Readers Cup

The annual Readers Cup competition was well-attended and enjoyed by everyone on Thursday, May 21st, at the Singapore American School (SAS). This year we experimented with allowing up to two teams per school per category - which greatly expanded the number of participants. We also added two new ways to win: a Book Cover competition and a Book Trailer competition.Younger Readers: 1st place: United World College - East - Team 1 2nd place: NPS International School - Team 1 3rd place: Canadian International School - Lakeside - Team 2 Book cover: NPS International School

Book trailer: Singapore American School

Older Readers:

1st place: Singapore American School - Team 1

2nd place: Canadian International School - Lakeside - Team 1

3rd place: Dulwich International College - Team 2

Book cover: Singapore American School

Book trailer: Singapore American School

Mature Readers:

1st place: United World College - Dover - Team 1

2nd place: Singapore American School

3rd place: United World College - East

Book cover: United World College - Dover

Book trailer: United World College - Dover

Our sponsor this year was Closetful of Books and its owner, Denise Tan, had the honor of handing out the trophies to the first-place teams. A $500 donation of books from Closetful of Books will be made in the name of each first-place winning team. The chosen charity is Book Reach, which focuses on school libraries and promoting literacy in Nepal. It was started by Doreen Johnstone, a former Tanglin teacher (whose husband was a Dover UWC teacher years ago). Doreen wasn't in Singapore at the time of our event, but she will visit each of the winning schools in order to explain her work in Nepal on behalf of children and school libraries.

Readers Cup 2015: Book Reach - Closetful of Books

Announcing the 2015 Readers Cup Books

which are a subset of the year's Red Dot Award shortlists

Younger Readers

A Boy Named Harry: The Childhood of Lee Kuan Yew

(with supplementary material provided to registered teams)

Emma and the Blue Genie

Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse

The Secret of Flamant Castle

Captain Coconut and the Case of the Missing Bananas

The Year of Billy Miller

Older Readers

Light Horse Boy (with supplementary material provided to registered teams)

Rooftoppers

The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co., #1)

El Deafo

Rain Reign

The Fourteenth Goldfish

The event consists of three separate competitions - Younger Readers, Older Readers, and Mature Readers. The Younger and Older reader categories have 6 books, while the Mature category has 5 books. The selection of books will be a subset of the Red Dot books in those categories and will be announced in January.

Each competition consists of:

- 5 or 6 Rounds with two questions from each book (5 or 6 books), each answer worth 1 point
  - (Note: some questions are two-part, so 1/2 point is possible.) (Click here for a sample .Pre 2014 Format.)

Rounds will comprise of the following:

Short answers focusing on key plot points

Kid generated questions

Inferential/deeper meaning questions

Supplementary Information provided by the Committee 4 weeks before the competition (can be about the author, about the country of the author etc.)

A multiple-choice written quiz with questions about all the books, each worth 1/4 point. (Click here for a sample.) This component will be undertaken on iPads using Socrative.
Other ways to win (besides the quiz portion)

Best Book Trailer - prepared and submitted by schools ahead of time, shown in between rounds. Each trailer no more than 3 minutes long. Marked out of 10

Best Alternate Book Cover - prepared and submitted by schools ahead of time

Mixed team quiz * (possibly included in 2016)

The Book Rounds are timed. 4 minutes maximum, with 10% BONUS points if your team hands in the short-answer written quiz within 3 minutes. So if your team got 7 answers correct and handed in the sheet within 3 minutes, you would get 7.7 points for the round, and if your team got all 10 answers correct and handed in the sheet within 3 minutes, you would get 11 points.

The multiple-choice written quiz is filled in over the course of the competition -- handed in at the end of round 4 -- to be included in the final score. Each multiple choice answer is worth 1/4 point.

The competition is open to all interested schools in the region. Each school may enter up to two teams

in any or all divisions (and in the case of educational organizations with parallel year bands on different campuses, such as UWC and CIS, each campus is considered a "school"). It is held in May every year.

Younger Readers - Year 3, 4 & 5 / Grade 2, 3 & 4

Older Readers - Year 5, 6, 7 & 8 / Grade 4, 5, 6 & 7

Mature Readers - Year 8+ / Grade 7+

Mature Readers

We Were Liars

Earth Dragon Fire Hare

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

(with supplementary material provided to registered teams)

The Sky So Heavy

A Monster Calls

How does the competition work?

The Readers Cup Committee met in October 2015 with the express purpose of updating the format of the Readers Cup in order to:

allow for a greater number of students to participate
promote higher level thinking/reading skills
promote creativity
allow students interaction across schools
have more winners

Details for the 2015 competition can be found here

(including links to registration and marking rubrics)

The younger & older readers' teams are made up of a maximum of 6 students, the senior team has a maximum of 4 students. The total time of the event will be approximately 2 hours, allowing for introductions, audience trivia and judging.

Judges: An attempt will be made to find impartial judges.

Everyone (i.e., parents, other students, etc.) is welcome to attend (to cheer on your teams).

Registration is $60 per team (payable to ISLN on or before the day) to cover cups, medals, prizes, participation certificates, gifts for judges, refreshments.