By: Alexa Bynum Soto
Have you ever wondered what being part of an award committee is like? Curious about applying for the Bells next year and want to know what to expect? Read on to learn what life on the committee looks like!
When you are selected as a member of the CLEL Bell Award Committee, you are added to a practice team. Each practice team focuses on one of the five early literacy practices (Sing, Play, Read, Write, and Talk). For your first year, you have the guidance of a Practice Lead who has worked on the committee for a year at least. Your practice team is the group you will work with the most through the selection and nomination process. Once you are assigned to your practice team the main goal is to read! We read every title that is suggested through the form on our website. We are also always reviewing new picture books that we come across. After we have all read a title we talk about it as a committee to see how the title fits (or doesn’t) with our selection criteria. We then discuss as a team, we make a final decision about what will happen with the suggested title. Each practice team works a little differently, but typically we meet online since we have teammates all over the country.
Even though you primarily work with the members of your practice team we still meet as a Committee at Hangouts! Hangouts are a great chance to talk about the stories we have read that stand out to us as Early Literacy Professionals. If we ever have a hard time deciding on a title and how it fits with our criteria, we bring these titles to Hangouts so that we can get members of other practice teams’ perspectives! Hangouts are great for those of us who might not get to talk about our favorite picture books. It’s also helpful to get feedback from members who might have prior experience on a practice.
As we work through the list of titles we are selecting the outstanding titles as nominations. Nominations will be added to our website, where everyone can see these outstanding titles. As a reminder, the last day for suggestions is November 16, 2025! In December we meet as a large committee to talk about the titles that have been nominated, and we create our shortlist. The shortlist meetings are a marathon where we get to dig deep into the core CLEL standards to decide which titles stand out as CLEL Bells. After we have selected our top five in each category, we will also work on creating interactive activities for families and early literacy professionals who will be incorporating the Bells!
Overall, life on the CLEL Bell Awards Committee is a fun time of camaraderie and a shared love of Early Literacy. You’ll get to know the members of your team practice and others on the larger committee! CLEL is an excellent way to engage with others who are interested in Early Literacy, and is especially great if you are the only member of your library who is focused on Early Literacy.
