Contest #5: NaNoWriMo

Contest:  National Novel Writing Month

Genre:  Novel

Theme:  Anything you want - YES!!

Prize:  a new novel written by you, stickers, buttons, certificates, candy, party in December, increased writing fluency, self-esteem boost, rollicking good time

Publication:  need not be shared, unless the author wants to

Odds of winning:  EVERY SINGLE STUDENT CAN WIN - isn't that the BEST?!
For more information:  http://ywp.nanowrimo.org

 

 This is the writing contest that started it all.  NaNoWriMo.  I have published a couple of articles about last year's experience doing NaNoWriMo with students, so I won't rehash it all here.  Essentially it is a personal challenge to write a novel in thirty days.  I wanted to start recording this year's process and I'll begin with this year's goal: to go BIGGER and BETTER than last year.  I intend to do it in these ways:

1.  EVERY single English Language Learner in my program will write a novel this year.  Last year I only required intermediate and advanced students.  This year, everyone, including the Newbies (what I affectionately call students who have been in the United States for less than one year).  These students are non-speakers of English, and thus, (technically) non-writers.  Don't worry, we have lots of support in place: volunteer tutors, scaffolded worksheets, sugar-laden candy, and proof that it can be done - (thanks to last year's newbies who wrote novels even though I didn't think they could).

2.  More adult participation - last year we had four adults in our building writing novels, this year we are up to about six.  I have another week to convince some more to get on board.

3.  Reading a novel before NaNoWriMo.  Last year I decided to do NaNoWriMo two weeks before November, so there wasn't time to read a novel together before we did it.  Most students had read novels before, but not all of them had.  This year we read "Summer on Wheels" by Gary Soto.  It took a lot longer than I would have liked and we had to barrel through it without many of the assignments I would typically do.  It was a great choice, though, for several reasons.  It's funny, it's realistic, it's got GREAT characters, and it incorporates a LOT of Spanish (and a little French, which my one French speaker really enjoyed).  It has been a great reference as we've started planning our own novels.

4.  Last year's two biggest complaints were: writer's cramp, and counting words, so I booked the library's computer lab for the month of November.  Students can type, handwrite, or a combination of both.  This gives options and options are always good.  I also received a classroom donation of a handful of flashdrives in case students need to move their novel from home to school.

5.  Two more teachers are participating, one at Bryant (mi hermana, Adrianna Jorgensen) and my esteemed colleague, Suzan Lake at East High School.  Last year I shared ideas and pitfalls with teachers on the NaNoWriMo educator forums, but it will be more fun to collaborate with real-live teachers.

6.  Bigger and better December party.  Not sure what this is going to look like this year, but I've promised the NaNo-experienced 8th graders that they could help plan the party.  I'm considering an evening parent night?  Not sure.  We'll have to see . . . 

More posts to come as our pursuit for the 30 day novel begins in just EIGHT days . . .

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 . . .

Contest #3: UCCU's Young Leadership Scholarship

Contest:  Utah Central Credit Union's Young Leadership Scholarhip

Genre:  Narrative Essay

Theme:  "What is the Greatest Lesson You Have Learned in Life?"

Prize:  1st Place: $1,000; 2nd Place: $500; 3rd Place: $250

Publication:  Read aloud at UCCU's annual member meeting in 2011

Odds of winning:  three winners in Salt Lake and Carbon Counties
For more information:  www.utahcentral.com and click on "For Teens" under Life Phases

 

So, it has been a long time since I have posted.  Mostly what we've been up to is reading "Summer on Wheels" by Gary Soto, getting ready for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  I thought it might be nice to read a novel before starting to write our own.  After we finished the novel, I had three days before I wanted to start preparing for NaNoWriMo, so I squeezed in this contest.

I had the students discuss the "life lessons" Hector and Mando learn as they journey on a bike trip from East Los Angeles to Santa Monica.  We then discussed our own life lessons, choosing the most important one to write for this essay.  The essays needed to be typed to be submitted to the contest and we didn't have that kind of time, so I gave them the UEA weekend to type their essays for extra credit.  I was surprised at the number of submissions I received, which told me that many of the students are buying into this writing contest thing.

Special thanks to my student teacher, Emily Primrose, for hand delivering our entries to the credit union!!

