Battle of the Books

Standard 5c) ​Provide coherent systems of academic and social supports, services,
extracurricular activities, and accommodations to
meet the range of learning needs of each student. [MdILF 1.1]

Standard 5​e) Cultivate and reinforce student engagement in school and positive
student conduct. ISLLC 10.2]

Activity: Battle of the Books Team Manager

Time:
5c: 30 hours
5e: 25 hours

Artifacts: Google Classrooms for Battle of the Books (below)

Description: ​During the past two years, I have been the team manager for Jonathan
Hager’s (2017-2019) and Potomac Height’s (2018-2019) Battle of the Books Teams. This
process involves working with students of varying reading levels to assign and read 20
books in order to participate in a competition with other teams across the county. In addition
to competing in a written competition, students also worked together to complete two
projects that related to the books read. Battle of the Books met for once a week for 4
months in 2017-2018 and 5 months in 2018-2019. Students stayed after school to read,
complete projects, and participate in practice rounds to test their knowledge of their
assigned books.

Reflection 5C: ​While this was an extracurricular activity, it directly supported instruction
taking place in accordance with the WCPS district literacy policies. Students were engaged
with a variety of texts at differentiated levels and were required to use those texts for a
variety of purposes. Students had to demonstrate in depth understanding and
comprehension of the texts selected for the projects. In addition, the written round required
students to know key details about each of the 20 books that were assigned. Because this
was open to all students in 4th and 5th grade (5th only at Hager), students with varying
abilities chose to participate. This required me as a team leader to make sure that I was
differentiating my instruction as much as possible despite having a set group of texts that
were each complex in their own way.

Reflection 5E: ​Battle of the Books is such an incredible extracurricular activity because it
allows a breath of fresh air into what can sometimes become static and rehearsed reading
instruction. Students were incredibly engaged with these texts, specifically because of the
freedom they were given in the projects they created. I was the team leader of the first
Battle of the Books Team at Jonathan Hager and, after seeing how strongly the students
responded to it and the satisfaction they got from “doing something new” with their reading,
I knew I had to bring that passion and energy to Potomac Heights. There, I was also able to
start their first Battle of the Books Team. Starting something so valuable at two different
schools was such a tremendous experience and helps to cultivate even more passion for
learning in already passionate school cultures.