Savannah-Chatham
County Public Schools held the annual district-level Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl
on Saturday, January 26, 2019. Nearly
300 students from 32 SCCPSS schools at all levels participated for the chance
to advance to regional competition on February 9th at Valdosta State
University. The
Reading Bowl is a competitive game format where students are questioned about
the content of the 20 Georgia Book Award Nominees each year.
First and second place winning teams at each age level will
travel to Valdosta for the competition. At
the high school level, the first place district winner was the team from
Savannah Arts Academy. Islands High
School’s team finished second.
At the middle school level, Godley Station K8 finished first,
with the STEM Academy coming in second.
And at the elementary school level, May Howard Elementary was
the first place finisher, with A.B. Williams coming in second.
The Georgia book award began in the Department of Language
Education at the University of Georgia’s College of Education and its purpose
is to, “to foster a love of reading in the children of Georgia, and to
introduce them to books of literary excellence”. Teams participating in the Helen Ruffin Reading
Bowl read and study Georgia Peach Award and Georgia Book Award books and
compete in a quiz bowl event. Helen Ruffin, a
Library Media Specialist at Sky Haven Elementary School in DeKalb County
founded the unique competition in 1986. It
is open to students in grades 4-12 across the state. Six geographic
regions hold competitions.
Sponsors
of the SCCPSS Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl include Follett School Solutions,
Horace Mann and Scholastic Book Fairs.
