Squadron Line Students On Their Way To New Zealand

On February 3, 2012, four teams of Squadron Line Elementary School sixth
graders participated in the “Kids’ Lit Quiz” at Central Connecticut State
University (CCSU), with one of the teams placing first, garnering them a trip to New Zealand for the world finals.

The reading competition included 28 teams of students in Grades 6-8 from all over the state.

Created in 1991 by Wayne Mills, a professor at the University of Aucklund in New Zealand, the Kids' Lit Quiz is held in several countries around
the world.

Grade 2 teacher Maureen Billings, a faculty advisor for the team,
first learned of the competition while in Auckland presenting at the
International Reading Association (IRA) World Congress. She met Mills there and was invited to help out at CCSU with a trial run of the Kids' Lit Quiz with students from New Britain schools last spring. She was excited to invite students from Squadron Line to compete once the decision was made to hold the frst official U.S. competition in Connecticut.

Reading is generally considered to be a quiet pursuit, but at CCSU that day, excitement about reading built to a fever pitch around categories like Cats, Cetaceans, Cities, Clothes, Colors, Folktales, Myth Beings, Powers, Rodents, and Finally. A book was awarded to each team member who won in each of the 10 categories.

Winning first place for Squadron Line School was Andrew Donshik, Eva Kaplinski, Elyse Kassa, and Alyssa Lehman. In third place was the team of Christopher Gastonguay, Kelly Zeilman, Radu Costache, and Julie Sojkowski. Also participating in the competition were Bethany Hunter, James Carew, Devon Murphy, Riley Griffiths, Hannah Earnhardt, Kacey Decker, Grace Oliver, Kendra Gill, and alternate Helena
Vanderbeck.

“The Kids' Lit Quiz at CCSU provided an exciting forum for students
from across the region to participate in a competition designed to value and
applaud their interest in reading," said Billings. "As an educator and member of the Squadron Line School community, it was a joy to observe the teamwork and positive attitudes of the sixth grade students representing our school as they shared their knowledge of literature with their peers. This was certainly a motivational event for the students!”

Billings will accompany the winning team to New Zealand for the world finals the first week in July. They will compete against teams from Scotland (representing the United Kingdom), Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.

Beth Hennessy, a Language Arts Consultant and team advisor, credited the teams’ success not to any “cramming” or special preparation but to a daily approach to reading. “The wide reading they do within their daily reading
workshop at school and at home with the support of their families led to their success," said Hennessy.

Squadron Line School principal Kerry Jones agreed with Hennessy, adding, “As a district and school community, we are committed to developing students' reading skills and habits of mind so they become lifelong readers. With over 10% of our 6th grade students signed up to compete, the Kids' Lit Quiz highlighted our students' enthusiasm for reading as well as family support of reading--from trips to the library and checking daily reading logs to being models of lifelong reading and talking about books with their children.”

Jones could hardly suppress her joy at the students’ achievement. She said, “We appreciate Professor Mills' work to promote reading "cool" and worthy of recognition,” adding, “A trip to New Zealand—wow!"