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Episode 198: Foothills Elementary First Grade Student Makes School History in “Battle of the Books”
She began reading chapter books in kindergarten and her love of literacy just keeps growing, so much so that Audrey McDonald is making history at Foothills Elementary School.
On this episode of the Supercast, meet the first grader who is the youngest ever to participate in the schools “Battle of the Books,” helping her team to victory. A team made up of kids several grades older, but like Audrey, they all share a love for literacy and a passion for reading.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. She began reading chapter books in kindergarten, and her love of literacy just keeps growing, so much so that Audrey McDonald is making history at Foothills Elementary School.
On this episode of the Supercast, meet the first grader who is the youngest ever to participate in the school's “Battle of the Books” competition, helping her team to victory. A team made up of kids several grades older, but like Audrey, they share a love for literacy and a passion for reading.
We are here at Foothills Elementary School with first-grade teacher, Ms. Larson. How are you today?
Alisha. Larson:
I'm great, thank you.
Anthony Godfrey:
I have heard about your student who's sitting right here with us, Audrey. Will you tell me a little bit about Audrey before we get started?
Alisha Larson:
Yes, Audrey is a very kind, bright, little first grader. She loves to learn. She comes to school excited to learn, she's great at making friends, she helps others along the way. She's just a delightful student to have and a great friend and a great person.
Anthony Godfrey:
You meet some great people as a first grade teacher, don't you?
Alisha Larson:
Very much so.
Anthony Godfrey:
The very early stages of the great people that they will ultimately become. Tell me a little bit about “Battle of the Books” and Audrey's involvement in “Battle of the Books” everyone may not know what that is. So tell us about “Battle of the Books” and how she got involved.
Alisha Larson:
Yeah, so “Battle of the Books” is for grades third through sixth grade. And it's for people just to have a little extra reading and to make sure that they are enjoying reading and have like a little competition with it. And Audrey, for how much she loves to read and how great of a reader she is, I thought it would be a great idea to challenge her a little bit being in first grade to go into this fun battle to be able to read all these wonderful books that she was already reading at home and to give it just a little bit more of an exciting challenge for her. So usually, yes, as I said, it's for third graders and up.
Anthony Godfrey:
An extraordinary, one extraordinary first grader as well.
Alisha Larson:
Yes, a very extraordinary first grader.
Anthony Godfrey:
Now tell me about the battle part because it sounds like you just are throwing books at each other. Throwing the book at someone, literally and figuratively, is something that does happen, but I don't think that's involved.
Alisha Larson:
Right, and I will be honest I actually don't know a whole lot about “Battle of the Books.”
Anthony Godfrey:
You’re a first grade teacher. Most of the time this doesn’t happen.
Alisha Larson:
Because I’m a first grade teacher. All I know though, is you get put into teams and you have to read so many books, and together as a team you have to answer questions. You have to know the author and so that's kind of where the battle part comes out is how much do you know of the books and how much can you remember of those books and the authors.
Audrey:
I also can tell you a little bit more because if the most team, there are two teams who go against each other. So you have team names, mine is “The Book Masters" and so basically the team, at the half point, each team gets 24 questions. At the half point which is 12 questions, they tell you what's your score. How you get scores is if one team answers both the title and the author for one question correctly, they get two points. Each thing is one point. But whoever has the most points at the end of it wins. And the two teams that are left for “Battle of the Books”, then they face each other in a school assembly, except first graders don't get to see that assembly.
Anthony Godfrey:
So your friends didn't get to see you because you were propelled so far beyond?
Audrey:
Well, the principal thought that it would be fun if our class could come to see me do it to support me. And so then third and fourth graders face each other. They don't face fifth and sixth grade books. You have to read 20 books, but third and fourth graders read different books than fifth and sixth graders.
Anthony Godfrey:
I see. So you read the third and fourth grader books?
Audrey:
Yes. I read 18 or 17 and I read quite a couple of the 5th and 6th grade books too.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, you delved into the 5th and 6th grade books. Just for a challenge.
Audrey:
I read some of them, yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, well done. Audrey, you said that you have to be able to name the title and the author.
Audrey:
To get two points.
Anthony Godfrey:
To get two points.
Audrey:
But if you only, but if you, hold on a second, there's a little more time I have to explain.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, give me the nuances.
