Logistics

"If you build it, they will come."

~ from "Field of Dreams"

  

I wrote a letter to my students' parents explaining our quest for fabulous prizes.  I wanted to give them a heads-up that they had the freedom to choose whether or not students will participate in each contest.  It will be a requirement for students to get a signature from their parents or guardians for each contest, but students will receive credit whether or not they receive permission to actually enter.  There are many valid reasons why parents may choose not to have their students' work published. 

I requested a translation for this letter and got a great e-mail from the man who does our Spanish translations.  He said he enjoyed translating the letter and was excited about the project.  He mentioned that he has always liked to write and wished he had been encouraged to publish in this way.  I invited him to do NaNoWriMo with us.  His email made me really happy and confirmed that teaching students about publication is an important part of the writing process.

I spent some time digging through my files to find students of mine who had won writing contests or had been published in the past.  There haven't been many contest winners, because I haven't had students submit that many, but I have a nice long list of NaNoWriMo winners and students who have been published in our school's literary magazine.  I typed up the list and am going to display this in my classroom.  When a student says, "We can't win," I'll point to this list of kids who have done it in the past for inspiration.

Last Friday, I sat down at the computer and looked up several writing contests that colleagues had passed onto me.  Some were for elementary school only, others were for high school only.  I have yet to see a writing contest for middle school kids only.  What's up with that?  I also did some searching for writing contests, which proved to be quite overwhelming.  There are an awful lot of writing contest scams to be wary of.  I came up with a couple of promising choices, however.

Our school has a subscription to "Action Magazine" from Scholastic.  They are having a "Dream Poetry Contest."  There will only be one winner, but it's a simple contest and a good way to get started.  They also have an on-going "Advice Column" contest, which I thought would be fun for my Advisory class to do.  You can find these contests at www.scholastic.com/actionmag


"Teen Ink" magazine is completely comprised of student work: poetry, essays, interviews, opinion, art, etc.  There are no deadlines; they are always accepting work to be published on their website as well as their print magazine.  They only publish students between the ages of 13 and 17, so that is a bummer for my twelve-year-olds.  My PIC (Partner-in-Crime), LaVerna, noticed two contests that fit into things we already do with students.  One is an environmental essay, in which students think up a project that will have a positive impact on the environment and then write it up.  Another is to plan, implement, and write up a community service project.  The FAQs on the site state that these two categories get the least amount of submissions, and are therefore the most promising for publication.  Their website is www.TeenInk.com

Creative Communication has three poetry and three essay contest per year.  They publish anthologies of student work.  No entry fee or purchase of the anthology is required.  I scoured their website and it looks legit.  It is run by professional writers and educators and they award grants to language arts teachers who have fifteen or more students published.  They have divisions broken up into categories - grades 7-9 would be our category.  They also have links to lesson plans, handouts, and resources.  Their website is www.poeticpower.com


All of the contests I have done in the past have included a parent permission slip, but none of these do.  This means I will either be writing (and thus submitting for translation) lots of permission slips, or developing a form letter that I can plug in the details of each contest.

We've been in school only four days, but I already feel great about this batch of students.  They come every day prepared and ready to learn.  The past few years, I've spent the first couple of days doing discipline, but these guys aren't here to fool around.  I'm pretty sure I have some writers on my hands!

Tomorrow we start our Gary Soto unit and we should be submitting to our first contest within the next two weeks!

The Hunt for Fabulous Prizes

"Make voyages!  Attempt them!  There's nothing else."

~ Tennessee Williams

Today I had students complete a writing sample.  I used the QIA Literacy assessment.  I also had students complete a reading interest survey.  These two samples, as well as standardized test scores will be my "pre-test" for the year.

I planned my first unit: an author study of Gary Soto.  I planned a unit that included short stories, poetry, interview, and a novel.  My colleague, Adrianna with the cutest hair ever, dropped by a poetry and essay contest flyer.  I thought it was sort of perfect - after reading Soto's poetry, we could write our own and submit it to our first contest for the year.  Then I got irritated.  Writing poetry and submitting to a contest this early in the school year was not part of the plan.  Then I had to remind myself that this was EXACTLY the plan: to look for opportunities to get published and take advantage of them.  But I already penciled in ALL of the Gary Soto plan into my new cute planner. . .

This is why I haven't been into submitting to contests in the past.  They are difficult to plan for.  Even the ones that occur every year don't always happen at the exact same time.  Last year, knowing that the district Cesar Chavez contest was coming up, I did a three week unit on Chavez.  The contest materials didn't show up until a month later.  By that time, we were on to something else - which we stopped in order to go back to Chavez.  It all worked out fine, but it irritates me.  I like to plan.  I hate when my plan gets interrupted.

This year, however, the plan is to stay flexible with the plan.  That's why the plan is penciled.  It's a challenge for me, but hopefully the pay off will be big.

A word on what I'm looking for in contests:

1.  We won't enter any contest that requires a fee or the purchase of a publication.  There are plenty of free contests.

2.  Contests must award middle school students specifically.  No fair my guys competing against high school students.

3.  Contests must tie to my core curriculum.  Not hard to do, since we are to cover multiple genres with emphasis on narrative and persuasive essay.

4.  If there is an opportunity to publish, so much the better.

5.  We'll take local over national and the smaller the pool of entries, the better.  We're looking to win and I'm not kidding.

If anyone reading this knows of writing contests for middle school students that fit my criteria, please let me know!!!

What the Blog?

"I am just a writer in search of metaphors."

~ Terry Tempest Williams

I always seem to be slightly behind the technological curve. I was the last person I knew to succumb to buying CDs. I was late to get email, late to get a cell phone, late to get an iPod. I can’t figure out “Twitter.” Honest to blog, I burned my first CD just last week. I only recently caught on to what the whole blogging thing is all about. I follow a couple of them and certainly never planned to have one. So what is this one all about? It’s all about providing students with opportunities to write for authentic purposes. So what’s more authentic than a good old-fashioned blog with a real-live audience?

This year I will be asking my students, all English Language Learners, to be taking huge risks with their writing. Specifically, to put their writing out into the world to be read, judged, rejected, and maybe occasionally accepted and published. I’ve always believed that if you give your students an assignment, you’d better be willing to do it yourself. So, this year, as they take risks with their writing, I’ll be taking risks with my own. I will maintain this blog, I will attempt to publish some articles about student writing, and I will pursue my life-long dream of publishing a novel.

Last year, after announcing the second essay contest I required my students to enter, one student groaned, “How come we always gotta do contests?”

(I love adolescents. Twice becomes always.)

This was my response: “Well, this is Language Arts class and we have to write essays. You could write essays to me for a grade, or you could write essays for a contest, get a grade, and possibly win fabulous prizes. Which would you rather do?”

His half-hearted response was, “Write for fabulous prizes, I guess.”