Remarkable readers

For the third year in a row, Claywell Elementary's Battle of the Books team has been victorious.

By LOGAN D. MABE

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 14, 2000

NORTHDALE -- The ABCs of Claywell Elementary's dominance in the annual Battle of the Books competition is leading to inevitable talk of the big D.

D as in "dynasty."

Battle of the Books is only six years old in Hillsborough County and fourth-grade teacher Vicki Anderson's classes have won the last three in a row.

"My son Jonathan says we're a dynasty now," Anderson told her class of 30 voracious readers. "Is it fun belonging to a dynasty?"

"Yeaaaaaahhhhh," the 30 voices yelled.

So how did they do it, these little lords of literature?

Same way you get to Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, practice.

And then practice some more. To the point that the students can recall every character, plot line and author in 25 books without a moment's hesitation.

Battle of the Books is a motivational reading quiz that is widely used across the country and can be traced back to a public radio program in Chicago in the 1940s. Preparing for the battle gets students used to remembering what they've read and helps them with comprehension, summarization, analysis and evaluation.

Claywell was one of 75 elementary schools in the county to field a team this year.

During Tuesday's battle, where Claywell beat six other schools and took first place by a whopping 30 points, the team was made up of Anderson's four sharpest students.

But their expertise was honed by the other 26 children in the class, who are as much a part of the team as the four in the spotlight.

"All the kids do a lot of work together," said Angela Mann, Claywell's media specialist. "They meet together, go over the books together. The whole class gets involved even though there are just four kids on the team. Other classmates come up with questions, trying to stump them."

In Anderson's class, the students plowed through the books and grilled each other for four months preparing for the battles in April and May. Every day the bar got a little higher, and it got harder and harder to stump the team members.

Anderson explained that in forming the team, every student in the class took a 40-question written test on the books. The four students missing the fewest questions comprised the team.

Team captain Eva Dou missed none. Rita Cotter missed one. Mary Kate Smith and Chelsea Gorsline missed two each, but because Mary Kate finished the test before Chelsea, she was the third team member and Chelsea was the alternate.

About half the class missed seven or less, an astounding number when Anderson heard that battle teams at some schools had members who missed double-digit numbers of questions.

But Claywell's real team had a much deeper roster list, Anderson said. It included everyone in the "Claywell family" from the principal and administrators to the volunteers and parents who work with the kids.

"It's a school effort," Anderson said.

Last week, the St. Petersburg Times sat down with Anderson's class to quiz them on their winning ways. Here's what they had to say:

"You should always encourage your team to do better," said Stephanie Mejias. "At one point, one of the members felt bad because she couldn't click the buzzer fast enough. But one of the other members said, "We couldn't do it without you.' "

"You've got to really push yourself," said Lauren Highland. "Reading 25 battle books usually isn't something you think you'd do. But all of us really read all of them."

Christina Westfall joined the class in January when her family moved to the area, coming to the battle preparations in midstream.

"Everybody in the class told them that they could do it," Christina said. "It was really fun how we coached them."

The give and take among classmates not only sharpened the team members, but helped other students improve their reading skills.

"When I came to the fourth grade, I never thought that I would pass Florida Writes or read all the battle books," said Rebecca Vyzas, whose reading level has jumped three grades this year. "But Ms. Anderson said I could do it and she helped me practice a lot."

Rebecca said she read 28 books in the third grade, but upped that total to 51 this year. Some battle team members read more than 100 books during the school year.

"When the battle team was chosen, no one was mad because we all won in a way," said Stefanie Torres. "Because we'd read so many books."

However they did it, the Claywell kids left Battle of the Books officials awed by their run to the crown.

"I don't understand how they can remember everything," said Vicki Bollinger, media specialist at Westchase Elementary, who chares the district competition. "They were fantastic, unbeliveable."

-- To reach Logan D. Mabe, call 226-3464 or e-mail him at mabe@sptimes.com.

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