Audrey:
If you only get the title correct, then you only get one point. But the other teams, you have the chance to steal, to name the author correctly. But if you, same thing with the author, if you name the author correctly but you don't know the title, then the other team gets a chance to steal the title. Also, if you don't know any of the questions in your 30 seconds, then the other team has a chance to steal both the title and the author. By the way, you only get 30 seconds to talk over with your team and then say the answer so that way you don't take all day.
Anthony Godfrey:
So I've never seen the “Battle of the Books.” So do they read part of the book out loud to you? And what are you trying to identify?
Audrey:
So see, you read the “Battle of the Books” books on your own.
Anthony Godfrey:
Right. And then in the competition-
Audrey:
And then in the competition, they don't read the books to you because they want to see how much you remember from those books.
Anthony Godfrey:
So they ask you a question? What do they ask you?
Audrey:
So they ask you questions about it. Like one of them might be in which book did a boy mail himself to freedom, then you would answer that book. Like let's say I only knew the title, Henry's Freedom Box, then the other team would have a chance to steal and what if they get the author wrong? Like, what if they say Betsy Byers and then it doesn't.
Anthony Godfrey:
Right, Betsy Byers, come on. Everyone knows that.
Audrey:
It's Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, of course.
Audrey:
So then they don't have the other team steal again because then again they didn't get the author, they didn't know the author so then they wouldn't know the author from that.
Anthony Godfrey:
Alright, so let me back up because I haven't seen this before and clearly I need to.
Audrey:
Yes, you can see it next year.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yes, I look forward to it.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you're lined up, you're in teams and they say in what book did a bird sing happy birthday? And then you look to each other as a team, you talk it through, you have 30 seconds and you say, "It was Bye-Bye, Birdie, by Jennifer Beale." And then they say, "Wrong. It was Bye-Bye, Birdie, by someone else." Now the other team has a chance to steal and get that point that you didn't get?
Audrey:
Mm-hmm.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's how it works.
Audrey:
Yeah, but if the other team steals, see, they don't have the full 30 seconds. They only have 15.
Anthony Godfrey:
I see. That seems fair because they've already been thinking about it during your 30 seconds.
Audrey:
Yes.
Anthony Godfrey:
So did you win the entire competition, your team?
Audrey:
Mm-hmm.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow, that's pretty impressive. Did you lose to any of the teams?
Audrey:
We lost to the “Reading Robots”, which then we again faced them in the finals, but we won them twice, so. I would have brought in my winner medal, but it was too loud.
Anthony Godfrey:
You had a winner medal that you got as a result? Tell me about the winner medal.
Audrey:
It's just a red, white, and blue like ribbon thingy and then at the end there's just a medal that says winner.
Anthony Godfrey:
That seems pretty cool.
Stay with us when we come back, more with Audrey and her teacher.
Break:
In Jordan School District, we like to support students in and outside the classroom along with their families. That's where the Jordan Family Education Center comes in, offering support services and a wide variety of classes for students and their families, free of charge. You can take a class called Blues Busters for children feeling sad or worried. Just Breathe is a class that helps students reduce stress. Or how about a class that supports parents in helping their children make and keep good friends. There are also support groups and free counseling, all provided by Jordan School District school psychologists and counselors. To find out how you can benefit from free family support services offered by the Jordan Family Education Center, call 801-565-7442 or visit guidance.jordandistrict.org.
Anthony Godfrey:
What did your team think of having a first grader on their team with third and fourth graders? Were they nice to you?
Audrey:
Yeah, none of them were mean. I think they were actually surprised.
Anthony Godfrey:
And were they surprised at how well you knew all of the books that you'd read?
Audrey:
Yeah, our Captain Amelia, well, there's two Amelia's, but our Captain Amelia, she told me that she was really happy that she had me on our team.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about your teacher. What's she like?
Audrey:
She's amazing. She's really nice and she's never been mean. She just sometimes uses her teacher voice when people are being bad.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me something else about your teacher. What do you think makes her so amazing?
Audrey:
Well, she's been teaching for 12 or 13 years and she's probably have a lot of practice with kids. She's probably not. She's probably been teaching younger grades so she's learning to be nice to them.
