Yesterday, students across Georgia participated in the East Regional Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl!
The Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl is an annual state-wide reading competition with the goal of encouraging students to read. Students grades 4-12 are expected to read a set number of books, compete for spots on their school’s team, and then after much practice, participate in local, regional, and statewide competitions. Yesterday’s event featured the third round of this competition, the regional competitions, in which the winners from each of Georgia’s six regions advanced to the State Reading Bowl final.
The Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl was created by the competition’s namesake in 1986. Helen Ruffin was an innovative Library Media Specialist at Sky Haven Elementary School in DeKalb County when she decided to create a unique reading competition for her students. Named The Reading Bowl, it employed a competitive game format to quiz students on the content of the 20 Georgia Book Award Nominees annually. Her vision was to create teams, consisting of students from various schools, engaging in friendly competition to assess their knowledge of the chosen books.
In 2000, following Ruffin’s retirement, a group of Library Media Specialists established the DeKalb County Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl, and, as news of this distinctive reading initiative spread, other school districts in Georgia expressed interest in joining the competition. In the 2003-2004 academic year, the Georgia Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl (HRRB) Steering Committee was formed, consisting of members from The Georgia Association of Educators and the Georgia Library Media Association.
Over the past few years, more than 600 schools across Georgia have conducted local competitions within their school districts and have registered online for regional competitions.
Recently, for the 2024 season, local Atlanta schools competed at the Metrowide Region competition, which was held on January 20. There are three divisions for the Reading Bowl: Elementary School (grades 4-5), Middle School (grades 6-8), and High School (grades 9-12). While the elementary and middle schoolers have 10 books to read (each, respectively), the high schoolers have a list of 20 books they must complete. The top two Elementary schools, as of January 27, Toomer Elementary and E. Rivers, advanced to another round, where they competed yesterday for spots in the state-wide championship. Last year, Kemp, Smith, and Drew won first, second, and third place, respectively, meaning this year has brand new competition.
The State HRRB will take place on March 23 in a virtual format using Zoom. The teams advancing have yet to be announced.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story misstated the name of E. Rivers Elementary School.
