literacy – KPBSD Communications Field Notes

Many educators think of February as Love of Reading Month, so it is especially fitting that Battle of the Books takes place during that month. Sixty-five KPBSD teams participated in this year’s district competition. All did an awesome job. Most of the battles took place using audio conference technology with the final round teams competing using video conference. All agreed it was an added bonus to “see” the other teams.
Congratulations to the following teams that made it to the final round of competition!

Grades 3 & 4 – Cooper Landing School-1st Place; Homer Connections Homeschool -2nd Place; Sterling Elementary-3rd Place; and West Homer-4th Place
Grades 5 & 6 – K-Beach Elementary-1st Place; Soldotna Connections homeschool – 2nd Place; Homer Connections Homeschool -3rd Place; and West Homer Elementary -4th Place
Middle School – Nikiski Middle-High School-1st Place; Kenai Middle School -2nd Place; Susan B. English School -3rd Place; and River City Academy -4th Place
High School – Soldotna High School–1st Place; Susan B. English School -2nd Place; Kenai Central High School and Nikiski Middle-High School- Tie for 3rd Place; and Homer High School-5^th Place

Battle of the Books is a statewide reading and comprehension program sponsored by the Alaska Association of School Librarians. The goals of the program are to encourage and recognize students who enjoy reading, broaden reading interests, increase reading comprehension, and promote academic excellence. All this is accomplished through a game-show style competition known simply as “BOB”.
Lists of books are chosen and questions are written for all the grade levels. Students read the books (fifteen titles for Grades 3-6 and twelve titles for Grades 7-12), quiz each other, learn title and author information, and compete in teams of no more than three students attempting to score as many points as possible answering questions related to the books. Battle questions all begin with the words, “In which book”. Students are allowed thirty seconds to confer with team members and come up with an answer which is always the title and author of a book on the list.
Our district-winning teams moved on to the Alaska state competitions held the end of February. Our teams represented our district well placing as follows.

High School – Soldotna High School tied for 5^th place (24 teams)
Middle School – Nikiski Middle-High School, 7^th place (29 teams)
Grades 5/6 – K-Beach Elementary, 11^th place (35 teams)
Grades 3/4 – Cooper Landing School, 3^rd place (34 teams)

Book lists for next year’s battles were chosen by members of the Alaska Association of School Librarians at their state conference on March 12, 2016. The list is posted at the State Battle of the Book’s website.
View photos of all the teams on the KPBSD Facebook page, 2016 Battle of the Books photo album
Story contributed by Karla Barkman, District Battle of the Books Coordinator

McNeil Canyon Elementary celebrated Love of Reading month in February. Instead of celebrating once on Dr. Seuss’s birthday, students and staff celebrated the entire month. Instead of counting total minutes read, students spent their time sharing, talking, and writing about books they enjoy. Each week McNeil had a school-wide activity which involved cross grade activities centered on the school’s love of reading. Activities included a favorite book share where Kindergarten through third graders buddied up and read a favorite story, while fourth through sixth graders met in small groups and shared an excerpt from their favorite book, a memorable-book share where older students paired with younger students and shared a book that had special meaning for them; and a Readers Theater performance where every student read and performed a play in front of others.

Students also had an opportunity to document the books they read in February by filling out dragon scales that hung in the hallway on Lor, the giant quilted Love of Reading Dragon. After students read a book at home or at school, they wrote down the title, author and genre in a booklet and then filled out the scale at school. By the end of February, Lor was covered with brightly colored scales representing a book that was read and color-coded by its genre. Having a love of reading is something that will sustain these students for a lifetime. Watching younger students admire and enjoy their older buddies and seeing the wonder in their eyes as they imagined themselves as such fluent readers was something that the staff and students of McNeil Canyon will not soon forget.
Story contributed by McNeil Canyon staff

Tag: literacy

The 2016 Book Battle

Meet LOR, the Love Of Reading Dragon