Overview
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Grade School:
For the 2011-12 school year, St. Joan of Arc formed an in-house Battle of the Books league for the 4th & 5th grade levels. More than fifty students are active in the program. Since October, the students have been reading from a book list consisting of 20 books and have attended weekly review meetings. The students also take computer-based “Accelerated Reader” tests on the Battle books to get credit toward their classroom reading goals.
While the review sessions have been fun and engaging, the exciting part began in early February with the start of the 6-week battle season. The students were divided into six teams, each designated by a different colored t-shirt. The teams face off against each other in 3-way battles each week. The kids score points by answering questions that test their recall of key information from the books. Teamwork is necessary since no one on the team has read all of the books. Several junior high students contribute to the program by performing timekeeping and scoring at the battles. The battles are intense and competitive!
Junior High:
St. Joan of Arc has been participating in the Battle of the Books program at the Wheaton Public Library for more than ten years. Participating students read a number of books and then teams of students from various schools compete against each other answering questions about what they have read. The junior high students read their books and hold review sessions over the summer to prepare for the battles which take place in October and November of the school year. In Fall 2011, St. Joan’s teams finished 2nd and 4th out of nine teams competing.