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Battle of the Books

I'd love to network with other libraries running a Battle of the Books program. We have one challenge school so far. We used to have 7, but the 5 schools all in one district had to drop out due to lack of budget for field trips. Tell me how your program works.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Joan Collins on February 13, 2008 at 1:32pm

I'm in a middle school in Bedford, MA and have run a Battle of the Books program for several years. In fact, I have a book coming out in March where all that is detailed.
If I can add any of my wisdom to your format, I'd be happy to...

Permalink Reply by Nancy R. Green on February 13, 2008 at 2:03pm

Perhaps when virtual field trips become more accessible we could collaborate! In Arizona, two K-12 districts currently run a Battle of the Books program for Grades 4 & 5 and Grades 6-8. We had another district involved for a total of 7 schools, just like your situation. But the bigger district had to drop out due to field trip funding, leaving us with just the 2 schools. We still plan to continue. I would love to read your book about your program and see how to improve ours.

Nancy R. Green

Permalink Reply by Joan Collins on May 9, 2009 at 9:14pm

We only do BoB with grade 6.....This year I used books from the grade 7 list.....
My book is entitled, Motivating Readers at the Middle Grades from Linworth

Permalink Reply by Joan Collins on February 13, 2008 at 2:08pm

We do not compete with other schools. We run a BoB program with just the 6th grade which has a population of about 500.
We retooled the 7th grade program to make it more accountable...less fun....

Permalink Reply by Suzanne Dix on May 9, 2009 at 5:59pm

Hi - I can see that I am adding into this conversation very late in the game but I just completed my first round of Battle of the Books. All 5th, 6th and 7th graders (90 students per grade) compete within their grade. I had a great time and choosing books for next year has been a great experience.

I love the idea of video conferencing! It might be an added incentive for the winning teams to know that they are going to compete with other teams around the country - guess we'd all need a universal reading list?

Joan, congrats on your book - I'll have to find it and add it to our collection for the battles.

Permalink Reply by Joan Collins on May 9, 2009 at 9:15pm

That does sound like fun.......we broadcast the final battle to the 6th grade classrooms via CCTV....we could certainly expand that idea.....book is entitled
Motivating Readers at the Middle Grades from Linworth.

Permalink Reply by Melinda Pennington on May 20, 2009 at 9:42am

We have a voluntary BOB program where students sign up at the beginning of the year if they are interested. After a few months go by, I find out who is really serious and they de-select (how's that for library lingo) themselves with some prompting. We used a wiki last year to build questions and information to study, but it would be really cool to compete with some other classes across the country (via Skype). We are the only middle school in our district so we do not get the benefit of a local competition and experience, therefore when we compete at the regional level we are at a disadvantage. If anyone is interested in collaborating, please let me know.

Permalink Reply by Joan Collins on May 20, 2009 at 2:55pm

We have used Skype with Global Literature Circles...could be fun.....We would have to read the same books.....what does your booklist look like?
It would be challenging to complete with another school.

Permalink Reply by Joan Collins on December 5, 2009 at 7:32pm

If we shared a booklist, perhaps we could compete via skype?

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