing it.
I think why this lesson was so great and exciting for me was that I got to really witness the students develop in their writing, but also in what they noticed in the word choices, illustrations, colours, etc., as the book battles went on. We always started off the lesson with the learning intentions, and what the expectations on the writing and descriptions would be for that day. As we got further into the battles, the expectations of what they were to be writing and their word choices expanded. For example, one of the first books we read students wrote “I liked the illustrations” but by the final battle they could no longer just say that but had to give a reason why such as, “I like the illustrations because the pictures were more realistic and the artist used bright colours.” This was a big moment in this class because even the amount of writing that they were producing was significantly more abundant then what they start off with creating.
Battle of the books is great for getting students to listen to a story, reiterate it back, express opinions of likes and dislikes, and then cast a vote. Each book is paired off, which I tried to find similar ones to battle in the very beginning such as animal vs. animal or farm story vs. farm story, and students will vote after the two books are read for which one they want to move onto the next round. My class also made predictions at the very beginning which book they thought was going to win and NO ONE got it right! A book that no one suspected to win did and it was all based on how they were paid up. It was hilarious the reactions at the very end of the students when I told them the vote on the final round!
10/10 would recommend and will be continuously adding into any and all future classes that I teach.
Ms. McNeil
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