In The News: Bookworms battle their way to state contest

WOODBURN — When the Bookworms, a five-person Oregon Battle of the Books team, won the school championship at Joan Austin Elementary in the first year of the program at the school, the five fifth-grade girls didn’t know what to expect at the 77-team regional competition.

“I thought we were going to get cooked at regionals,” team member Ella McNeal said.

Second-grade teacher Carolyn Radcliffe, who started the program at Joan Austin after having experienced it at her previous school, thought the quintet had a good shot to advance out of preliminaries into the “Sweet 16.”

Radcliffe had good reason, it turns out, to believe in the team, which turned the heat up on the competition, finishing third to qualify for the state championship April 11 at Chemeketa Community College.

“Once they made it there, I could tell they were nervous, but with every answer they gained a little bit more confidence,” Radcliffe said. “Once they made that Sweet 16, you could tell they wanted to go all the way after that.”

Teachers and administrators were pleasantly surprised that nine different teams of students in grades 3 through 5 signed up to participate and it was a tight competition to decide who would advance to state.

Teams of four (with one alternate) square off directly, answering two types of questions in reference to a 16-book reading list. Each battle consists of 16 questions, the first eight requiring players to name the book and author in which a certain circumstance takes place, followed by eight content questions.

Each correct answer earns a team points and if an incorrect answer is given, the opposing team has a chance to steal those points by answering correctly.

The Bookworms — Aiden Gray, McNeal, Keira Schneider, Jenna Vale and Ruby Wojcik — found themselves tied with the Thunder Warriors, an all-boys team of fourth- and fifth-grade students, after 16 questions, which triggered a four-question tiebreaker that the all-girl group won.

Kindergarten teacher Janelle Gray, who is also Aiden’s mom and the team’s mentor, said the school did a good job of making the competition feel special since it was its first at the school and that participating has been transformative for her girls.

“I have a group of five girls who are, for the most part, pretty shy,” Gray said. “It’s been a confidence booster in terms of speaking in front of large groups of people and also being confident in their ability to comprehend stories.”

Because each team has just 15 seconds to discuss answers among themselves before a team spokesperson (McNeal) officially answers, Gray has also seen her team’s communication skills improve. The girls even employ hand signals to indicate to each other if someone knows the answer.

Those skills were strengthened by the many practice battles the Bookworms did in preparation for regionals, which included meeting during lunch three days a week.

Joan Austin principal Terry McElligott said teams learned during the first school practice competition that the content questions were pretty challenging and they responded by reading the books multiple times.

The Bookworms’ strategy was to have each girl be responsible for reading four books, then read four more for which they could be an alternate resource. By now, Gray said most, if not all, of the girls have read all 16 books, including several who have read them as many as five or six times.

The team was pretty nervous during its first match, but settled in after that and qualified for the elimination bracket based.

The Bookworms won their first two matches, then lost by three points in the semifinals to the eventual regional champion.

Prior to competing in the third-place match, tournament organizers informed the teams that both would advance to state regardless of the outcome of their match, which the Bookworms ended up winning.

“I bet people are shocked that in the first year we’re already at state,” Wojcik said. “If there is some kind of very big cash prize for winning it and we end up winning it, I’d probably donate a bit of it to the school because I bet Mrs. Mac would be really happy about that.”

McElligott is already thrilled with the team’s performance, especially because it is drawing attention to an academic achievement in a way similar to successful athletic teams.

“I think it really inspired a lot of reading in our building,” McElligott said. “Whatever happens with them, whether they place at state or not, it’s inspired a lot of kids to want to do it next year.”

Written by Seth Gordon