Anthony Godfrey:
What is one of your favorite books? I won't make you pick one favorite, but what's one of your favorites?
Audrey:
Well, I usually like informational stories.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.
Audrey:
And there's like a section about that, like a bin about that. And I don't know my favorite because I just love learning about animals. And usually I finish writing before she starts the music, pretty close. She starts like music when we play writing, pretty close to the beginning, pretty close to the beginning. And I sometimes finish before she even starts the music.
Anthony Godfrey:
What do you like most about reading books?
Audrey:
Well, I love learning their meaning and I love understanding what that book wants to teach you and I also like hearing the stories because I think that some of them are pretty fun and silly.
Anthony Godfrey:
Do you remember when you could first start reading on your own?
Audrey:
No, not really. I think I just remember that once I learned, I think of why I'm so good at reading is because once my mom taught me to read, which was pretty early, then I would just start reading books the entire day.
Anthony Godfrey:
When do you read? I know that you read when you're a fast finisher and you have time in class.
Audrey:
I also read at home, and I read before school, and I read before I go to bed.
Anthony Godfrey:
Before school, at home. Do you read in the car sometimes?
Audrey:
Yeah, I always bring books in the car whenever it's far away.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's a great idea. What do you want to do when you grow up?
Audrey:
Well, I either- I maybe want to be a teacher like Ms. Larson, or since I love informational stories so much and I love to learn information about different things, or be a scientist. Because I love informational stuff and I think that I would find out a whole bunch more if I became a scientist.
Anthony Godfrey:
I think you can do whatever you decide you want to do. And if you want to be a teacher like Ms. Larson, I probably won't be the Superintendent anymore when it's time for you to do that, but shoot me an email and I'll call the person who is in that position and I'll make sure they hire you.
Audrey:
Well, or I can make you, or maybe the superintendent then could make you a principal of that school.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's true. I'll get hired to be a principal so that I can hire you as a teacher because I'd hire you in a second. Audrey, thank you for taking time after school to talk with me. Ms. Larson, thank you so much for providing this unique opportunity for Audrey, for recognizing that ability in her and providing that chance and for taking time to talk with me today.
Alisha Larson:
Yes, thank you.
Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you out there.
View all episodes
By Jordan Supercast
4.7
4141 ratings
She began reading chapter books in kindergarten and her love of literacy just keeps growing, so much so that Audrey McDonald is making history at Foothills Elementary School.
On this episode of the Supercast, meet the first grader who is the youngest ever to participate in the schools “Battle of the Books,” helping her team to victory. A team made up of kids several grades older, but like Audrey, they all share a love for literacy and a passion for reading.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. She began reading chapter books in kindergarten, and her love of literacy just keeps growing, so much so that Audrey McDonald is making history at Foothills Elementary School.
On this episode of the Supercast, meet the first grader who is the youngest ever to participate in the school's “Battle of the Books” competition, helping her team to victory. A team made up of kids several grades older, but like Audrey, they share a love for literacy and a passion for reading.
We are here at Foothills Elementary School with first-grade teacher, Ms. Larson. How are you today?
Alisha. Larson:
I'm great, thank you.
Anthony Godfrey:
I have heard about your student who's sitting right here with us, Audrey. Will you tell me a little bit about Audrey before we get started?
Alisha Larson:
Yes, Audrey is a very kind, bright, little first grader. She loves to learn. She comes to school excited to learn, she's great at making friends, she helps others along the way. She's just a delightful student to have and a great friend and a great person.
Anthony Godfrey:
You meet some great people as a first grade teacher, don't you?
Alisha Larson:
Very much so.
Anthony Godfrey:
The very early stages of the great people that they will ultimately become. Tell me a little bit about “Battle of the Books” and Audrey's involvement in “Battle of the Books” everyone may not know what that is. So tell us about “Battle of the Books” and how she got involved.
Alisha Larson:
Yeah, so “Battle of the Books” is for grades third through sixth grade. And it's for people just to have a little extra reading and to make sure that they are enjoying reading and have like a little competition with it. And Audrey, for how much she loves to read and how great of a reader she is, I thought it would be a great idea to challenge her a little bit being in first grade to go into this fun battle to be able to read all these wonderful books that she was already reading at home and to give it just a little bit more of an exciting challenge for her. So usually, yes, as I said, it's for third graders and up.
