IRC

What Do You Know About IRC? By: Hanna Hennigan, Abbie Welty , a n d Heather Rummings

Have you ever wondered what the Interscholastic Reading Competition is really like? You may already know that you read books, write down questions, and then you answer them. But there actually is a lot more to it. There’s picking team names, designing the t- shirts, and the raising money at the hot chocolate fundraiser!

Did you know that the competition is held at Hughesville High School on Saturday April 16th this year? The competitors have to read as many books as they can out of a list of about 50 pre-chosen book titles. This is the first year Mrs. Zielewicz is coaching IRC. She is taking the place of Mrs. Puller who decided not to coach this year. Mrs. Puller has formerly coached for seventeen years! The first IRC competition was held around the early 1990’s. The best part of all, if you win first, second, or third, you could win a trophy! At the competition, there are two moderators per room. Each team has twenty seconds to answer the question. The moderators give out forty questions per round. Each team has a round name, either Team A or Team B, and a team captain. The captain answers by saying “Our final answer is…” or, if it is a very long answer, they say, “I designate (this person) to answer.” If a team does not know the answer, the other team has a chance to steal in the final round, and they will get the points if they get it right. In the end of the round, the team with the most points wins.

This year, Mrs. Flerlage and Mrs. Zielewicz chose both of the IRC teams. They look at the students who sign up and choose the ones who are hard-working and good readers. Both of the wonderful coaches feel both teams will succeed in the competition this year. For the first time ever in recent years, Mrs. Flerlage and Mrs. Zielewicz have decided to have two teams this year because so many good readers signed up! Mrs. Flerlage feels great about Mrs. Z. coaching with her this year, but she feels losing Mrs. Puller is like losing a much needed dictionary in the middle of an important test! Mrs. Flerlage has been coaching for three years. Mrs. Puller started when the old principal, Mrs. Birt, wanted the school to get involved and Mrs. Puller wanted to coach.

The IRC members (both fifth and sixth grade) are absolutely excited about the competition because they think it will be fun and thrilling. The majority of the number of books read is three, but Alyssa Sauers has read five and Ally Smith has read nine! Most of the kids signed up because they thought it would be fun, and they love to read. Almost all of the kids think they have a very high chance of winning the IRC competition this year.

So, as you can see, there is A LOT more to IRC than just reading the books and writing down questions. Perhaps this will make YOU want to sign up next year!