When I taught in Florida, Battle of the Books was huge with grade 4 students and they used the state book award titles for the books.  When I started the Charter Oak Children's Book Award, I created a Battle of Books for those titles and New Fairfield Schools continues running one each year with grade two. It's a lot of fun and motivates students to read deeply and re-read.  This past spring, I created a Family Summer Reading Challenge and selected 12 titles which families read and then our back to school picnic, there was a Family Battle of the Books based on those titles. Last year, in Region 15, we had a grade 5 book bowl at each school and then a district one. We used the Nutmeg books.  So, I've had a lot of experience with book bowls/battles.

This summer I read all the Nutmeg nominees for Intermediate and created a bank of questions. I was getting a head start on repeating a book bowl at my Region 15 school, however, I switched to Region 14. But, I want to expand this concept.

My new idea is to host Battle of the Books virtually during the latter part of May. This is how I see it working:

1. You could host your own school book bowl and your final team would compete in this virtual battle.  However, you could simplify it and offer a qualifying quiz to all interested grade 4/5 students and form a team based upon the scores.

 

2. A ladder for the competition would be created based upon who signs-up.  Your team would compete with  2 or 3 other teams through Google Hangout or Skype.  A moderator (could be you or your principal) would ask the questions to the teams.  A winner would result and would move on to the finals.  Teams not competing in the finals could view the live Google Hangout.

 Depending upon how many participating schools, that number would determine how many teams compete in a round. It would be a lot of fun and a way to create a state battle without having to travel. 

3. No major work on your end but a willingness to promote the Battle of Books with your grade 4 and 5 students and then facilitate the qualifying quiz the first week of May to form your team that will compete.  Teams should be 4-6 players.  You would then be assigned a week to complete your first round and would be assigned competitor schools which you would arrange a mutually agreeable time to compete virtually.  If your team makes the next round, same steps. Ill provide your with the qualifying quiz and the actual battle round all spelled out with instructions and all questions.

Complete the attached Google Form if you think you might want to pursue this project and we can arrange a Google Hangout meeting.

This is for grades 4 and 5.

Jane Martellino

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