Creating your own school-based
Battle of the Books program
Presented by Tanya Dillon, Albuquerque Public Schools Dillon_t@aps.edu
https://sites.google.com/aps.edu/hubert-h-humphrey-library/home
Why create your own school-based Battle of the Books program?
• There is a great need to motivate students to read beyond Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Babysitter’s Club, etc. as they move into 4th and 5th grade. We want them moving into Newbery and other award winning titles. We want them hooked on series and to read broadly—experiencing many genres.
• We want them to get “hooked” on authors and books. We want them to become AVID readers. We want to create enthusiasm and motivation to read high-quality books that make them think and feel.
• You can have as many students participate as you want!
• You do everything during the school days/hours, so you don’t need to worry about transportation, etc. to a state battle.
• No permission slips, etc. to worry about. Students can participate without any input from their parents.
• You can run it completely by yourself…just one adult. No need to have volunteers meet, etc.
• Everyone is in the same room at the same time, participating together, hearing the questions together, etc. I usually have about 5 teams of 6 students, so about 30 people in the room. Twenty-thirty people is the right amount of people in the room to be intimate enough to enjoy talking about the books, but also to have enthusiasm, momentum, and positive energy.
• You can select all of the titles yourself to suit your schools’ needs and resources!
• You can have separate lists for 4th and 5th grade, so that you can repeat favorite titles year after year. This helps greatly with time, resources, etc.
• Students have “buy-in” when they get to give suggestions for next year’s Battle List!
• You have a list to promote Summer Reading to hand out to the 3rd and 4th graders at the end of the year, to prepare for 4th and 5th grade. Also, you can provide a summer reading list to outgoing 5th graders in May of the Middle School Battle of the Books state lists, as well as new Land of Enchantment nominee titles for the middle school level-Lizards.