The Arkansas Elementary Council is pleased to announce the first annual selection process for a book to receive the Arkansas Diamond Primary Book Award. The book to receive this award will be selected in April by students in kindergarten, first, second, and third grades. It is hoped that students in your school have been participating in reading these books, and that teachers and library media specialists have selected some titles for reading aloud. Please note that children in grades K-3 will need to have read or heard read at least three of the books from the 1998-99 list in order to vote. It should be made clear to the children that they may vote for only one title.
Because of the age group involved in the Diamond Primary Book Award, the reading committee suggests that when books are read to children, the teacher or library/media person may wish to devise a plan for helping the children vote on the books in March or April. This may be done by reading all the books to the children in a condensed amount of time rather than reading the books over a nine month period and then asking the children to vote, or the books may have been read to the children over an extended period of time but a review of the books may be necessary for children to vote. Young children may have forgotten some of the books if the books were read at the beginning of the year.
Enclosed is a ballot (Form 1) to be reproduced by your school and used by the students to vote. The votes should then be tallied in each school and totals of each title should be indicated on Form 2. Then Form 2 should be mailed to the address shown on the form and be postmarked no later than Friday, April 16, 1999. Form 3 has been enclosed for you to submit titles to be considered by the Arkansas Diamond Reading Committee for the 2000-2001 reading list. The copyright date must be 1998.
The 1999-2000 Arkansas Diamond Primary Book Award Reading List of books published in 1997 is enclosed for your convenience in ordering this year. Arkansas Diamond Primary Reading List is for students in grades kindergarten, first, second, and third.
This is a voluntary activity in which the individual schools should select books based on the local district selection policy. Additional information will be available in May on this year's winner. Please be aware that all future communication about the award will only be available as director's memos on the Arkansas Department of Education website