Who Was Helen Ruffin?
Helen Ruffin was a media specialist in Dekalb county, Georgia. In order to encourage her students to read more, she created a competition game based on the Georgia Children's Book Award Nominees. This is how the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl came to be. The HRRB is a unique reading competition. In Georgia, the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl is open to students in grades 4-12.
Who can compete? When are the competitions?
The reading bowl is opened to all 4th and 5th grade students who like to read and compete. The students meet once a week to discuss the books and to have friendly competitions using our buzzers for practice.
District wide (WCSD) competition is held in January on a Saturday morning. The top two teams then go to regionals to compete with schools across the region. This is held two weeks after the district competition. The top two winners at regionals then move on to the state competition.
Rules and Expectations:
- The students are expected to read as many of the 10 books assigned for the elementary level.
- The students are expected to attend as many meetings as possible.
- The students are expected to write up to 10 questions per book to help memorize facts from the book.
- The students are expected to have a positive attitude and cooperate with team members and sponsors