Updates

My five published poets will each receive a copy of the Creative Communications Anthology.  I also ordered a copy for the school library and I will receive a free one for having five published students (yay! I won  a prize!)  The students will also receive a certificate at the end of the year Awards Assembly.

I have been putting together a book of writing contest submissions for my 4th period class, since they have entered the most contests.  The book will feature all fourteen contests (12 required, 2 optional) and each student in the class will have two submissions printed.  I'm having the books printed through blurb.com.  I will order them tomorrow and will have my fingers crossed that they get here before the end of the school year!  I'm excited to have all of my students see their work in print.  Hopefully they are secretly proud of themselves, in addition to being monumentally irritated with me about the amount of work they've had to do this year!

Also, students' test scores are starting to roll in.  I've started an analysis of last year's writing scores compared to this year's scores.  I will be posting my findings soon, but I can tell already that there is a significant difference.

More Winners!!!!

Yesterday I had the privilege of informing SEVEN of my students that they would be speakers at this year's 8th grade promotion celebration! 

Contest #15: Take Action!

Contest:  Scholastic's "Action Magazine's" Take Action!

Genre:  Advice column

Theme:  Respond to one of 12 prompts

Prize: free t-shirt

Publication:  Advice Column of Action Magazine

Odds of winning:  one student per month

I promised my fourth period that this would be their last contest.  Fourth period has participated in twelve contests this year and they have about had it.  It's been fun, though.  I don't know if I'll ever do that many with one class again, but it was a great experience for me to test out what I liked and didn't like about each contest and to see their writing approve.  

Action Magazine has an advice column in each issue.  The website provides twelve prompts, such as "your friend is having a sleep over party, but you have a lot of homework to do," or "you find a wallet with cash and no ID."  Students have a specific format to follow to offer their advice to peers who may find themselves in these situations.  The actual writing is quite short, but it's a great exercise in following directions, since the format of the responses is so specific.  I had all my 8th graders participate and 4th period didn't mind SO much.  Plus, who doesn't love a free t-shirt?!

Writing and Reading Challenge for Next Year

This place seems as good as any to write about my ideas for next year.  Writing contests have really inspired me to increase the rigor in my classroom.  It is also the goal of the Language Arts Department to increase rigor for all students.  We've been talking a lot about homework.  As a department, we've decided to require 100 minutes of reading outside of class, since research shows this is the number one way for students to increase reading ability, vocabulary, spelling, writing, etc.  It's also easy for students to do independently and easy for teachers to grade.  Our hope is that by making it a school-wide policy, it will be easier to get the word out to advisory teachers, support staff, and parents.  The more adults that can encourage students to get their homework done, the more likely it will be for them to get it done.

I wanted to do something similar for my ELD classes.  I decided to have them write for homework - a journal or a blog or something along those lines.  I'm looking into setting up a blog on a UEN page that students can respond to each week.  Posting writing on Facebook may also be an option.  Things I already do, NaNoWriMo, Script Frenzy, will fit nicely into a plan like this.

Even with these two things in place, there always seem to be parents and students who want more homework and definitely students who can also use additional challenges.  I have an idea for two different challenges.

1.  The Reading Challenge: Students would be required to read ten books and write a book review for each book.  (I have a form for a Blog book review that I would use).  Each book would have to be from a different genre: non-fiction, biography/autobiography, anthology of poetry, historical fiction, science fiction/fantasy, etc.  The idea would be that students would be exposed to a wide variety of literature.  They could use the time spent reading for their reading logs.

2.  The Writing Challenge:  Enter ten different writing contests.  I would compile a top ten of contests that we've tried.  Some of the contests will be class assignments, but some contests would have to be entered on students' own time.  Students would write in a variety of genres and attempt to publish their work.

I was thinking of some different recognitions to honor students who complete one or both of the challenges.  They would definitely get recognized at our end of the year awards assembly.  Possibly we could take a field trip to McDonald's, or get a guest speaker from a published author, or some other cool prize. 