Contest #2: Teen Ink Magazine

Contest:  Points of View Essay Contest

Genre:  Persuasive Essay

Theme:  Opinion on a Controversial Topic

Prize:  $200

Publication:  Teen Ink Magazine and EBSCO website

Odds of winning:  two winners chosen every month
For more information:  www.teenink.com

My sevies had to take the Analytic Writing Task, so while they were doing that, I had the eighth graders enter the "Points of View Essay Contest" from "Teen Ink Magazine."  "Teen Ink" is a monthly magazine completely comprised of teenagers' entries.  You must be between the ages of 13 and 19, so that left most of my sevies out.

The seventh grade "Analytic Writing Task" was a persuasive essay, as well.  In the state of Utah, fifth and eighth graders take a persuasive writing test, so there is a big emphasis on persuasive writing.  It was good to get some practice in early in the year.

Poetry Scams and Contests to Avoid

I received a postcard for "Creative Communications" which hosts three poetry and three essay contests each year and divides students into small subcategories so they are competing against their peers.  It's one of those deals where if you win, they try to sell you the anthology that your work is published in.  I've gotten tied up in these before.  Mostly it's just a giant disappointment when you realize probably no one even read your work, they send a form letter to everyone trying to sell books.

I scoured "Creative Communications" website www.poeticpower.com.  It seemed like it was legit.  They are up front in saying that you can buy an anthology, but you don't have to.  They make most of their money from advertising.  They seem like they are legitimately trying to help more students get published. 

I found a great discussion about this contest at the following link.  It's not a scam, but it's not considered highly selective.  I'm still considering whether or not we'll do this one.

http://donsavant.14.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=139

I also found a great list of ways to figure out if a contest is a scam or not.  The link is here.

http://www.winningwriters.com/contests/avoid/av_signs.php
 

Contest #1: Scholastic's "Action Magazine:" Dream Poetry Contest

Contest:  Dream Poetry Contest

Genre:  Acrostic Poem

Theme:  Dreams (not the "at school in your underwear" kind, but the future plans kind)

Prize:  iPod Shuffle

Publication:  Scholastic's Action Magazine

Odds of winning:  just one winner in the whole United States

Ms. Stimpson’s Example:

Do you think someone might

Read my novel and want to sell it

Everywhere: Barnes & Noble,

Amazon.com - even the library!

Maybe some day soon . . .

So, today it began - Writing for Fabulous Prizes - an iPod Shuffle is a pretty fabulous prize.  The kids got really excited about it.  Some even wrote their "dream" poems about how they dream for an iPod!  I wish I could post some of them - they are truly adorable.  I'm going to look into the legality of posting student writing, because they are seriously adorable!

My Own Writing History

"When you are not writing, you are a writer, too."

~ from Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones

I wrote my first book when I was four-years-old.  It's called Beautiful Things and I still have it.  My grandmother helped me to fold and string together construction paper.  I drew illustrations and then dictated the words to her.  It is no great literary work, but I think it proves that I was born to be a writer.  (The fact that I was teaching school to my stuffed animals at age four, also proves I was born to be a teacher).

I had the same teacher for second and third grade, Mrs. Charla Hedgepeth.  She had us write one short story a week.  It was the most fun I had in elementary school and I loved those lessons.  Every Friday, she read a couple out loud.  I still remember that thrill in my tummy when mine was chosen.  I have a couple of those stories and they are rip-offs of whatever I was reading or watching on TV at the time.  Still, the writing isn't half bad.

While in elementary school, I entered several short story contests, but never won.  I did, however, win some art contests.  It baffled me, because even at the age of eight I knew I was a writer, not an artist.  At the age of nine or ten, I decided to get serious.  I emptied out my closet and turned it into a study.  I used an oversized suitcase as a desk and strung the cord to my Raggedy Ann lamp under the door.  I would sit in my study for hours upon hours and write stories.  It was in the closet that I started my first novel, the story of a girl who owns her own horse until the day her parents sell it without consulting her.  The plan was that she would spend the novel going on adventures, trying to retrieve her beloved horse.  I never got past the second chapter.

At the age of twelve, I asked for and received a typewriter for Christmas.  I was convinced that having a typewriter would improve my writing.  The first thing I wrote on my typewriter was the beginning to a science fiction novel (no kidding - science fiction)!  I had an elaborate outline and prologue.  I made a diagram of the system of planets.  The system consisted of several planets, two of which were inhabited by intelligent beings.  One planet was at complete peace, with all of the beings working together in harmony.  The other planet was at war, with many of the problems of planet Earth.  The plan was that the warring planet was depleting its resources and would eventually invade the peaceful planet.  The peaceful beings would have decide whether or not to fight to defend themselves.  I never got past the second chapter.

