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Graumann Elective
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+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + For students in Mrs. Graumann's CONTEST WRITING ELECTIVE CONTEST WRITING ELECTIVE First Semester, Second Quarter 2008 – 2009 155th Academic Year Upcoming Events, Contests, and Deadlines: First Semester, Second Quarter: Monthly contest entries: • Poetry, 20 lines or less • Haiku poetry October 28 due date: Patriot’s Pen Essay Contest October 30 due date: Daughters of American Revolution Essay Contest November 25 due date: Anthology of Poetry by Young Americans Contest December 4 due date: Letters About Literature Contest December 6 due date: Do the Write Thing Challenge Essay Contest December 11 due date: A Christmas Memory, publication-ready for framing In your three-ring binder that has been dedicated to your contest writing elective, place dividers for each contest and event. Begin note-writing ideas for each writing contest. II – 1, October 21 & 23: Patriot’s Pen Essay and Daughters of American Revolution Essay must be publication ready next week. II – 2, October 28 & 30: Submit Patriot’s Pen Essay and Daughters of American Revolution Essay. Begin the process of preparing an entry to the LETTERS ABOUT LITERATURE ESSAY CONTEST Deadline December 4, 2008 Letters About Literature Essay Contest Final Draft, Publication Ready and Delivered to Mrs. Graumann What: The Letters About Literature Essay Contest is sponsored by The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress in partnership with Target Stores. To enter, readers write a personal letter to an author, living or dead, from any genre, fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classic, explaining how that author’s work changed the student’s way of thinking about the world or themselves. Examine the website, www.loc.gov/letters, to read complete information, including letters of previous year’s winning entries. Levels of Competition: There are three levels of competition: Level I for children in grades 4 through 6, Level II for grades 7 and 8, and Level III for grades 9 – 12. Winners, announced in the spring of each year, will receive cash awards at the state and national levels. Directions: First – Select a fiction or nonfiction book, short story, poem, essay, or speech that you have read and about which you have strong feelings. Explore those feelings and why you reacted the way you did during or after reading the author’s work. Did the characters, conflict, or setting mirror your life in some way? What strengths or flaws do you share with a character or characters in the book? What did the book show you about your world that you never noticed before? What surprised you about yourself while you were reading this piece of literature? Why was this work meaningful to you? Second – Write a personal letter to the author. Write honestly and in your own voice, as if you were having a conversation with the author, telling the author how his/her writing affected you. Third – Prepare your letter for submission. See www.loc.gov/letters for complete instructions and examples of winning entries from previous years. • Level I (grades 4 – 6) entries should be between 100 and 400 words, no more, no less. • Level II entries (grades 7 & 8) should be between 300 and 600 words, no more, no less. • Level III (grades 9 – 12) entries should be between 500 and 800 words, no more, no less. State and National Awards Judges will select the top letter in each level of competition from each state. State winners will receive a $50 Target Gift Card and will advance to the national level competition. Judges will select six national winners, two from each level, and twelve national honorable mention winners, four from each level. The national winners will each receive a $500 Target Gift Card, and their school library will win a $10,000 Reading Promotion Grant. The national honorable mention winners will each receive a $100 Target Gift Card, and their school library will win a $1,000 Reading Promotion Grant. All entries will be judged on the following criteria: • Exposition (the writer’s use of language skills, organization, and grammar • Contest (the writer’s achievement in addressing the contest theme) • Writer’s Voice (the writer’s style and originality of expression) How to Submit Your Entry: Print your name and complete return address (either your home or school) in the upper right corner of the first page of your letter. Letters without a return address and adequate contact information will be disqualified. Each letter must be accompanied by an entry coupon that has been stapled to the last page of the letter. There must be a coupon for each student; I cannot submit one coupon for the entire class. You may download a coupon from this website, www.loc.gov/letters, or type this information on a separate sheet of paper and staple it to the last page of the letter: Student Name, Age, Home Telephone (optional), Grade, Level, Book or Story Title, Author, Home Address, Parental Signature, School (Salem Lutheran School), School Address (22607 Lutheran Church Road, Tomball, Texas 77377), School Telephone (281-351-8223), School E-Mail (mgaertner@Salem4U.com), Teacher contact (Kathy Graumann), E-Mail (kgraumann@Salem4U.com). Timeline: October 30 – Select book, story, or essay, and author. Determine theme upon which you will elaborate. Develop outline. November 13 – Submit rough draft for editing. November 20 – Submit first revision. December 2 – Submit final revision to Mrs. Graumann. December 4 – Submit publication-ready manuscript to be mailed December 5. Writing Process for the Letters About Literature Essay Contest Prewriting: • Brainstorm before you start writing by thinking about books you have read. Look at your Accelerated Reader list of books you have read. Think about how you felt when you read the books. Think of the themes developed in each of the books. Select a book that resonated with you and impacted your life or your thoughts or feelings. • Do your