Missed opportunity

Contest:  Utah Chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education: Narratives of Bravery and Hope

Genre:  Essay

Theme:  What makes Utah home?  What challenges have your faced in making Utah home and how have those challenges made you grow? be brave? have hope?

Prize: $1000 college scholarship

Publication:  Essay booklet available to the public

Odds of winning:  Five winners in Utah (2 middle school; 3 high school)

For more information:  www.utahname.org

I am so mad!!!!!  I can not believe I missed this contest.  It was due February 18 and I only just remembered it a couple of weeks ago.  I had all my students enter last year and though none of them won the contest, I learned so much about them from their essays, that I compiled them all into a book for my faculty.  Many teachers told me that they appreciated the essays (the theme was "what makes you diverse living in Utah?")  It was amazing to read how acutely aware students are of their differences in race, nationality, language, and ability.  (Not one single student wrote about being a different religion).  This contest is catered so specifically to my students that it was one of the reasons I decided to have students enter more contests. 
So, how did I forget?  Well, I didn't get a flyer this year, like I did last year.  And January and February were so busy with so many other contests that it didn't occur to me to look for more.
Even though we missed the deadline, I am considering having my students write the essays anyway, just because I want to hear what they have to say.  I could make a second book for the faculty as well. 
I am writing about this to vent my anger and to remind myself to do this one next year.
As I'm getting toward the end of the school year, I've been reflecting on this process.  It has been a lot of work, but worth it in so many ways.  Having reflected on each contest will help me decide which ones I will do in the future with which students.  I don't think it makes sense to do ALL contests with ALL students, but since I will have most students for two periods next year, it won't hurt to have a lot of options and spread the contests around.
Anyway, trying to get over this missed opportunity . . . that theme is so good, though, will definitely use that prompt in the future!!

Contest #14: Promotion Speeches

Contest:  Bryant Middle School 8th Grade Promotion

Genre:  Speech

Theme:  Step by Step

Prize: to be a promotion speaker with all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto

Publication:  Commencement exercises - June 8,  2011

Odds of winning:  I can almost guarantee that at least one of my students will win this one!

 The second year I taught ESL, I had a student right and audition to be a promotion speaker.  She asked me to help revise and edit her speech, but otherwise she did all on her own.  In her speech, she explained how she started Bryant Middle School as a 7th grader without speaking one word of English and there she was, just two years later, giving a speech on the stage in front of the student body, faculty, and parents.  It was a big hit and every year since, I've been asked to find one or two speakers from my program to speak at promotion.
Over the years, it has been a great experience for many students.  I've had a speaker from my program almost every single year.
This year, in keeping with our writing contest theme, I decided to have every single 8th grader write a speech.  I offered extra credit to them if they would audition.  Twelve of my students auditioned. 
In total, seventeen students auditioned, and although most of the speeches are quite short, it's impossible to have that many speakers at promotion.  We decided to have callback auditions this Friday and look for the students who are most prepared.
I've been talking to my students about the callback auditions.  Some students started out doing this simply for the extra credit, but now most genuinely want to speak.  It's going to be a difficult decision, but we will get as many students on the stage as we possibly can.
Did I mention their speeches are amazing?

Updates

Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week.  I gave copies of the essays from the Barnes and Noble and Borders Contests to the teachers that had essays written about them.  Of course, it was a hit.  It's a great way to publish student writing and to share their appreciation with their teachers.

My ELD class is still Script Frenzying even though April is over.  Rather than just write a script, students are actually making graphic novels.  The first student finished today and we are trying to wrap this thing up by Friday.  I took photos of the students for their "About the Author" page.  I think their books are going to turn out pretty cool.  They have great stories and most of them are working really hard on their finished products.

WINNERS!!!!

