Oregon Battle of the Books (OBOB) comes to Wildwood!
OBOB is fun, team oriented, competitive program for students who love reading or listening to books. It broadens reading interests through exposure to a variety of literary genres, increases reading comprehension and promotes collaboration and teamwork among students. OBOB is sponsored by the Oregon association of School Libraries.
All teams read and study the same list of books, and prepare for “Battles” that are held at the end of the OBOB season. A battle pits two teams against each other, each answering questions pertaining to the books. Teams work together and use their combined knowledge to answer each question.
OBOB at Wildwood will be student driven, with guidance from an adult coach. The students will decide their strategy for reading books, meetings, practice and competitions.
Parents with students interested in joining Wildwood’s OBOB team should send your student’s name and grade to stephanie@gorge.net, you will be added to our OBOB distribution list and sent additional information. Ideally, teams would be finalized by September 14th.
More detail on commitment and expectations are listed below.
Student time commitment/schedule –
Teams form in the fall and begin reading and practicing immediately.
Time spent reading or listening to books is student dependent, silent reading at school might be an opportunity to read OBOB books. Students will determine how many books each team member reads, there are 16 books in the 6th – 8th division.
Students will decide how often to meet and when, which will become more frequent as a competition nears. Normally, teams meet less frequently to start, maybe once every 2 weeks for 30 minutes, and more frequently closer to competitions, maybe 2x a week for 20-30 minutes. Students/Head of School will decide whether this is during (lunch, study hall, etc.) or after school.
Competitions are normally held at local schools over a weekend in late January/February.
Teams and registration
Each BOB team is composed of 4 members, with room for an alternate member, who may or may not participate in battles. Wildwood team members can be students in 5th – 8th grade, but will be split along OBOB divisions of grades 3rd – 5th and grades 6th – 8th. This means that Wildwood could have a 5th grade team if there are enough interested 5th graders.
Teams can be mixed age and gender, with the 6th – 8th grade division team(s) also being mixed grade.
Registration opens September 1st.
Financial commitment
There is an OBOB entrance fee and students normally design and print a team shirt. These amounts are to be determined, private schools are not normally eligible for grants to pay for entrance fees.
Fees will be split across students or team could choose to hold a small fundraiser. Current estimate would be $25 per student.
OBOB Books are available at the Wildwood library and at the Hood River Library for checkout.