research! Go to the website, www.loc.gov/letters, to read letters of previous year’s winning entries. • Develop your theme: o Determine a central thought, or focus. o Include:  characters (provide an interesting description of what the character is like)  setting (create a picture of where the story is happening) o Do not write a book report, but rather, elaborate upon how the book affected you. Writing: • Capture the reader’s interest in the very first sentence. • Each paragraph will have:  A topic sentence that conveys your main idea or activity  Several sentences within that paragraph to support your topic sentence  A final sentence that re-emphasizes what you wrote • Be careful about neatness, spelling, grammar, and punctuation. • The first line of each paragraph is either indented or preceded by a blank line. Either way makes it clear at a glance where your thoughts begin. • Say what you want to say, but make sure you do it the right way! • Tell what inspired you and why. Tell how the writing made you feel. Include illustrations. Evaluating: • Does what you wrote make sense if you read it out loud? • Does the order make sense? • Did you use verbs and adjectives in your writing that create pictures in the reader’s mind? • Does the beginning of your writing grab the reader’s attention? • Does your ending tie up all the loose ends? • Are the supporting details congruent with the topic sentence of each paragraph? • Have you checked and rechecked your grammar and spelling? • Are all the sentences complete? • Have you created a picture with words to “show” more than “tell”? Revising: • Use a thesaurus to see whether some changes will make your words create a clearer, more vivid, picture in the reader’s mind, provide more information, or appear more convincing. • As you revise, ask yourself, “Will people understand what I am trying to say?” This means you may have to go back and rewrite things or add new parts. • If some parts do not fit in with the rest of the story, remove it from your work, set it aside, and save it. Perhaps this piece of writing might inspire something else and be a great part of another piece of writing. • Many good writers often revise at least three or four times before they move on to the next part of the process! Editing: • Editing is when you check to make sure that all the technical things about your work are correct—including spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, subject/verb agreement, consistent verb tense, and word usage. • Correct punctuation helps the reader understand what you are saying. • Be sure that every sentence has two parts: subject (who or what the sentence is about) and predicate or verb (what is happening to the subject). • Use sentence-combining words, such as and, but, or, yet, so, who, whom, which, that, whose, because, and although. • Use capital letters at the beginning and periods at the end of every sentence. Use commas where necessary, but try not to overuse them. • Do not overuse the exclamation mark!!! Your reader should see the excitement in your words. • Use a dictionary to check spelling and word use. • Let a friend read and edit your work. Publishing: • Your work should be neatly presented in blue or black ink in good handwriting or typed carefully on your computer using Arial or Times New Roman in 12-point font. II – 3, November 4 & 6: 1. Work on Letters About Literature Essay Contest. 2. Begin work on Haiku poetry for Anthology of Poetry contest entry. Structure of Japanese 17th Century Haiku Poems: • Three lines in classical structure: o 1st line has 5 syllables o 2nd line has 7 syllables o 3rd line has 5 syllables • Refers to nature • Uses ordinary things to write about significant issues or concepts, like finding happiness in the beauty of nature, falling in love, being left alone, not having friends, etc. • Can be happy, sad, humorous, frightening, etc. Examples: The mighty Eagle Catches prey with talons bare Listen to the squish Night and silver moon Neighbor playing on his flute Very out of tune Small, alone, a child Sobs and tears in a corner Darkness gives a hug Rainy winter day Playing in the big puddles Water everywhere Related Books: Haiku Picturebook for Children By Keisuke Nishimoto Cool Melons-Turn to Frogs!: The Life and Poems of Issa By Matthew Gollub II– 4, November 11 & 13: • Continue work on Letters About Literature Essay Contest. • Begin work on Do the Write Thing Challenge Essay Contest entry. DO THE WRITE THING CHALLENGE ESSAY CONTEST Deadline, December 6, 2008: Do the Write Thing Challenge Essay Contest Manuscript must be publication-ready and delivered to Mrs. Graumann by that date. The Do the Write Thing Challenge Essay Contest is sponsored by the Houston/Harris County organization affiliated with the National Campaign to Stop Violence. Two students from Salem Lutheran School who submit the best entries will be selected as School Finalists and will be invited to a recognition celebration at Reliant Stadium. If our school has a minimum of 25 entries submitted for grading, our students will have the opportunity to have their writing entered in the national competition. Essays of seventh and eighth grade students are eligible to be entered in competition. Students are to address three questions: • How has violence affected my life? • What are the causes of violence? • What can I do about violence? Essays are to be 500 – 1,000 words (with the exception of poetry, which can be less) and no more than four pages. Entries must be typed or written legibly in black ink on 8 ½” x 11” paper. Only one side of the paper may be used. The pages should be numbered. Notebook paper may not be used. Writing Process Prewriting Examine the Texas Do the Write Thing Challenge website at www.texasdtwt.com. Brainstorm before you start writing about what you want to say, and begin the research process: • Think about these questions to generate ideas for writing: o When you hear the word violence, what thoughts or memories do you have? o Where are you confronted by violence? o Were you confronted by violence