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.