Contest #4: USOE's 27th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Essay Contest

Contest:  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Essay Contest

Genre:  Essay

Theme:  What impact has Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s legacy of community service had on your vision for the future, and what can you do to be responsible in your community?

Prize:  1st place: $125; runner-up: $50 (Attend Keynote Address and Luncheon)

Publication:  Contest info. doesn't report anything, but I have heard previous year's winning essays read on various radio stations during Black History Month

Odds of winning:  one middle school winner in the state of Utah, 4 runner-ups from grades 7th - 12th
For more information:  http://www.schools.utah.gov/equity/DOCS/mlk-essay-packet.aspx

 

This contest is a very big deal at our school.  Our school has had a recent grand prize winner and a history of submitting numerous entries.  This year's theme ties nicely into things we've been talking about at school.  "Responsibility" was our theme in Advisory class last month and community service is an on-going emphasis at our school.  Social justice is always an important topic in my classroom and one I enjoy talking about with students.  I haven't always been into writing contests, but I have had students enter this one numerous times in the past.

However, now that we do NaNoWriMo, the MLK Essay Contest comes at a very, very bad time.  I was hoping to get the contest information early enough this year to do something about it, but at the moment, it's just not possible.  We are so pressed for time as November is rapidly approaching.  

 

Because this essay contest is important and because of my quest to enter as many contests as possible, I decided to have my advisory class participate.  It is a tricky thing doing something so heavily academic in Advisory class.  We do not give letter grades in Advisory and it is only a twenty minute period.  Typically, it's difficult to get Advisory classes to buy into this sort of thing without a grade to hold over their heads.  I'm feeling pretty good this year, however, since I've taken the "writing contest" motivational approach as opposed to the "do it for a grade" motivational approach.  Also, I have loaded my Advisory class with eighth graders from my program, so although not all of them are currently my Language Arts students, most of them are and are familiar with this project to enter contests.  I'm going to do a follow-up post to report how this goes.  If it works out, I might try doing more writing contests in Advisory.  We'll just have to see . . .