in the past? o Do you think you can tell when another person is on the brink of a violence act? Would you intervene? Under what circumstances would you intervene? o What do you think provokes people to be violent? Read sources you might want to use to illustrate your point. Use this search engine: www.goodsearch.com . List Concordia Historical Institute (CHI) as the charity of your choice. (CHI will receive a penny for each search made.) • Develop a story: o Determine a central thought, or focus. o Include:  characters (provide an interesting description of what the character is like)  setting (create a picture of where the story is happening)  plot (the events and action that take place in your writing) o Develop at least three key activities to write about, and provide at least three details with each activity. Writing: • Capture the reader’s interest in the very first sentence. • Each paragraph will have:  A topic sentence that conveys your main idea or activity  Several sentences within that paragraph to support your topic sentence  A final sentence that re-emphasizes what you wrote • Be careful about neatness, spelling, and punctuation. • The first line of each paragraph is either indented or preceded by a blank line. Either way makes it clear at a glance where your thoughts begin. • Say what you want to say, but make sure you do it the right way! • You might include a separate introduction to your work telling what inspired you to write and why. You could write about how the writing makes you feel and what you hope it accomplishes for the reader. You will want to include some illustrations. Evaluating: • Does what you wrote make sense if you read it out loud? • Is there a reason why everything happens in your story/essay? Why did your character say and do the things he said and did? • Do the events in the story happen in an order that makes sense? • Do the characters seem like real people? Would you want to know them in real life? • Did you use different verbs in your essay/story? • Does the beginning of your writing grab the reader’s attention? • Does your ending tie up all the loose ends? • Are the supporting details congruent with the topic sentence of each paragraph? • Have you checked and rechecked your grammar and spelling? • Are all the sentences complete? • Have you created a picture with words to “show” more than “tell”? Revising: • Use a thesaurus to see whether some changes will make your words create a clearer, more vivid, picture in the reader’s mind, provide more information, or appear more convincing. • As you revise, ask yourself, “Will people understand what I am trying to say?” This means you may have to go back and rewrite things or add new parts. • If some parts do not fit in with the rest of the story, remove it from your work, set it aside, and save it. Perhaps this piece of writing might inspire something else and be a great part of another piece of writing. • Many good writers often revise at least three or four times before they move on to the next part of the process! Editing: • Editing is when you check to make sure that all the technical things about your work are correct—including spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, subject/verb agreement, consistent verb tense, and word usage. • Correct punctuation helps the reader understand what you are saying. • Be sure that every sentence has two parts: subject (who or what the sentence is about) and predicate or verb (what is happening to the subject). • Use sentence-combining words, such as and, but, or, yet, so, who, whom, which, that, whose, because, and although. • Use capital letters at the beginning and periods at the end of every sentence. Use commas where necessary, but try not to overuse them. • Do not overuse the exclamation mark!!! Your reader should see the excitement in your words. • Use a dictionary to check spelling and word use. • Let a friend read and edit your work. Publishing: • Your work should be neatly presented in blue or black ink in good handwriting or typed carefully on your computer using Arial or Times New Roman in 12-point font. • It should follow the format: Do the Write Thing Challenge Essay Contest (Subtitle) Student Full Name Student Address Student telephone number with area code (school phone may be used: 281-351- 8223) Salem Lutheran School Grade (7 or 8) 22607 Lutheran Church Road Tomball, Texas 77377 • Number the pages. • With some of your writing, you might include a separate introduction to your work telling what inspired you to write and why. You could write about how the writing makes you feel and what you hope it accomplishes for the reader. You might want to include some illustrations. II– 5, November 18 & 20: • Continue work on Letters About Literature Essay Contest. • Continue work on Do the Write Thing Challenge Essay Contest entry. • Anthology of Poetry contest poetry must be publication ready. II – 6, December 2 & 4: • Letters About Literature contest entry must be publication ready. • Do the Write Thing Challenge Essay Contest must be publication-ready. • Begin work on writing A Christmas Memory for display at the Christmas program on December 16. Guided Writing for A Christmas Memory: Ideas: • A moment in my life when I was proud of someone else • A moment in my life that was a struggle that I lived through • A memory I want to keep forever if everything else were erased from my memory • A moment that involves a gift I gave someone else • A moment that involves a special gift I received Questions to Answer: Where were you? Who was with you? In your memory of that moment, what happened first? What happened next? What was the last thing that happened? Right at that moment, what did you think? What is one life lesson that came to you as a result of that memory? II– 7, December 9 & 11: Continue work on the manuscript, A Christmas Memory. It must be publication- ready on December 11 and prepared for display. II – 8, December 16 & 18: Salem Lutheran School Christmas Program preparations
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