The Reading Olympics is an incentive program for studentsFifth grade students are going for gold!

You might think that the Olympics are over in China but not at SAS! Reading Olympics are still going on here. Three years ago, the fifth grade teachers were thinking of a replacement for Battle of the Books, a reading incentive program for students, and came up with the idea of Reading Olympics.

For a number of years Battle of the Books was a big reading event here at SAS for third, fourth and fifth grade. Students read books and then came together to test their knowledge of the books they read. The students read the same 13 books at their grade level and answered questions on the Battle of the Books day. If the question was answered wrong, fewer points were given. Students who had fewer points were knocked out and that was it for them. The Grade 5 teachers thought that this was too limiting and unfair to people who were knocked out in the beginning, so they created SAS Reading Olympics for Grade 5.

“We’re excited about Reading Olympics because it better meets the needs of the students,” Steve Hanlin said.

In the Fifth Grade Reading Olympics, students are given a booklist.  They choose just right books for their reading level in a variety of genres. The students are not allowed to read a book that they have read, or a book their teacher has read to them. However, the students are allowed to read a book that they have forgotten.

After they read their book, they complete an activity on the book, and depending on the quality of their work, are given a Gold (4), a Silver (3), a Bronze (2), or a Redo (meaning you must redo your activity). The medals given provide points for the student’s class, and the class with the most points is the winner of Reading Olympics. Students have 30 activities to choose from but can only use an activity once.

The Reading Olympics activities range from crossword puzzles, to writing articles about an event in the book. These activities challenge students and motivate them to work harder because everyone is determined to win the Reading Olympics.

–Kendrick TAN and Brian LI