Chester County Reading Olympics

Moderator Responsibilities

Each team must provide one faculty member who will serve as a moderator or scorekeeper during the event. The Reading Olympics Committee assigns who will be moderator or scorekeeper. The moderator reads the questions and judges the answers. He/she should be familiar with all contest rules and feel responsible for assisting with the orderly operation of the event. He/she may confer with the scorekeeper in judging answers or enforcing rules. Parents are invited to attend the Reading Olympics as spectators. They may not interfere in the questioning or scoring processes.
  1. Attend Moderator/Scorekeeper Meeting
    A meeting will be held for moderators and scorekeepers to review these responsibilities and to distribute role assignments. Attendance is mandatory.

  2. Check In
    On the night of the event, teams are advised to not arrive before 5:30 p.m. to allow ample time for the Reading Olympics Committee to set up. Moderators and scorekeepers, however, may arrive sooner, just notify a staff member and you will be let into the building. Check in at the Registration table and proceed to your assigned room.

  3. Assigned Classroom
    The moderator is assigned to one room for all three rounds. He/she is in charge of the room and the adjacent hallway. The moderator should direct the teams and spectators in arranging the room so that teams can confer among themselves without providing an advantage to the opponents. Classroom displays, desks, computers, etc. should NOT be disturbed. Any Olympian found disrespecting school property will no longer be able to participate the rest of the evening, and will not receive a ribbon.

  4. Round One
    Prior to beginning round one, remind all participants and spectators of the following rules:

    • Be courteous of school and student property in all the rooms and hallways.
    • Remember to properly dispose of all water bottles or any other items in trash receptacles.
    • Team chaperones should not let students leave the room until the end of Rounds 1 and 2 are announced. Not all teams finish at the same time and the hallways should be kept quiet to not disrupt those teams still in session. Bathroom breaks should be taken in small groups of two or three students.

    Introduce yourself to the students parents and reiterate the purpose of the event - to have fun! Explain the question procedure and do one practice question. Round one has an extra five minutes to account for these announcements and those who may be running late.

    Before beginning each round, the moderator must:

    1. Verify the correct teams are present and the scorekeeper is ready to begin
    2. Count the number of students on each team
    3. Identify the team captain and team chaperone
    4. Identify a spectator to keep track of time if the scorekeeper does not have an appropriate watch
    5. Flip a coin to determine which team will answer first


  5. Question Procedure

    • Shuffle questions (Packets labeled by Round)
    • Read each question once, clearly and slowly; if requested by team, repeat question
    • Teams have 20 seconds to answer (scorekeeper keeps track of time)
    • Team captains answers for their teams; they may also identify another student to answer
    • If a student other than the team captain blurts out an answer, the moderator should say, “I must have the answer from the captain, please,” without any indication that the answer is right or wrong.
    • If the correct answer is given, the questioning moves to the next team
    • If the incorrect answer is given, the other team has the opportunity to answer
    • Question is not re-read; other team must answer immediately
    • The answer is verified from the question card, answer does not have to be verbatim
    • Moderator’s decision is final
    • Refer any audience concerns/comments to Reading Olympics staff
    • Questions alternate between the teams so each team gets the opportunity to answer first 20 times.

    The same questions are asked of all teams in each round. However, each question packet contains more than 40 questions. For example, if the moderator inadvertently reads the answer instead of the question, or if the bottom part of the question has been cut off, this question should be disregarded and replaced with one of the “extra” questions. To ensure fairness to all, neither moderators nor team members may decide to eliminate a question because a book has not been read, the question appears difficult or confusing, etc.

    Quiz cards contain questions with detailed answers and verification information. This information has been provided in order to assist the moderator who may not have read the book. Unless the quiz card specifically states that an entire phrase or word must be included, students do not have to give the answer exactly as it is stated on the card. They may give any reasonable part of the answer or answer with synonymous terms as long as they have the correct concept of the question and answer. If an answer is close, the moderator should give the team the opportunity to answer correctly by saying, “Is there something more you would like to say?” or “Could you please clarify your answer?”

  6. Bye Rounds

    If an uneven number of teams register, it is necessary to assign only one team to a room for a round. If this should happen, that team has a Bye Round. The following are special instructions to follow if only one team is present in a room for a round. Moderators are asked to explain this procedure to the team.

    • The moderator will ask the team 20 questions. Obviously, the team will not have the opportunity to gain bonus points by answering questions that their opponents answered incorrectly. At the end of the twenty questions, the scorekeeper will tally the correct answers and record the score on the score card indicating that this is a Bye Round. Since this team will undoubtedly finish early, the moderator may ask the team additional questions. However, these extra questions cannot be counted toward the team’s score. These extra questions are for fun and practice only.
    • At the end of the third round, the team will have the choice of their actual score for the Bye Round or an average of their scores for the other two rounds.

    For example, assume a team scores 18 points in Round 1, 15 points in Round 2 (Bye Round), and 10 points in Round 3. They may choose either:

    18 (Round 1) +15 (Bye Round) +10 (Round 3) = 43 total points

    OR

    18+10 (scores of Rounds 1 and 3) = 28 + 14 (1/2 of 28), the average of Rounds 1 and 3 instead of the Bye Round score, = 42 total points

    This team should choose the first option, the Bye Round score, for the higher total.

 

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