Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Battle of the Books!

"Brains and Books team up at the Oregon Battle of the Books state finals," by Matt Buxton
Oregon Live from The Oregonian

Summary and Key Points: The Battle of the Books finale event was fought out at CCC in Salem recently. This event (for which our school started reading and forming teams back in November, I think) is an exciting way to get kids reading-- and reading critically, for a deep understanding of the content. In fact, that is what the Battle is about: students are quizzed on not just greater themes, but also on small details from the books from their age group.

Intended Audience: general public

Relevance: As a language arts teacher, I am excited about anything that promotes reading-- and all the more so if some group has already chosen half a dozen age-leveled, recent books for the purpose! Making things competitive is always a good engagement technique, and the fact that this is an actual competition with participation from all over the state gives the kids who might not be inclined to sports competition a venue to feel the thrill of competition (although I should say that our star soccer player was also on a district-winning team this year!).

As a reader and lover of all books, I snagged the high school reading list to add to my own personal summer reading list. It will be beneficial both for maintaining that crucial "withit-ness," and also just to see what sort of level is deemed appropriate for highschoolers these days.

1 comment:

  1. One of the schools that I observe in also partook in this Battle. I can't remember if Battle of the Books was around when I was in elementary school, probably high school, but it sounded so familiar when I learned the school was participating. When I was young the only "competitive reading" we had was to just keep track of how many hours a week you read, and if you accrue a certain amount, you won a prize of some sort. To me this was not a motivating method, because I could just forge the hours and have my parents sign it. I think this is a much better way to get kids reading, but also partaking in the entertaining competitive spirit.

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