2017 Southern Tasmanian Reader’s Cup

Steve Martin reports on his experience as a judge and quizmaster in the recent Primary and Secondary Reader’s Cup competitions held in Hobart.

It certainly was a privilege to be involved with this year’s Reader’s Cup, not only as a judge in the Secondary Competition, but also as the Quizmaster in the Primary Competition. Additionally, the enthusiasm was also based on learning about the Reader’s Cup, so it could be copy and pasted to Devonport later this year, then hopefully regionally in 2018.

As a judge, it was extremely interesting, especially when I advised my fellow judges that purposely, I had not read the competition books as I wanted to experience what the students were trying to tell and show me through their presentations, without knowing.

One great example was interpreting the question from Suri’s Wall by Lucy Estela and Matt Ottley; “What did Suri see on the other side of the wall?” with students differing in their answers: -

‘What's there? What can you see?' 'What can I see?' Suri looked out over the wall. 'Oh, it's beautiful, let me tell you all about it.'

Answer 1: Suri described magical kingdoms, golden bridges, majestic ships, shady forests and a circus coming to town. (as was illustrated in the book).

Answer 2: Suri lied, as it was a war-torn city on the other side of the wall. Suri described magical kingdoms to fill the children with hope.

This of course raised some contention as to which answer was right. It was decided that they both were.

Besides answering some quiz questions around the six competition book titles, each school provided a presentation involving props, costumes and all team members. Suri’s Wall certainly featured strongly here with two teams adopting the book theme of “What’s there? What can you see?”, describing and acting out the other five titles. I found this to be insightful, entertaining and importantly the learning that everyone gets something different out of reading, even from the same book.

Congratulations to all who participated in the Reader’s Cup, it certainly is a wonderful event. Now, what do you see over your wall?

Steve Martin
Mayor, City of Devonport
Committee Member CBCA TAS

Editor’s note: The Southern Reader’s Cup is held annually and is open to institutional member schools. Information is provided on the Events section of the website.