Battle of the Books
Battle of the Books is a fun, friendly competition where teams of students read books from a specified list and then compete in a trivia contest based on those books.
In the School District of Palm Beach County, the Battle of the Books is a district-wide reading motivation and comprehension book-related competition for students grades 3 - 12. The incentive program is sponsored by the Department of K-12 Instructional Materials and Library Media Services in partnership with the Departments of Informational Technology and Educational Technology. The goals of the program are to:
encourage independent reading for personal satisfaction
recognize students who demonstrate knowledge and comprehension of books
broaden reading interests by exposing students to a variety of genres
promote collaboration and teamwork
promote creative thinking and problem solving
improve reading and comprehension skills
promote healthy competition based on mutual respect
promote academic excellence and the highest student achievement
promote the Sunshine State Young Readers Awards Books and the Florida Teens Read Books
The three divisions in the SDPBC Battle of the Books correspond to the divisions in the Sunshine State Young Readers Awards and Florida Teens Read book lists.
Students form teams of 3 to 5 students at the school division level. Team members read books from the designated list then come together to demonstrate their abilities and test their knowledge of the books they have read.
SDPBC Battle of the Books is introduced to teachers in grades 3 - 5, 6 - 8 and 9 - 12 by the library media specialist or sponsoring teacher. Participating students are then given several months to read the 15 titles for their age group and quiz each other on what they have read.
The program includes an Online Qualifying Battle during which teams respond to multiple choice questions from the fifteen, age appropriate Sunshine State Young Readers Award or Florida Teens Read titles. Questions are based on plots, settings and characters.
The Online Qualifying Battles are given during the month of January to determine the two teams in each division who will advance to the District's Grand Battle in February. At the District's Grand Battle, the first-place team for each of the three levels carries home a traveling trophy to house in their school library media center until the next year’s Grand Battle. The team members' names and school are also added to the perpetual plaque housed at Fulton-Holland Educational Service Center.