I received a letter today that five of my students have been invited to publish their poetry from the "Creative Communications" Poetry Contest.  I wrote about this contest in earlier blogs.  It was one I researched quite a bit and debated whether or not to enter.  The organizations invites to students to publish and offers for them to purchase the anthology they are published in.  It's not a scam.  Students can publish without purchasing a book, however I was concerned about setting students up for this kind of thing when the books may cause a financial burden on students.  Ultimately I decided to do because of my determination to try out every contest.  You never how it will pan out if you don't try, right?  Frankly, we lost so many in a row, I didn't really expect anyone to win this.  Now we have five!!  (Just to show you how subjective these things are, one of my favorite poems that was submitted was NOT a winner - there's just no guessing what's going to win and what's not!)
If all five students get permission to publish, I get a free book, which I will either give to one of the students or donate it to the school library - haven't decided which.  Either way, I'm excited for the students.  It's a great boost.  "Creative Communications" proclaims that this is their primary purpose - to encourage students to keep writing.  In that, I believe, this experience will be successful.

Contest #13: Kobo My Favorite Teacher Contest

Contest:  Kobo "My Favorite Teacher Contest"

Genre:  Essay

Theme:  Who is your favorite teacher and why

Prize: Kobo Wireless eReader for you and your favorite teacher

Publication:  None

Odds of winning:  Unknown, but the contest is open to all of the U.S. and Canada

For more information:  www.yourfavoriteteacher.com

This contest is for Borders' celebration of Teacher Appreciation Week.  Because it is similar to the Barnes and Noble Contest and it fell during CRT testing, I offered it up for extra credit.  I got twelve submissions!  I'm glad it was only twelve because they had to be entered through email, which meant I had to type them all - no computer access this week for students due to testing.  I can't wait to give each teacher at our school the essays that have been written about them. 

I had two rejection notices this week.  One student contest that I was quite sure we get some recognition from and one that I had entered in order to get a grant for our school.  Rejection is hard, but I share my own rejection notices with my students to let them know you don't win 'em all and you have to keep entering and trying if you ever hope to win won.

I've been thinking lately about all this competition surrounding writing.  On one hand, it is an incentive, but competition is like playing with fire.  It could just as easily discourage if not handled in just the right way.  My students don't seem dismayed at not having won more.  I hope that is how they feel about it.  As more optional contests are coming up, I'm thrilled to see students step up to the challenge.

Anyway, just a couple more contests to go as the school year winds down.  It has been quite a journey, so far.

Contest #12: Script Frenzy

Contest:  Script Frenzy (brought to you by the creators of NaNoWriMo)

Genre:  Graphic Novel

Theme:  Anything you like!

Prize: Serious bragging rights, certificate, your own book

Publication:  Only if you want to share!

Odds of winning:  Everyone can be a winner!

For more information:  www.scriptfrenzy.org

So it occurred to me last week that my first period English Language Development class does not take the CRTs during first period and seriously needs a project.  We've been doing mini, disjointed lessons for awhile now and they need something challenging and fun.  I've decided to have them each write a graphic novel for Script Frenzy.  Rather than coming up with page count goals, I broke the project down into ten assignments.  I got a chart and buttons from the Script Frenzy Young Writer's Program.  For each assignments students do, they will receive a star on the chart.

As an example, I read aloud Toni and Slade Morrison's "Who's Got Game?  The Lion or the Mouse," an adaptation of the fable.  They enjoyed it.  I also showed them some examples of graphic novels and it got a couple of students really excited and brainstorming right away.

So far we have developed characters, setting, and conflict.  We complete plot charts.  We have a few more prewriting activities before we start writing a script.  Once scripts are completed, students will actually draw their books, color them if they choose, and ink them.  Naturally, I have to make my own book.  I plan to use the first act of my screenplay for my graphic novel.  I am not looking forward to drawing my book at all, but of course if they do it, I have to do it, too.

I just ordered a classroom set of "Alia's Mission," a graphic novel about the true story of a librarian in Iraq who saved 40,000 books before the library was bombed.  We will be reading this as a class once our own books are finished.

