CCMS students place third in ‘Battle of the Books’

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

A group of five Charles City Middle School fifth-graders took third place overall against 39 teams consisting of mostly older students at Battle of the Books competition in April.

“It was kind of a coup,” said CCMS Battle of the Books sponsor Ann Prichard. “It was really nice that they did so well.”

Prichard, who has been the sponsor for Battle of the Books for several years, wasn’t even going to do the program this year until she was approached by incoming 7th-grader Vivian Soifer. Soifer had participated in the event many times before at the elementary level at Immaculate Conception and was interested in taking part again this year at the middle school level.

The two of them assembled a team of five 5th-graders consisting of Greta Biggerstaff, Tinley Parker, Piper Parker, Kaellan McCabe and Zeke Zweibohmer and Soifer helped coach them. Soifer was unable to participate due to a previous engagement already scheduled on the day of the event.

“She set up times and organized activities to practice,” said Prichard. “She helped with the types of questions they would receive.”

Battle of the Books is a collaborative reading competition for readers at the upper elementary and middle school levels. It is designed to enhance student commitment, team building, reading comprehension and study skills in a fun, informative manner. Teams of up to six students read from a pre-selected list of books. Competition includes written and oral responses.

Books included on the reading lists have been chosen for their high-interest level, challenging vocabulary and multiple reading levels. The books are purposefully selected to expose students to a variety of genres, quality authors, diverse cultures and historical eras.

The Charles City fifth-graders were mostly up against older kids from other schools who were in sixth and seventh grades in the Central Rivers Area Education Association. The students were required to read 15 books and answer about 40 trivia questions about them this year.

“It was a wonderful experience, and I think they had a lot of fun,” Prichard said. “It was just a great time this year.”