Reading competition excites students
WAYNESBURG – A friendly competition between the five school districts in Greene County is making reading a little more fun for the students.
The Greene County Library System is organizing its third annual reading competition May 12 at Waynesburg University. It will test the knowledge of students who have spent the past year reading a variety of books.
Therese Barry, Greene County Library System administrator, said students who want to participate are given a list of 10 to 12 books that will be included in the contest that they can read over the summer or during the school year. The May competition with specifically tailored questions is the culmination of the reading season, she said.
“I have a lot of teachers who tell me that they get their kids to read more because we’ve turned it into a competition,” Barry said. “The point is to get kids excited and entice them to read all summer so they don’t have that backslide when they leave.”
Barry said as many as 100 students on 22 different teams in three age divisions – elementary, middle and high school – are expected to participate.
There are questions about each book and storyline, along with bonus points given to students who can guess the correct title or author. Two teams compete against each other at a time in a volley of questions that can be answered by the opposing team. The winning teams get a trophy they can take back to their school.
Shelly Rogers, a middle and high school teacher at Jefferson-Morgan, helped to organize the competition the first year. She said the annual gathering has encouraged some of her students to pick up a book during the summer.
“They really enjoy it and it does get them reading,” Rogers said. “This is something that is pulling them in to read. I really appreciate that because kids just don’t read anymore. It’s a good incentive to get them interested in it.”
Barry said the reading lists for next year’s competition will be sent to coaches and students in June. Those books will be available at either the school libraries, or at Bowlby Public Library in Waynesburg and Flenniken Public Library in Carmichaels.
Students from every school district are participating, but Barry said children who are homeschooled are also encouraged to compete.