I'm glad to be taking a break from writing contests with my fourth period.  I have warned them that we have at least two or three more contests before the year is done!

Contest #11: Creative Communication

Contest:  Creative Communication Poetry Contest

Genre:  Poetry

Theme:  Anything you like!

Prize: Multiple Cash Prizes, teacher grants, free anthology

Publication:  Anthology containing winning essays and poetry

Odds of winning:  The website boast hundreds of winners

For more information:  www.poeticpower.com

 

Fourth period is getting a little sick of the "Writing for Fabulous Prizes" project.  They really balked at this one.  Only half the students brought back permission slips to enter.  We reviewed free verse and rhyming poetry and I asked the students to write one of each on any subject they chose.  They whined.  They cried.  They refused.

Then we saw a one-man play about Cesar Chavez.  The writer and performer of this play comes on stage as various characters and tells the story of Cesar Chavez.  In between acts, his wife plays the guitar and sings.  It was a beautiful performance and the students seemed to enjoy it.  We used the play as a spring board for our poems, revisiting the conversations we have had about social justice, Cesar Chavez, and Martin Luther King, Jr.  This time the students really talking about the immigration issues that Utah is currently grappling with.  Every student wrote interesting and thought-provoking free verse poems.

The easiest way to submit these poems was through email.  I used my own email address and got confirmation letters addressed to each student.  This was a little exciting for the students to get a response that their poem had been received and when it would be judged.  It was a nice bonus for the students who went to the trouble to bring their permission slips in.

Optional Contest: Saanii Novel Publishing Contest

Contest:  Saanii Publishing

Genre:  novel (memoirs, short story collections, other novel-length entries accepted)

Theme:  Anything goes!

Prize: The winning student will receive a copy of his/her novel in book form

Publication:  Copies of the winning novel will be placed in the Bryant school library as well as Bryant Language Arts classrooms

Odds of winning:  One Bryant Bobcat will win

Last year, Saanii Publishing published the memoir of one of students.  This year, they have opened up the contest to look for another book to publish.  I distributed the permission slip on Friday and approximately twenty students showed interest.  This is one contest we are sure to win, so I will keep you posted!

Optional Contest: Script Frenzy

Contest:  Script Frenzy (brought to you by the creators of NaNoWriMo)

Genre:  Script (movie, TV, stage play, graphic novel, comic book, etc.)

Theme:  Anything you like!

Prize: Serious bragging rights, certificate, extra credit in Ms. Stimpson's Language Arts Class

Publication:  Only if you want to share!

Odds of winning:  Everyone can be a winner!

"Script Frenzy" is a challenge to write a script in thirty days.  A participant may choose any theme and any script-related genre.  This is the first year I will participate, thanks to my husband who convinced me to try it.  I shared the idea with my students and several of them are interested.  This week, I plan to have lunchtime meetings for students who are interested in doing this independently.  (Doing it as a class project would be much to difficult with end-of-the-year testing going on in April).  I would love to have a small group of students to meet occasionally during the month of April to share ideas and support one another.  I have offered extra credit to any student who participates and will award points based on amount and quality of work.

Personally, I am struggling to decide between a movie screenplay and a series of TV scripts.  I have ideas for both.  One thing I am certain of, this writing project I am going to focus on comedy.  I've never tried writing a pure comedy and I think this will be a good opportunity to try my hand at it.  They say comedy is more difficult to write than drama and I believe it.  Here's to writing challenges!

Contest #10: Barnes and Noble

Contest:  Barnes and Noble: "My Favorite Teacher Contest"

Genre:  Essay, poem, or letter (though I am requiring a persuasive essay in preparation for the DWA)

Theme:  How has your favorite teacher inspired you?

