Commack Road teachers collaborated this year to create a March Madness of Books tournament to promote literacy throughout the building while having fun.

The teachers came up with two divisions and found eight titles for the Modern category and eight for Classic Books, and during the first few weeks of March, they began to read the “Sweet 16” aloud in class and in library, where two books from the same division (with similar themes) went up against each other. Each class would vote to come up with a building winner, and they hoped to narrow down the “"Elite 8” and “Final 4" until the April 3 announcement of the Champion Book.

With the school’s closure, it looked like the book tournament was a bust, but using technology, the teachers found a way to keep it going, creating Flipgrid videos with links to each of the books so that students could vote remotely. 

“The students were so excited for this in school and we didn't want it to end,” said fourth-grade teacher Christine LeMaire. “It was important for CRES to have a community experience during these trying times.”

The current link for student voting is https://flipgrid.com/f3dd2cc1