Anthony Godfrey:
An extraordinary, one extraordinary first grader as well.
Alisha Larson:
Yes, a very extraordinary first grader.
Anthony Godfrey:
Now tell me about the battle part because it sounds like you just are throwing books at each other. Throwing the book at someone, literally and figuratively, is something that does happen, but I don't think that's involved.
Alisha Larson:
Right, and I will be honest I actually don't know a whole lot about “Battle of the Books.”
Anthony Godfrey:
You’re a first grade teacher. Most of the time this doesn’t happen.
Alisha Larson:
Because I’m a first grade teacher. All I know though, is you get put into teams and you have to read so many books, and together as a team you have to answer questions. You have to know the author and so that's kind of where the battle part comes out is how much do you know of the books and how much can you remember of those books and the authors.
Audrey:
I also can tell you a little bit more because if the most team, there are two teams who go against each other. So you have team names, mine is “The Book Masters" and so basically the team, at the half point, each team gets 24 questions. At the half point which is 12 questions, they tell you what's your score. How you get scores is if one team answers both the title and the author for one question correctly, they get two points. Each thing is one point. But whoever has the most points at the end of it wins. And the two teams that are left for “Battle of the Books”, then they face each other in a school assembly, except first graders don't get to see that assembly.
Anthony Godfrey:
So your friends didn't get to see you because you were propelled so far beyond?
Audrey:
Well, the principal thought that it would be fun if our class could come to see me do it to support me. And so then third and fourth graders face each other. They don't face fifth and sixth grade books. You have to read 20 books, but third and fourth graders read different books than fifth and sixth graders.
Anthony Godfrey:
I see. So you read the third and fourth grader books?
Audrey:
Yes. I read 18 or 17 and I read quite a couple of the 5th and 6th grade books too.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, you delved into the 5th and 6th grade books. Just for a challenge.
Audrey:
I read some of them, yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, well done. Audrey, you said that you have to be able to name the title and the author.
Audrey:
To get two points.
Anthony Godfrey:
To get two points.
Audrey:
But if you only, but if you, hold on a second, there's a little more time I have to explain.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, give me the nuances.
Audrey:
If you only get the title correct, then you only get one point. But the other teams, you have the chance to steal, to name the author correctly. But if you, same thing with the author, if you name the author correctly but you don't know the title, then the other team gets a chance to steal the title. Also, if you don't know any of the questions in your 30 seconds, then the other team has a chance to steal both the title and the author. By the way, you only get 30 seconds to talk over with your team and then say the answer so that way you don't take all day.
Anthony Godfrey:
So I've never seen the “Battle of the Books.” So do they read part of the book out loud to you? And what are you trying to identify?
Audrey:
So see, you read the “Battle of the Books” books on your own.
Anthony Godfrey:
Right. And then in the competition-
Audrey:
And then in the competition, they don't read the books to you because they want to see how much you remember from those books.
Anthony Godfrey:
So they ask you a question? What do they ask you?
Audrey:
So they ask you questions about it. Like one of them might be in which book did a boy mail himself to freedom, then you would answer that book. Like let's say I only knew the title, Henry's Freedom Box, then the other team would have a chance to steal and what if they get the author wrong? Like, what if they say Betsy Byers and then it doesn't.
Anthony Godfrey:
Right, Betsy Byers, come on. Everyone knows that.
Audrey:
It's Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, of course.
Audrey:
So then they don't have the other team steal again because then again they didn't get the author, they didn't know the author so then they wouldn't know the author from that.
Anthony Godfrey:
Alright, so let me back up because I haven't seen this before and clearly I need to.
Audrey:
Yes, you can see it next year.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yes, I look forward to it.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you're lined up, you're in teams and they say in what book did a bird sing happy birthday? And then you look to each other as a team, you talk it through, you have 30 seconds and you say, "It was Bye-Bye, Birdie, by Jennifer Beale." And then they say, "Wrong. It was Bye-Bye, Birdie, by someone else." Now the other team has a chance to steal and get that point that you didn't get?
Audrey:
Mm-hmm.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's how it works.
Audrey:
Yeah, but if the other team steals, see, they don't have the full 30 seconds. They only have 15.
Anthony Godfrey:
I see. That seems fair because they've already been thinking about it during your 30 seconds.
