12 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS
FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 2015
Local
Students compete in
‘Battle of the Books’
Fourteen students from
South Baker Intermediate
and Baker Middle Schools
competed in the Oregon
Battle of the Books –
Region 6 tournament on
Saturday, March 7, 2015
at the BMCC campus in
Pendleton. This was the
third year for South Baker
students to participate
in the statewide reading
program and fi rst year for
BMS.
Oregon Battle of the
Books (OBOB) is a state-
wide reading competition
sponsored by the Oregon
Association of School
Libraries and organized
locally by participating
school systems and public
libraries. Baker County Li-
brary District partners with
the Baker 5J schools to
participate in the activities.
OBOB celebrates a love
of reading and supports
good sportsmanship while
motivating young people
to broaden their reading
experience and increase
their reading comprehen-
sion. Reader teams in 3rd
through 12th grades com-
pete in local and regional
battles before moving on
to the state tournament
which will take place April
11 in Salem.
The fourteen Baker
students were fi nalists of
approximately 46 stu-
dents who began training
for OBOB last October
by reading the 16 books
selected for each of their
divisions. Weekly practices
were held at the schools by
Coach Courtney Snyder
of Baker County Library
District to quiz students on
content questions about all
the books. Students needed
to be able to demonstrate
their ability to quickly
recall a wide variety of
detailed information about
the books they read, in-
cluding full book titles and
author names. In the quiz-
bowl style competition, a
team is awarded points for
each correct answer but
points may be stolen by the
other team if an incorrect
answer is given or time
expires. On February 21, a
local competition was held
at Baker County Public
Library to determine the
teams to advance to the
regional competition.
The three advancing
teams consisted of four
to fi ve members which
competed in two different
divisions, one division for
3rd-5th graders and anoth-
er for the 6th-8th graders.
The Region 6 tournament
included teams from La
Grande, Adrian, Arlington,
Condon, Ione, Milton-
Freewater and more.
The South Baker
team competing in the
3rd-5th grade division
included Enola Watson,
Jake Sargeant, Savannah
Brown, Trinity Free, and
Penelope Simmons. They
made it past pool play into
the bracket round where
they lost to Irrigon.
Karl Boman, Makayla
Mills, Kyle Handyside,
and Shelby Griffi n made
up a team of all 6th graders
from South Baker who
competed in the 6th-8th
grade division and bravely
battled in pool play but
were unable to move on to
the bracket round.
Grayson Jensen, Izzy
Wachtel, Kristal Jensen,
Melissa Titus, and Kale
Cassidy comprised the
6th-8th grade division
team from Baker Middle
School. Having progressed
past the pool play into the
bracket round, they battled
Adrian nobly and lost by
three points, which is just
half of a question.
“Our Battle students
battled bravely, answered
accurately, team-worked
terrifi cally,” said Courtney
Snyder of Baker County
Library. “The students
involved love the program
and love reading and are
excited to battle another
day. I am proud and un-
ashamed at all they did.
I’m also very excited to try
again next year.”
T-shirts for the OBOB
teams were provided by
Baker County Library
District and its Friends of
the Library group. Do-
nations to support next
year’s program can be sent
to Baker County Public
Library. “And should you
be interested in what the
students were reading,”
Snyder adds, “all books are
available from the Baker
County Public Library!”
Submitted Photo.
South Baker’s 4th and 5th graders.
Submitted Photo.
Baker Middle School’s 7th and 8th graders.
Submitted Photo.
South Baker’s 6th graders.
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