Toward the end of eighth grade, my middle school counselor invited me to an academic camp for computer technology.  It struck me as odd, because playing "Oregon Trail" was the extent of my interest in computers.  When I declined the offer, she showed me the complete list of academic camps being offered and "Creative Writing" jumped out at me.  I spent the first week of summer vacation in an unairconditioned classroom with Mrs. Judee Stanley and a dozen other fourteen-year-old writers.

I could write an entire blog post about that writing camp.  The highlights were meeting a real-live published author, Magaret Rostkowski, getting some much needed encouragement from someone who wasn't my parents, and seeing my writing in print for the first time.  In one week our writing instructor managed to have us prewrite, peer conference, revise, edit, type, and publish several pieces.  We had our book, "Dream Makers and Future Takers" by Friday afternoon.

That was the summer of 1989.  I attended three more camps that summer and I could write another blog post about each one.  It was definitely my "coming of age."  By the end of the summer, I was inspired to write a novel about my experiences.  I created an outline and wrote several scenes that I hoped to one day insert into my novel.

I began high school with a lot of hope.  My teachers were asking for a lot less creative writing and a lot more expository writing, but I continued to write short stories and work on my "camp" novel.  I started having friends read my work for feedback.  Unfortunately, the feedback I was getting was primarily negative.  Maybe those that were reading my work were trying to be constructive, but everything I heard was very discouraging.  I submitted some work for publication in local contests and the school's literary magazine.  The only thing I ever published was a tiny poem that I had written in about five minutes for a class assignment.  The teacher submitted it without me knowing.  I wasn't at all proud.

I satisfied some of my writing bug by joining the Yearbook Staff my senior year and becoming the Copy Editor, because no one else would do it.  Other than that, I have two creative writing highlights from my high school years.  In Sophomore English I wrote a character sketch.  In addition to a few corrections, my teacher wrote, "I want to know more about your character (in another piece, of course)."  In my senior year, I took AP English from the best English teacher I have ever had, Ms. Jill Flamm.  The first assignment was a descriptive narrative.  I wrote about the first game of softball I played.  She read it aloud to the class.  She never said it was good.  She didn't hand out compliments like that, but I could tell she thought it was and that was enough.

Most of my college years were dedicated to expository writing, but that's important, I think.  I took a creative writing class where I learned a ton.  My classmates never had much positive to say about my writing.  My instructor gave me positive feedback, but I think that was his job.  I started submitting work to the college of humanities literary magazine to no avail.

Once out of college and with a couple of years of teaching under my belt, I had more time to write.  I attempted a novel a couple of times, never getting past the second chapter.  I wrote some poetry for family members that I gave as gifts.  They were appreciated, but your family has to appreciate that sort of thing.  I joined a writing group.  Most of the participants were writing YA fiction.  They gave me some good criticism, but not much in the way of positive reinforcement.  I quit the group.

I started reading "how to write" books.  Most scared me into not writing anything.  There were too many rules I couldn't seem to follow - avoid cliches, write every morning, write what you know.  There was too much conflicting advice - begin at the beginning/start in medias res, use adverbs/don't use adverbs, describe/but not too much.  The books froze me up - too terrified of making a mistake to do anything.

Then I found Chris Baty's "The Novel Writing Kit" on the budget rack at Barnes and Noble.  It had an abbreviated version of his book, "No Plot? No Problem!" which I promptly bought and read cover to cover - twice!  This was it!  This was what I needed.  Here was someone saying, You know how to do this.  Stop looking for advice and DO IT - do it fast and do it without fear!

In May/June of 2009, I wrote my first complete novel in thirty days.  It was exhilarating!  I'm still riding the high!  I've revised and edited my first novel into its fourth draft.  I've written a second novel and will be writing my third in November.  I've found my own writing process.  I don't write in the morning and I don't write every day.  I write when I have time, usually at night after the kids go to bed.  I take advantage of my summers, holidays, and weekends - weekdays are just too much.  I'm taking all writing advice with a grain of salt.  There are as many ways to be a writer as there are writers.

Best of all, for the first time in my life, I don't feel guilty saying that am I a writer.  I've always included it in my list of hobbies, but felt it needed an asterisk - I was a writer that didn't write - but now I am just a writer.