Audrey:
Yes.
Anthony Godfrey:
So did you win the entire competition, your team?
Audrey:
Mm-hmm.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow, that's pretty impressive. Did you lose to any of the teams?
Audrey:
We lost to the “Reading Robots”, which then we again faced them in the finals, but we won them twice, so. I would have brought in my winner medal, but it was too loud.
Anthony Godfrey:
You had a winner medal that you got as a result? Tell me about the winner medal.
Audrey:
It's just a red, white, and blue like ribbon thingy and then at the end there's just a medal that says winner.
Anthony Godfrey:
That seems pretty cool.
Stay with us when we come back, more with Audrey and her teacher.
Break:
In Jordan School District, we like to support students in and outside the classroom along with their families. That's where the Jordan Family Education Center comes in, offering support services and a wide variety of classes for students and their families, free of charge. You can take a class called Blues Busters for children feeling sad or worried. Just Breathe is a class that helps students reduce stress. Or how about a class that supports parents in helping their children make and keep good friends. There are also support groups and free counseling, all provided by Jordan School District school psychologists and counselors. To find out how you can benefit from free family support services offered by the Jordan Family Education Center, call 801-565-7442 or visit guidance.jordandistrict.org.
Anthony Godfrey:
What did your team think of having a first grader on their team with third and fourth graders? Were they nice to you?
Audrey:
Yeah, none of them were mean. I think they were actually surprised.
Anthony Godfrey:
And were they surprised at how well you knew all of the books that you'd read?
Audrey:
Yeah, our Captain Amelia, well, there's two Amelia's, but our Captain Amelia, she told me that she was really happy that she had me on our team.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about your teacher. What's she like?
Audrey:
She's amazing. She's really nice and she's never been mean. She just sometimes uses her teacher voice when people are being bad.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me something else about your teacher. What do you think makes her so amazing?
Audrey:
Well, she's been teaching for 12 or 13 years and she's probably have a lot of practice with kids. She's probably not. She's probably been teaching younger grades so she's learning to be nice to them.
Anthony Godfrey:
What is one of your favorite books? I won't make you pick one favorite, but what's one of your favorites?
Audrey:
Well, I usually like informational stories.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.
Audrey:
And there's like a section about that, like a bin about that. And I don't know my favorite because I just love learning about animals. And usually I finish writing before she starts the music, pretty close. She starts like music when we play writing, pretty close to the beginning, pretty close to the beginning. And I sometimes finish before she even starts the music.
Anthony Godfrey:
What do you like most about reading books?
Audrey:
Well, I love learning their meaning and I love understanding what that book wants to teach you and I also like hearing the stories because I think that some of them are pretty fun and silly.
Anthony Godfrey:
Do you remember when you could first start reading on your own?
Audrey:
No, not really. I think I just remember that once I learned, I think of why I'm so good at reading is because once my mom taught me to read, which was pretty early, then I would just start reading books the entire day.
Anthony Godfrey:
When do you read? I know that you read when you're a fast finisher and you have time in class.
Audrey:
I also read at home, and I read before school, and I read before I go to bed.
Anthony Godfrey:
Before school, at home. Do you read in the car sometimes?
Audrey:
Yeah, I always bring books in the car whenever it's far away.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's a great idea. What do you want to do when you grow up?
Audrey:
Well, I either- I maybe want to be a teacher like Ms. Larson, or since I love informational stories so much and I love to learn information about different things, or be a scientist. Because I love informational stuff and I think that I would find out a whole bunch more if I became a scientist.
Anthony Godfrey:
I think you can do whatever you decide you want to do. And if you want to be a teacher like Ms. Larson, I probably won't be the Superintendent anymore when it's time for you to do that, but shoot me an email and I'll call the person who is in that position and I'll make sure they hire you.
Audrey:
Well, or I can make you, or maybe the superintendent then could make you a principal of that school.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's true. I'll get hired to be a principal so that I can hire you as a teacher because I'd hire you in a second. Audrey, thank you for taking time after school to talk with me. Ms. Larson, thank you so much for providing this unique opportunity for Audrey, for recognizing that ability in her and providing that chance and for taking time to talk with me today.
Alisha Larson:
Yes, thank you.
Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you out there.
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