Tuesday, Feb. 21 was a day of joy – the joy of reading, working together, problem solving and navigating different opinions, Verona Area High School library media director and district librarian Teresa Voss said.
On this day, nearly 275 students gathered at VAHS to participate in the first district-wide Battle of the Books that brought six elementary schools and one middle school together to celebrate a common love for reading.
Every year the Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association – or WEMTA – hosts a statewide reading competition called Battle of the Books. Participation is voluntary and requires students from three different levels – elementary, middle and high school – to read different lists of 20 books.
Students can then pair up in teams of two, three or four to compete, which involves answering questions about the plot, characters and themes.Only one team from each school in the state can move on to the final online competition.
Excitement filled the high school’s Large Group Instruction Room as students eagerly answered questions about this year’s elementary reading list – holding up book covers to prompts displayed on the screens, scanning QR codes to vote on their favorite books and collaborating to make connections between the different readings.
And the support for the event was clear – one VAHS class stopped by with signs cheering on the participants, which they absolutely loved, Voss said. Other students made sure to show their support and encouragement throughout the day, too, as they walked by the room covered in windows.
Voss explained her favorite takeaways from Battle of the Books over the years while working with high school students, saying the same ideas applied to the collaboration she saw during the district event.
“When they sit and they talk about the books to the depth that they do and they say, ‘This book impacted me. This book made me reflect on my life or changed my thinking or brought something new,’ I think that’s really what it comes down to,” she said. And for a lot of our scholars, this is a way for them to push maybe outside of their reading genre… They had all of these different genres and they read outside of their genre so they could be a team, tried new things, read new things and then started to make those comparisons between the stories and their lives.”
The schools who participated in this year’s event included New Century, Verona Area International School, Glacier Edge, Stoner Prairie, Sugar Creek and Country View, along with five students from Savanna Oaks Middle School, Voss said.
Glacier Edge librarian Andrea Frey has worked closely with her Battle of the Books students since November, meeting with them every other Friday in the library during lunch recess to answer questions and discuss books in preparation for the final district battle.
“I had 83 students participate at Glacier Edge this year – which was a terrific number – about half of our fourth and fifth grade students participated,” she said. “One of my favorite things is just talking to them about the books and their excitement for reading. They often come to visit with me before school in the morning about the books and they’re always excited to get their next book when they finish one. They just love it.”
Students at Glacier Edge received journals to keep track of the characters, plots and settings in books. Frey spent time showing students how to read books, pay attention to details and take notes on different pieces they wanted to remember.
Plus, each time a student finished a book, she would give them a star sticker for the cover of their journal.
“They are so cute and so motivated for those stars,” she said. “They come in the morning so excited saying, ‘Ms. Frey, can I have a star? I finished my book!’ So that’s what is just so fun.”
Frey also made sure to integrate the seven picture books on this year’s list into her library lessons at the school.
“All of the fourth and fifth graders got to hear the wonderful picture books that were part of the battle list and do some activities that were associated with those," she said.
Following the big event at VAHS, one team from each school moved on to participate in the final Battle of the Books online state competition. Each team had to answer 25 questions, with the top three teams in the state receiving a plaque and award.
Voss said the across-district experience would not have been possible without the support of everybody – from administrators, teachers and translators to families, custodial staff and district office administrators. Next year, she hopes to see as many – if not more – students participate.
“We know that books provide opportunities for our scholars to learn about themselves, learn about others and learn about the world,” Voss said. “And books provide that opportunity for them to be mirrors and sliding glass doors. And that competition, when I talked about students reading outside of their genres, really did provide those opportunities for them to use books in a different way.”
