New for 2008-2009: Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl

For the last few years elementary and middle schools in Clarke County have competed in Battle of the Books competitions at the school and county level. This year we are trying something new at the middle school level. For the first time students in middle school will have the opportunity to compete in the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl. I'm sure there will be lots of questions about this new (new to us, at least) event, so here is my attempt to answer at least a few:

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. How is the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl (HRRB) like Battle of the Books (BOB)?

Students form teams of 5, with one alternate. They have a book list to divide among them, and they answer questions from those books. 

2. How is HRRB different from BOB?

There will be 20 books to read so everyone on the team has to commit to reading a minimum of 4. The questions are formatted differently. In BOB all questions are phrased, "In which book does ...?" and the team has to give the title and author of the book. Questions in HRRB are simply questions from the books: "Why was Mike called 'Macaroni Boy'?" So it's set up more like a trivia game. And you use buzzers to signal that you know the answer! Each school will hold a competition to determine which team will represent them at the district level. The top 2 teams from district will go to regional competition. There is also state level competition which takes place right here in Athens at the Children's Literature Conference in March. Also some school districts have competitions for high school students too. 

3. What are the HRRB list?

They are the nominees for the Georgia Children's Book Awards, chapter books for middle schoolers, picture books for elementary. All students who read at least three of the books can vote in the spring for their favorite for the Georgia Children's Book Award. It's quite a big deal. The author comes to Athens and speaks at the Children's Literature Conference. Here's the link to the list: Georgia Children's Book Award nominees. 

4. Why are middle schools doing HRRB instead of BOB?

We know that students have had a great time participating in BOB at the elementary level. We wanted to try something new and maybe a little more challenging. The book awards are done by the Department of Language and Literacy Education at UGA. Since that's a local program, we wanted to support them and their efforts to promote great books for students. And we liked the idea of students who wanted to being able to participate in high school. Plus, so many students asked if there was a BOB competition beyond the county level that we wanted to be able to send our county's top team on to regional. This way our top 2 teams can compete. 

5. How do I sign up to participate in HRRB?

Recruit a team of five students and one alternate, and sign up in the media center anytime between August 18th and November 25th. The sooner, the better! Remember, the school competition will be earlier than BOB has usually been so start reading and get ready to compete.