Re: HIT: Battle of the Books

[Emory Ricketson <erick@grove.net>]

Hi.  As the one who sort of started this with a request for questions
for Zlata's Diary  I'd like to cheerfully point out I still don't have
any.  Deadline approacheth.  Help really -:).

Emory Ricketson
erick@grove.net

Jamie Boston wrote:
>
> 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

--
“There’s always one more imbecile than you counted on.”       Anonymous

Emory L. Ricketson
Librarian, Media Co-ordinator, computer person, gadfly, etc.
Ranger School
Murphy, NC
erick@grove.net