Running a Battle of the Books Competition

Are your students in a reading slump and need some motivation? Battle of the Books will do it! Battle of the Books is a highly engaging reading incentive program that is perfect for the classroom or as a school wide event.

We know as educators that the more students read, the better their outcomes are in fluency, word decoding, vocabulary acquisition, and more. This program infuses some competition and excitement into what we hope children are doing already: reading a lot and reading with purpose. So, not only is it good for students, it is good for you, and fun, too!

Battle competitions are great when your students are in a mid-school year slump, or to keep them reading at the end of the school year when they are only thinking about summer. And by choosing a range of titles, you can provide additional challenge for advanced learners (select classics and more thought-provoking titles), but also encourage students with learning needs to have success with reading (select shorter, more accessible texts). It is completely able to be customized, so you can meet the needs of your class or school.

This how-to guide is all you need to know to run a successful competition, especially if you have no experience with a Battle of the Books event. It explains step-by-step how to organize your event, kick it off to your students, select your books, and run your actual competition. I wrote this guide after years of running school-wide Battle events and it is just so much fun.

Contents include:

Getting Started guide, printable posters, parent info letter, explanatory presentation outline, game play rules, set up diagrams, student bookmarks, score sheets, sample book lists, award certificates, checklists, final program, book recommendation form and digital and hard copy question sets for Kate DiCamillo's The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

**2022 UPDATE** These resources are editable in Google Slides: parent letter, award certificates, book marks. The title tracker, team trackers, and score sheets are all digital and waiting for your edits in Google Sheets. Even better, as you type in team's scores into your spreadsheet, it will automatically tally each team's points (so handy during competition)! Make copies of these resources and use them year after year, battle after battle. Enjoy!