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Students Survive Battle Of The Books Challenge
Posted Apr 20, 2007 by Suzanne Schmidt
Updated Apr 20, 2007 at 10:51 AM
READING, COMPREHENSION TESTED AT CHILES
By SUZANNE M. SCHMIDT
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Reading a book just once suffices for most people. But fourth-grader Sheela Ranganathan read 18 books 21 times.
A student at Chiles Elementary School, Ranganathan wanted an edge in the Battle of the Books competition, which took place at the school April 11.
“It was a lot of fun,” Ranganathan said. “I read every book 21 times. I like to read because sometimes I want something fun to happen and that is the only way it happens is in a book. I am excited to go to the area battle.”
Students read 18 books previously selected by committees of media specialists and teachers in order to compete in the Battle of the Books. Each team participated in three rounds of questions about the books they read. With most of the questions, students answered the question with the title of the book and other questions students answered with the author of the book.
The school had an official kick off in November. Then in March, the fourth-grade students took a test with 40 questions and the students with the top four scores from each fourth-grade class were selected to participate in the battle. Three students answer questions in the battle and one student is chosen as an alternate.
The purpose of the battle is to encourage recreational reading, to offer a variety of types of literature, to increase the familiarity with different authors, and to share books through written and oral expression.
Tracey Tupler, the media specialist at Chiles, said the students did an amazing job.
“They did great and I am very proud of their efforts,” Tupler said. “We had the kick off here last November, but the students have known the list since last summer. Some students started reading the books then.”
Tupler said the teachers in the school did their part to help the students prepare for the battle.
“The teachers would read some of the books aloud in class or they would do different worksheets and look at Web sites,” Tupler said. “All the questions were either directly related to things that happened in the story or they were exact quotes from the book. The questions were supplied by the district.”
The winning team will go on to the area Battle of the Books in the end of April, then the winner of that battle goes to the district battle.
At Chiles, six teams were ready to battle April 11, but only one could walk away with first place. Joanne Williams’ team won; the team included Deeva Agravat, Samantha Lange, Sheela Ranganathan and Evan Duga was the alternate.
Even though Ranganathan felt confident the team would win, her teammate Agravat couldn’t believe it.
“I felt really happy because we all agreed as a team that we would try our best,” Agravat said. “We have been preparing for this for months. I am excited to be going to the area battle.”
The team said they had fun just reading the books.
“I like reading because I can picture the story in my head and imagine I am in another world,” Agravat said. “When I took the battle test, I had only read 10 books so I studied and studied. So when I saw my name on the board after the test, I was so excited.”
Parents and other fourth-graders were at the competition cheering their teams on. Pritt Agravat-Vyas said she was very proud of her daughter.
“Deeva read it all herself,” Agravat-Vyas said. “I am so proud of her and all the kids. It was a lot of hard work and they all did such a great job.”
Shari Lange said she was also very proud of all the students as well.
“I know the kids worked really hard on this,” Shari Lange said. “I think it showed how well they pulled it all together. They were very well-behaved and the signs were so cute. I was really proud of all of the students.”
Students watching the battle had to keep quiet while the students were battling, so in order to show their support, they created signs of encouragement. The students would then hold up the signs to cheer on their team and the other teams.
“The kids did an incredible job,” said Assistant Principal Cindy Land. “I am proud of all of our students representing the fourth grade today. They had such great audience etiquette. They even cheered on everybody and not just their own team.”
For information visit www1.sdhc.k12.fl.us/mediaweb/elem/read/Bob/Bob.htm.
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