Welcome to America's Battle of the Books,
America's Battle of the Books is a reading incentive program for students in 3rd thru 12th
grades. Students read books and come together usually in groups to demonstrate
their abilities and to test their knowledge of the books they have read. The
student competitions are usually similar to the TV series Family Feud or Whiz
Kids styles of competitions. However, the structure, format, and rules of the
competitions may vary depending on the educational goals, student needs, local
resources, and personal preferences at various school sites, school districts,
county libraries, or offices of education.
Four Styles of Competition
There are four styles of competition
that ABB created and supports. These four styles have been tested and developed
by ABB members and offer the best environment for students to compete, develop
socialization skills, and to enjoy ABB competitions. The fours styles of
competition are copyrighted and may only be used by our members unless you have
received written permission to do so by ABB.
Friendly Family Feud
This style of competition is the most
popular and has been used by battle of the books groups for many years. It is
typically used for 3rd through 6th grade competitions. It is the most socially
adaptive style of competition and is similar to the TV show Family Feud. This
style of competition uses 2 teams that compete against each other.
The number of students per team
varies upon the needs of local competitions. Usually when using the 10-book
list there are 3 person teams, 20 book list 4 person teams, and 30 to 36 book
lists 5 to 6 person teams. Each member of the team is responsible for their
portion of the book list the team is using/reading.
Academic Whiz Kids
In this style of competition students
are on their own. Each student answers a round (or part of a round) of
questions on his or her own. Each student’s individual score is recorded and
those teams whose members answer the most questions correctly receive points
accordingly. Students may not discuss the questions or received help from other
students on their team.
Relay Style
In this style of competition students
have to run. Students are not only competing against other teams but also ‘the
clock’. Teams line up on one end of a field or gym. One at a time, students run
to the opposite end of the building/field and are asked a question. If they
know the answer they tell the judge at the table. If not they run back to the
team and discuss the question with their team members—they have to remember the
question! If the team knows the proper answer the same team member returns to
the judging table and tell the judge their answer. If the team does not know
the answer, the next member of the team runs to the judging table and asks for
the next question. What is different about this style of competition is once one
team gets to the final question all competition between teams stop and the
total scores of each team’s round of competition is recorded.
Super Challenge
All teams are in groups in one large
room. All teams are competing against each other at the same time. A question
is asked and the first team that stands up or raises a hand gets to answer the
question first. You will need to have a few spotters to make sure who stood up
first, second, third and so forth after each question is read by the judge/reader.
If the first team standing or raising their hand gets the answer correct you
move on to the next question and record the points for their correct answer. If
the first team does not get the answer correct the team that stood up or raised
their hand in second place must answer the question even if they know they have
the wrong answer based on what they heard was the first team’s incorrect
answer.
*The above information is from
America’s Battle of the Books website.
