Northeast wins Battle of the Books
By From staff reports
Published in News on March 22, 2016 1:46 PM
For the second year in a row, Northeast Elementary School students won the districtwide Elementary Battle of the Books contest.
The contest, which pitted 130 students from 15 schools against each other to put their reading skills to the test, was held Friday at the Dillard/Goldsboro Alumni Cultural Center.
Students in grades 3 through 5 must read 18 books chosen by a statewide committee, with questions derived from the readings to test students' comprehension of the material.
The Northeast team will now move on to the regional competition, to be held in New Bern on April 22.
The school's team is made up of Breanna Bass, Jay Bass, Morgan Davis, Natalie Davis, Audrey Johnson, Johnny Miramon-Antonio, Jorge Munoz-Benitez, Skylar Ratliff and Eliana Vaughn. The team was coached by Jennifer Edwards and Stacy Hersey.
The Battle of the Books program is coordinated by the media center program at participating schools. District officials said the competition is an effective way of motivating students to read while being exposed to quality literature.
"We appreciate all of the coaches and participating students for their hard work in preparing for this competition," said Dr. David Lewis, assistant superintendent for accountability/information technology services. "We also appreciate all of the volunteers who served as moderators, time keepers, judges and score keepers. Without their support, this event would not be possible."
Rosewood Elementary School came in second at the recent event. Their team members included Joseph Bailey, Ahmed Bash, Leah Blevins, Carson Crane, Adrian Grice, Juliana Harris, Alex Jones, Nathan Kornegay, Desire Mateas-Gibbs and Sara Ponce. Coaches were Dana Gurley and Lori Jones.
In addition to Northeast and Rosewood elementary schools, other participants included Brogden Middle, Brodgen Primary, Dillard Middle, Eastern Wayne Elementary, Fremont STARS Elementary, Grantham Middle, Greenwood Middle, Meadow Lane Elementary, Mount Olive Middle, Northwest Elementary, School Street Elementary, Spring Creek Elementary and Tommy's Road Elementary.
Each year, events are held at the middle school and elementary school levels. Earlier in the month, Greenwood Middle School won the competition for grades 6 through 8. Those students advance to the regional level, to be held April 8 at Croatan High School in Newport.
Norwayne Middle took second place.