Prize: Students: certificate and recognition at a Teacher Appreciation Event at Barnes and Noble

Teachers: cash, gift certificates, books for their classroom, recognition at Teacher Appreciation Event, author visit from Laurie Halse Anderson, a NOOK

Publication:  Winning essays will be bound and presented to the teacher who is the subject of the essay.  Essays may be read aloud at the Teacher Appreciation Events

Odds of winning:  Each Barnes and Noble store will have their own events and will award prizes.  The largest prizes are nation-wide winners.

Okay, okay, this contest may be a little self serving.  Naturally, I hope to be named as my students' "Favorite Teacher."  I'm not requiring that they write about me, though.

Since the "District Writing Analysis" is coming up this week, I have turned this essay contest into a review of the six paragraph persuasive essay.  On Thursday, the eighth graders will sit at the computer and be given a prompt.  They will choose a side and compose a six paragraph essay in response.  This is an untimed test, but students must complete the entire process independently.  I will be comparing this year's scores with last year's as another piece of data about whether or not entering writing contests as improved student test scores.

The students have now finished the essay contest as well as the DWA.  Thanks to help from my student teacher, Emily Primrose, we submitted 37 entries to the Barnes and Noble Essay Contest.  What was really exciting this week, however, was watching the 8th graders take the "DWA," the state-wide writing assessment.  I'm not sure I should disclose the topic of the assessment, but let's just say it was directly related to one of the contests we'd entered and I was pretty excited that the students' had so much to say.  Every single  one of my 8th graders wrote an essay of six paragraphs - some of them even indented their paragraphs which made me weep with joy.  Looking forward to seeing these test scores!  Write on!

Contest #9: Kylie Klein

Contest:  2011 Kylie Klein Writing Competition

Genre:  Essay

Theme:  "If I Could Meet Anyone, It would Be"

Prize:  $100 cash

Publication:  No publication, thus no permission slips.  That makes things a bit easier.  More information at www.kylieklein.com

Odds of winning:  One winner in each state, but only 6th-8th graders are invited to participate.

Kylie Klein is a local author, editor, and public speaker who hosts this contest each year.  She strongly encourages email submissions, so as my students have been finishing their essays, I've been typing them into my own email for submission.  A lot of typing, but not much more work than keeping track of permission slips, etc.

This essay was highly structured: four paragraphs with specific information requested.  This helped students structure their essays and gave us a lot of opportunity to talk about adding detail and specific information.  I required three examples for each paragraph and most students' essays reached the two to three page mark (typed). 

The speed at which students are writing is improving.  The quality of ideas is improving.  Spelling, grammar, punctuation are going through the roof.  Some of my students' handwriting is actually improving, too.  This is by far the best caliber of writing I have ever gotten.  Less griping over the writing portion on the UALPA this year.  Hopefully, those scores will improve - I will keep you posted.

Contest #8: Cesar Chavez

Contest:  Salt Lake City School District's:  2011 Cesar Chavez Creative Expression Art and Language Arts Competition

Genre:  Essay or Poetry (Ms. Pierce will handle the visual arts portion)

Theme:  "Leaders for Justice in our Community and World"

Prize: Certificates, publication, banquet.

Publication:  www.slcschools.org, winning students will be invited to read their work aloud at a celebration

Odds of winning:  ALL participants will receive a certificate for entering - LOVE THAT!

This contest is exclusive to our school district, so it is a much smaller scale.  It's also a topic that is near and dear to my very large Latino population - Cesar Chavez.  Last year, three of my students received honorable mentions in their categories and one student, a student who had been learning English for just six months, had his essay published in a district newsletter.  This contest was a major influence in my decision to take on this project this year.  My students enjoyed participating in this contest and were so excited that we had winners and got certificates.

Because of the overlapping time frames with the "ICE" contest, we had to knock this one out in just four days.  I am so proud to say that every single one of my students wrote a rough draft and typed their final draft.  All but one student had their essays submitted to the contest.  

