Battle of the Books

Why Battle of the Books is so awesome!

Each year, Harrison students have the opportunity to participate in a Battle of the Books program.  We run a traditional Battle of the Books program which includes a list of ten books for each level (a combination of older books and current state award books), teams of 4-6 students, and a tournament-style competition.  

We kick off the program in December, teams are formed in January/February, each team is assigned a staff adviser, and the battles are in May.  This year, we had twelve teams at three different levels (grade 3, grades 4-5, and grades 6-8) with a total of 60 students participating in all.  We also had a staff team this year with seven staff members who battled the winner of the 6-8 grade competition.  The student team beat the staff team!

The questions are always in the format of "In which book..." and the answers are always the title and author of one of the books.  On social media, I've heard some people questioning the program recently, saying that it's outdated, and trying to find ways to make the questions "deeper" questions.  While I definitely feel that students should be challenged in school with deeper questions regarding the material that they read, I don't think that EVERY assignment, project, and program needs to include that type of questions.  After all, what is the goal of a Battle of the Books program?  For us, the goal is to motivate students to read for fun.  Period.  However, over the years, we've discovered that there are many additional benefits to the program.   Here are a few:

• Students are reading a variety of books that they might not normally read.
• Students are working together on teams towards a common goal.
• Students who might not normally be able to participate in regular team sports get an opportunity to be included on a team.
• Students are learning to remember what they are reading in order to answer the questions.
• During the competition, students are learning to collaborate in order to answer the questions as one team.
• Students are learning to win and lose graciously.
• The program puts a spotlight on reading and the entire school comes together to watch the final battles.
• The program makes reading fun!!

This is why we love Battle of the Books at Harrison School!  If you run a Battle of the Books at your school, what other benefits do you see? Comment below!

Congratulations to all of our students who participated in the program this year.  They are ALL winners!!

Happy Reading!