Fun Literacy Contests for Students Sponsored by the Media Center
By Anne Browning, NBCT
South Metro Representative, GLMA
My media center often sponsors fun writing contests for students that encourage literacy as well as creative writing. Many of these are yearly contests and the following contests might be something your kids – and language arts teachers – are looking for!
The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, (http://www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/letters.html) in partnership with Target Stores and in cooperation with affiliate state centers for the book, invites readers in grades 4 through 12 to enter Letters about Literature, a national reading-writing contest. 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. There are three competition levels: Level I for children in grades 4 through 6; Level II for grades 7 and 8, and Level III, grades 9 - 12. Winners, announced in the spring of each year, receive cash awards at the national and state levels. For information contact the LAL Project Director at lal@epix.net.
The annual Plains, Peanuts, and a President post card contest kicks off every September. The Jimmy Carter NHS Education Program and The Peanut Institute are the annual hosts of the contest. Students in grades K-12 are invited to compete in a yearly themed postcard contest. Students work on a white 3 X 5 or 4 X 6 sheet of paper or index card. Directions, judging criteria, rewards, previous winners, and where to mail the entries can be found at http://jimmycarter.info/spotlight_1.html. Mrs. Annette Wise is the coordinator and her phone number is 229-824-4104.
The Kids Are Authors program is an annual competition sponsored by Scholastic. Students in grades K-8 and the program “is designed to encourage students to use their reading, writing, and artistic skills to create their own books.” For more information, go to http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/kaa/index.htm.
Creative Communications sponsors poetry contests three times a year for students in grades K-12. For more details, go to http://www.poeticpower.com/usacontest.html.
River of Words, in affiliation with The Library of Congress Center for the Book, conducts a free international poetry and art contest for youth on the theme of WATERSHEDS. The contest is designed to help youth explore the natural and cultural history of the place they live, and to express, through poetry and art, what they discover. The contest is open to any child in the world, from 5-19 years of age. Older students must have not yet completed high school. There is no charge to enter. For more information, go to http://www.riverofwords.org/contest/index.html.
Keep on writing!