Last Friday, I drove the ICE submissions to the National Energy Foundation and the Cesar Chavez submissions to the school district.  It was hectic pulling them all together on the same day and running them around town, but it was fun.  The students are getting better at this process and I'm getting more organized about it, too.  They groan every time I mention a new contest, but there is less and less dragging of feet to get them done.  The quality of writing is, of course, improving, too.  

Shout out to Jody Brings and Emily Pierce who had their students participate in the challenge as well.  Emily and I share many students, so there were several who did art and essay submissions.  Special thanks to my assistant, Carol Kelly, for helping glue and paperclip all the entry forms to the essays.

This next week is the UALPA, the state English test for English Language Learners.  I can NOT wait to see how their writing scores improve.  We also have two more writing contests coming up with deadlines just three days apart.  With testing and two contests, I've been debating if I'm taking on too much by trying to do both contests.  Since I'm still just working with one class of twelve students, I've decided to take it on.  Why not?  Maybe someone will win a fabulous prize!

Contest #7: Igniting Creative Energy

Contest:  National Energy Foundation Igniting Creative Energy National Student Challenge

Genre:  Project can take any form and must include a one-page explanation

Theme:  Explore new and creative ways to conserve energy and water.  Communicate those ideas to others.

Prize:  Grand prize is a trip to D.C.

Publish:  http://www.ignitingcreativeenergy.org/guidelines1.html

Odds of winning:  One middle school winner in all of United States and Canada

I did this challenge two years ago after a major conservation unit.  The unit went well, but the challenge didn't go as well.  I didn't structure it very well and most students didn't complete a project.  This time around the unit was much much shorter (spending most of our time doing other writing contests) but the challenge went better.  Again I had twelve students participating; six of them completed the entire challenge and submitted to the contest.  These students will receive certificates at our school awards assembly.

After we finished our projects, we took a field trip to the city landfill and took a tour.  It was a great field trip and they had tons of projects displayed in their classroom.  The students were inspired and had lots of ideas for projects after we left.  Next year, I will take the students to the landfill before I assign the project.  I think they will have more ideas and be inspired to work on bigger and better projects.  I must say that I was proud of my students on the tour.  They were upset at the large amounts of recyclable materials they could see in the landfill and it did inspire them to communicate what they had learned to friends and families.  I think my class of twelve will do a school project, although it will be too late for the contest.

This is a contest I want to try and do every year.  My students seem to really like conservation as a topic and I have a lot of materials to teach through a grant I participated in.  This challenge is a great culmination to the unit, if I can ever make it all work together . . .

Contest #6: Do the Write Thing Challenge

Contest:  Utah's Eleventh Annual Do the Write Thing Challenge

Genre:  Essay or poem

Theme:  The impact of youth violence in our community and what can be done about it.

Prize:  Certificates, publication, recognition luncheon, two student from Utah will win a trip to D.C.

Publication:  Booklet of essays available at www.juvenile.utah.gov (top essays will be published and placed in the Library of Congress

Odds of winning:  12 winners in the state of Utah

I had students participate in this challenge about three years ago.  I had three students receive honorable mention, which included a certificate signed by the governor.  

In January, I had a student teacher take over the majority of my classes, so I had only fourteen students participate in the challenge this year.  It was very difficult as it was a topic that hit close to home for most of them.  We read a lot of examples, had a lot of discussion, and I brought in a guest speaker from the Colors of Success program to help.  One student said, "C'mon, Stimpson, give us any other topic and we'll write it.  This one is just too hard."  That comment made me realize how important it was for us to keep going and with the project.

During the last week of the challenge, the Arizona shooting happened.  On a day I was absent, my assistant, Stephanie Hunt had the magic words to unlock their pens.  They wrote about the tragic shooting, they wrote about their own lives, they wrote about how they could be voices against violence in their communities, in the hallways, in their essays.  

Only about seven students actually brought signed permission slips, but I feel extremely confident that some of them will receive some recognition.  Their essays are heartbreaking and beautiful.  

This one was a real bonding experience for all of us.  I appreciate the adult help I got on this one.