LM_NET: Library Media Networking
Dear LM_NETters,
Thank you for all your responses concerning Battle of the Books. There were
also a number of queries as to what the Battle of the Books is.
I have decided that once a month I will post a set of questions and answers
to a book. That way if any of you want them you can have them. If anybody
would like to join me that would be great. Several people suggested snail
mail, but I think that would get rather expensive - at least too rich for my
budget. Let's use the subject heading "BOB questions" so any of us who are
participating can easily spot the post. Okay????
The following are the responses to my suggestion that we share Battle of the
Books questions:
I appreciate you sharing the titles you are using...I haven't done Battle
of the Books yet, I'd sure like to try it. Hope your ideas catches on, it
would help me get started.
Dear Jamie--I do Battle of the Books in Wichita, Kansas. Our program
seems much different than yours. Maybe we can compare notes. I am in
the Library Media Office and coordinate the program for the district.
We have about 75 elementary schools, but not all participate because
of various reasons. We started three years ago with three schools as
a pilot. Now we have twenty. Each school has battles at their site
to come up with a school champion. Then the school representative
comes to our office and competes live on our cable television station
with four other schools. The kids love it. We put 100 books on the
list, though. I saw that you have eight. I put the list out early in
the Spring so that library teachers can purchase what they don't have.
Then the kids start reading in August. I send out two questions in
March on each book so the sponsor doesn't have to create them for
their in-school rounds. At the end of April, we have the rounds out
here. We are able to talk local television people into moderating the
games with no problem. They do a great job with no rehearsal and love
the kids. I have LOTS of questions but they may be in a different
format than yours. We wanted to make it easy to judge. So, the
question's answer is always the title of the book. They do not
involve higher level thinking as a rule because we wanted to expand
the Accelerated Reader Program we use in the district. What kind of
qestions do you use? We have added a Book Talk as another event to
help with our assessments. All the book titles will be in a hat
(except the non-fiction ones) and the team will draw three. They will
choose the one they will do the talk about and will do a three minute
presentation about the book. We have a rubric for it that will be
scored by two judges. Let me know what you do.
If you want to trade questions, e-mail me at home because I have more
time there. My address is toteach@feist.com.
Linda Paul
Library Media Services
Wichita Public Schools
lms259@feist.com
What a great idea for us to share Battle of the Books questions. This year
Collier County, FL elementary schools are doing Nasty, Stinky Sneakers;
Mary Jemison, Indian Captive; From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E.
Frankweiler; The Gift; The Girl With the Silver Eyes; The Grand Escape;
I, Houdini; Letters From Rifka; Make Like a Tree and Leave; Maniac
Magee; Morning Girl; Song of the Trees; Stealing Home; The Westing Game
and The White Mountains.
We'd be happy to share some questions.
Suzy Hawley
media Specialist
Laurel Oak Elementary School
Naples, FL 34119
We've done Anastasia and The Boggart. If you need those questions, please
send me a fax number, and I'd be happy to send them your way. Our list is
completed for this year (I'm quite slow this time) but would be interested
in an exchange. I would prefer to fax them rather than input them.
Lorrie Wade
Please put me on the list. I am about to start my first battle in two
weeks and I have been furiously trying to compose questions for my 80
books. I have a list of twenty books for each of the 4 grades
(5,6,7,8th).
Maybe we can snail mail the questions to one another because I do not feel
like typing them again. Plus my question document is already 8 pages long
because I wrote in a formatso that I can cut them into cards.
I have 5 questions per book.
Margaret Bedle
mbedle@copland.udel.edu
107 Whitekirk Drive
Wiulmington, DE 19808
We are doing BoB in New Haven - a senior version for grades 6,7,8
and a junior version for grades 4 & 5. I am only involved in the latter
for which we are using Dear Mr. Henshaw (Cleary); The cabin faced west
(Fritz); Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs - lost in the tunnel of time
(Draper); The magnificent Mummy maker (?); Stealing home (Stoltz); The
chocolate touch (Catling); Sideways stories from wayside school (sachar);
Justin and the best biscuits in the world (walter); Toughboy & Sister
(Hill); Shapechanger (Brittain). We haven't written our questions yet but
will be happy to share them with whomever might need them.
Christine House <wexlr1@pantheon.yale.edu>
I think your idea about posting questions for Battle of the Books
is a great one!
What grade levels do you do?
I do one for 4th grade in the Fall and I'm about to start my
Spring Battles for 3rd grade.
It would also be great to share good titles.
The problems, of course, is in finding the funds to buy multiple
copies. I always have at least 20 copies of each title and we use 12
titles each time.
Let's work on this, and please tell me the grade level currently battling.
Sunnie
Sunnie Tait
Librarian/Media Specialist
Wines Elementary
Ann Arbor, Mi
sft@alumni.sils.umich.edu
______________________________________
Jamie Murphy Boston, Librarian
Davis Joint Unified School District
Birch Lane Elementary, 1600 Birch Ln. Pioneer Elementary, 5212 Hamel St.
Davis, CA 95616
916-757-5395/5413(FAX)
& 757-5480/5423(FAX)
jamieb@dcn.davis.ca.us
Visit the Birch Lane Home Page at http://www.birchlane.davis.ca.us
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