What did the elephant’s trunk spout as he waved it in the air? What was the first thing Rump said after he fell out of the tower? Where did Bruno first lead the boys when he was tracking the sneakers? These were just some of the questions posed to members of Avon’s chapter 1 PageTurners team Monday during its first meet of the year.
Administered by Genesee Valley BOCES, PageTurners is a literature-based competition that challenges teams from across the region to answer trivia questions about works they’ve read over the past few months. Students compete at three levels - chapter 1, 2 and 3 - based on their grade level.
“You have a couple seconds to talk in a group about the question and what you think the answer is and then the captain will hold up a card to answer the question and on the card it says ‘I’m ready to answer,’” explained Avon PageTurners team member Meadow C. “If you don't get it, it goes to two other groups and if they don’t get it, the question’s out and they announce the answer to you.”
Meadow, who joined Avon’s PageTurners team last school year when she was in third grade, liked it so much she decided to rejoin again this year as a fourth grader.
“If you’re good at reading and you like to read, it’s kind of like a fun activity to do,” she said.
Third grader Keaton G. said he’s a big reader and is “pretty good at memorizing stuff,” so the PageTurners format made for a good fit.
“I haven’t done it before and it sounded like fun,” said Keaton, who just started reading the “Percy Jackson & the Olympians” book series by Rick Riordan. “They’re really good.”
The PageTurners season is split into two sections - one in the spring and one in the fall. For each section, teams are presented with somewhere between seven and 10 age-appropriate works - usually a combination of books, poems, essays and articles - on which trivia questions will be based.
The works at the chapter 1 level at this point in the season include “Being Brave at Night,” a poem by Edgar Guest about a young child grappling with nightly nightmares, “The Rough-Face Girl,” a re-telling of Cinderella by Rafe Martin that centers on a disfigured Algonquin girl, and “Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot,” a non-fiction book by Margot Theis Raven that chronicles the Berlin Airlift from the perspective of a seven-year-old girl living in East Berlin.
Some team members will focus on one or two works so that they know them front and back, said Jessica Mucci, who coaches Avon’s chapter 1 and 2 teams. Others will read all the works, she said.
At the end of each half of the season in December and March, teams compete against each other in a round robin format with nearby schools. At the end of the season, division winners advance to a regional competition against the winners of the region’s other divisions.
Mucci, a library media specialist in the Avon Middle School, said she holds team practices about once per week.
“We talk about the books, any questions they have and I quiz them on them,” she said.
This year, Avon’s chapter 1 team has enough students to field two, six-person teams at competitions.
“It really appeals to the kids that aren’t a sportsy type,” Mucci said. “We do have sportsy kids, but it's cool to see how into it they get. The competition is everything for these kids because they don't do sports, they don't have games like that.”
Continued Mucci: “I had a mom call me this morning saying ‘My daughter’s so nervous, she’s prepared so much for this.’ This is their big championship game or their big homecoming game. It’s cool there's something for them.”
At Monday’s meet, Avon’s team 1 at the chapter 1 level earned 22 points and ended the day tied for third place with Caledonia-Mumford’s team 1. Avon’s team 2 came fourth with 19 points. Cal-Mum’s team 2 took first with 26 points while the St. Agnes School’s lone team was close behind with 25.
Avon’s chapter 2 team, which comprises students in grades six through eight, traveled to York Wednesday, Dec. 8 to compete against teams from Byron-Bergen, Cal-Mum, Geneseo and York. Avon ended up in second place 27 points - four behind first place finisher Geneseo. York came third with 25 and Cal-Mum and Byron-Bergen tied for fourth, with 20 points apiece.
Avon’s chapter 3 team, which is open to students in grades nine through 12 and is coached by Suzanne Freeman, the Avon High School’s library media specialist, is slated to compete against teams from Geneseo, Livonia, Pavilion and York on Wednesday, Dec. 15 at Avon.
To learn more about PageTurners, visit the Genesee Valley BOCES website by clicking here.
Members of Avon’s PageTurners team 1 confer on a question just posed to them by Julie Judge, an enrichment specialist with Genesee Valley BOCES who moderates the PageTurners program,during a competition at Avon Monday morning.
A member of Avon’s PageTurners team 1 holds up a blue card, indicating he’s ready to give an answer to Julie Judge, right, an enrichment specialist with Genesee Valley BOCES who moderates the PageTurners program,
Mary Harvey, an enrichment specialist with Genesee Valley BOCES, keeps score during a PageTurners meet at Avon Monday morning.
Members of Avon's chapter 2 PageTurners team compete at York Wednesday. They came away with a second place finish.