News brief (August 26, 2010) |
Kentucky Bluegrass Award Grants are awarded annually to at least 20 school libraries across Kentucky in an effort to put Kentucky Bluegrass Award nominees from the current program year into Kentucky schools that are financially challenged and unable to afford books to implement the program.
All applicants must be submitted by teacher/librarian teams. The awards committee looks for pairs of teachers and librarians anxious to promote and implement Kentucky’s children’s choice award program at their school. The most successful school implementations of the KBA program are at schools where teachers and the school media specialist work together to promote the program and to generate excitement for reading.
Grant books are purchased by the Kentucky Reading Association or supplied by the book publisher and must be housed in the winning schools’ libraries so that they are available to all students.
The purpose of the Kentucky Bluegrass Award itself is to encourage the students of Kentucky in grades kindergarten through twelfth grade to read quality children’s literature. The KBA is one of approximately 45 state children’s choice awards nationwide. All Kentucky public and private schools as well as public libraries are welcome to participate in the program.
The KBA program promotes reading comprehension, critical thinking and evaluation skills. It is designed to provide a wide range of new reading materials to students and it should be implemented in a way that is simple and fun.
The Kentucky Bluegrass Awards Committee, which is made up of teachers, librarians and other professionals across the Commonwealth, chooses books for four master lists (grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12) each year. Students read books from these four Master Lists and choose their favorite by ballot. All the ballots are counted and submitted to the KBA each spring and a winner is declared for each level by the KBA Committee.
Congratulations to Crab Orchard Elementary School which joins 26 other Kentucky Schools in receiving two complete sets of KBA books on the appropriate level(s) so that their students may be involved in this year’s Kentucky Bluegrass Award Program.
Crab Orchard librarian, Jamie Mingo, and teacher, Teresa Griffin, will be promoting the books via book talks, read alouds and book related promotions. In the spring, all students will have the opportunity to participate in the vote.
