KPBSD Teams Compete in Battle of the Books

Sixty-six KPBSD teams answered “In which book…?” during the annual KPBSD Battle of the Books Competition. All did a spectacular job. Cheers to the following teams who reached the final rounds:

  • Grades 3 & 4 – West Homer Elementary-1st Place, Seldovia-2nd Place, Kaleidoscope-3rd Place, Redoubt-4th Place, and Sterling-5th Place
  • Grades 5 & 6 – Homer Connections-1st Place, Redoubt-2nd Place, Soldotna Connections-3rd Place, and Nikiski Middle-4th Place
  • Middle School – Kenai Middle School-1st Place, Seward Middle-2nd Place, Homer Connections-3rd Place, Soldotna Middle-4th Place, K-Selo-5th Place, and Nikolaevsk-6th Place
  • High School – Kenai Central High School–1st Place, Nikiski High-2nd Place, Soldotna High-3rd Place, and Skyview-4th Place

Battle of the Books is a statewide reading and comprehension program sponsored by the Alaska Association of School Librarians. The goals of the program are to encourage and recognize students who enjoy reading, broaden reading interests, increase reading comprehension, and promote academic excellence. All this is accomplished through a game-show style competition known simply as “BOB”.

Lists of books are chosen and questions are written for all the grade levels. Students read the books (fifteen titles for Grades 3-6 and twelve titles for Grades 7-12), quiz each other, learn title and author information, and compete in teams of no more than three students attempting to score as many points as possible answering questions related to the books. Battle questions all begin with the words, “In which book”. Students are allowed thirty seconds to confer with team members and come up with an answer which is always the title and author of a book on the list.

KPBSD teams battle using audio conference technology early in February each year. All teams participate in three morning battles. Scores from these battles are totaled with the top four scoring teams moving on to final afternoon rounds.   This year there were more teams placing at two grade levels due to ties coming into the final round. At the end of each day a KPBSD winner is declared in each of the four competitive age groups.

These winning teams move on to the Alaska state competition held:

  • February 20, 2014: Grades 3 & 4
  • February 21, 2014: Grades 5 & 6
  • February 24, 2014: Middle School
  • February 25, 2014: High School

Book lists for next year’s battles will be chosen by members of the Alaska Association of School Librarians at their state conference on March 1, 2014. The lists will be posted at the State Battle of the Books website soon thereafter.

Thank you to Karla Barkman, KPBSD District Librarian for providing this story.









 
 
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