COVID-19 may continue to be delaying public events and school activities, but students across the Rocky View Schools (RVS) division are still busy preparing for an epic battle of novel knowledge.
Instead of battling it out in February like they usually do, bookworms from across the public school division will participate in the Battle of the Books on May 5 and 13 this spring, giving them a little bit more time to read their books and prepare.
The competition is split into two levels – elementary and middle school – and teams comprising six or seven students are pitted against each other in a test of book trivia knowledge and reading comprehension.
The elementary level includes students from Grade 3 to 5, while the middle school level allows kids to join from Grade 5 to 9. Grade 5 students have the option to compete in either level to accommodate the different school configurations across the division.
To keep the yearly competition going, RVS moved to an online platform last year, which meant schools could send as many teams as they like, not just one.
“Pre-COVID we had one representative from each school that participated and they would go to the central office in Airdrie to [compete],” explained Leslie Waite, organizer of Battle of the Books and a teacher at East Lake School in Chestermere.
“[Last year] was actually kind of nice because it opened it up for everybody to participate and we did it with a system called Kahoot! online.”
This year’s competition will be run the same way, online and with open participation.
Every school gets organized for the division-wide battle a little bit differently, Waite added. Some run the Battle of the Books program as a club, while others let student-organized teams battle it out until there is one champion left to represent that school.
Last year, up to 10 teams per school participated, with over 500 students per level of the competition.
Out of the 53 schools in the division, 16 schools participated in the middle school level and 12 schools competed at the elementary level last year.
This upcoming Battle of the Books marks the sixth competition for middle schoolers and the second for elementary-aged students.
Waite noted there have been teams that formed in Grade 3 at her school in Chestermere that stayed together all the way through to Grade 6, competing each year until they graduated from the school.
A committee of teachers, library technicians, and administrators select the books each year and write the trivia questions that will appear in the final competition.
“We have a selection of 16 books and they're everything from picture books, to chapter books to biographies, how-to books, things the kids are interested in that are popular literature… We try to choose mostly Canadian authors and it varies each year,” Waite said.
In the past, RVS has secured prizes for the champions of the competition through sponsorship from bookstores and education organizations.
The committee also organizes authors to come and speak to the kids about their writing process and what it takes to publish a book.
“Last year we had three of our authors come back because they were able to [attend] over Zoom,” Waite said.
“It's been really good connecting kids with different authors and actually seeing this real person who also writes books for a living. We really try to promote their literature and have that in the schools so that they can get to know an author who lives in Alberta.”
According to Waite, a benefit of participating in Battle of the Books is noticeable in every participating student’s reading abilities, and the committee does their best to make the competition accessible to all students.
Book clubs at schools allow someone to read the books to the kids, but organizers also make as many audio books available as possible.
“We have in the past had parents come in and read and had teachers read onto tape so the kids can listen while they're reading. We've had kids buddy-read the books so we just promote teamwork,” Waite said.
Any book is accessible in any format and teachers and school staff help students figure out what they need to compete.
“Some kids will come to me and say, ‘I want to do this but I’m not a good reader,’ and I say, ‘OK let's sign you up and let's find you a team.’ And then they're really successful and they really work together at preparing,” Waite said.
Students will write their own questions, practise quizzing each other, and make notes about all the details in each book, she noted about the kids in her school.
The competition promotes literacy and the love of reading, books, and teamwork, she added.
