FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                 CONTACT:    Mary McAfee

March 9, 2010                                                                                                YLD Director

            404-527-8700 or 800-334-6865

YLD Sponsors ‘Democracy and the American Family’ Essay Contest for Georgia Students

ATLANTA – The Law-Related Education Committee of the State Bar of Georgia’s Young Lawyers Division is sponsoring an essay contest for Georgia students in grades 6 through 8. Cash prizes will be awarded as follows: $500 for first place, $250 for second place and $100 for third place.

The essay topic is “Democracy and the American Family,” and the following elements should be included:

• What does democracy mean to you? Give a personal, rather than a dictionary, definition.
• How democracy applies in a family setting. For example, in what ways is a family like a democracy, and in what way is it different?
• Provide specific examples when discussing democracy and family. Examples may come from your own family or from a fictional family on TV, in a movie or in a book.

The recommended length of the essay is five paragraphs, not to exceed two typed, double-spaced pages. Essays must be submitted by e-mail or postmarked no later than April 16, 2010, to:

Rachel R. Krause

Ford & Harrison LLP

271 17^th Street NW, Suite 1900

Atlanta, GA  30363

rkrause@fordharrison.com

Entries will be judged by members of the YLD Law-Related Education Committee. For more information, contact Rachel Krause at 404-888-3824 or rkrause@fordharrison.com.

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The YLD has been strengthened over the years through guidance by the State Bar of Georgia, its Executive Committee and Board of Directors, the Supreme Court, and through dedicated service rendered by its members. In keeping with its motto of “working for the profession and the public,” the YLD has more than 25 hard-working committees that produce an array of projects and programs. Through the years, the YLD has also gained national recognition by winning several American Bar Association awards for its projects and publications.

I invite any student to come and try your luck against the reigning champions…The Teachers!

We would love for everyone to be able to go to Medieval Times.

You may have heard that there is a t-shirt sales campaign going on at McClure and not know the background of the ”why”.  At McClure, we have several students dealing with significant medical issues (among those cancer and organ transplant needs).  We as a school community wanted to reach out to help those families and to show our support for them financially and visually.

Each advisement group was asked to develop a theme – one line – that would show visual support for these students as we wear the shirts, but also generate conversation about why we are wearing them.  Each advisement group submitted suggestions and the student body as a whole chose the winning theme “got hope?”

We are currently selling the t-shirts for $10 or a bracelet that says got hope? for $3.  You can purchase both as a set for $12.  All proceeds from the shirts will be given to these families to meet the additional financial needs that they are incurring.  The families may choose to give the funds to the charity of their choice if they personally don’t need the funds.  One of the families has been assisted tremendously by the Rally Foundation and may earmark the funds they receive for that organization.

This is a time where we can all step out and make a personal difference to students at our school.  We hope that you will purchase a shirt and talk to your friends and neighbors about purchasing one as well to help these families!  The shirts are on sale for the next few days and are available in black with white print, black with hot pink print and brown with turquoise print.  Checks may be made payable to McClure Middle School PTSA.

Thanks for your support!

Susan Wing, Principal

Expository Writing

Introduction to Research Process (Reader’s Journey pgs. 440-445)

Organizing Structures (Reader’s Journey pgs. 194-195)

Cause/Effect (Reader’s Journey pgs. 478-483)

Paraphrasing (Reader’s Journey pgs. 270-275)

Evaluating Sources/Plagiarism/Taking Notes (Reader’s Journey pgs. 454-467)

Primary and Secondary Sources (Reader’s Journey pgs. 484-489)

Using the CRCT Study Guide

www.gadoe.org

Click on left side       CRCT

Click on right side     Student Guides-  more

Student Guides will appear

Click on grade level

Grade 6

Grade 7

Grade 8

PDF file will appear

Chapter 1 is Reading

Chapter 2 is English/Language Arts

 *Note

In Reading questions are divided by:

 Reading Skills and Vocabulary Acquisition = 15%

Literary Comprehension = 40%       

Information and Media Literacy = 45%

In English/Language Arts questions are divided by:

Grammar and Sentence Construction: 6^th = 60%, 7^th = 56%, 8^th = 70%

Research and Writing Process: 6^th = 40%, 7^th = 44%, 8^th = 30%

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MARCH 15 

To: Teachers in Language Arts, Social Studies, and Sciences, grades 6-12

Your colleagues at the Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project (KMWP) established a contest in 2008 for young writers to honor the memory of our late friend, teacher Leslie Walker. Leslie’s special gift was to help even her most reluctant writing students to find their writing “voices.”  Read about Leslie in the “intro” link.

*Recognize young writers of promise

*Take as little class time as you wish or design a full unit

*Open young minds to see stories and histories in their own communities

*Grade nothing!

                                          2010 Prompt: Trust     

Leslie Walker strived to create community in her classroom. This ongoing effort was realized through her dedication to teaching writing to her students.

To continue Leslie’s work in 2010, we invite teachers to prompt their students to experiment writing about an occasion in which they needed to put their “trust” in something or someone, and to submit up to twenty of their students’ most interesting pieces to our contest. Such writing may not be the most polished, and it may come from students who do not think of themselves as good writers.

Students are encouraged to write about the experience of trusting someone or something. This open-ended topic will serve teachers across the curriculum. Social Studies and History teachers may invite students to write about their trust in particular historical methods, maps, or data sets. Science teachers might ask students to use what they know about certain scientific principles or methods in which trust would be required. Similarly, math teachers may ask the students to write about their trustin a specific mathematic formula or process. The student’s voice should be evident throughout the piece. Language Arts or English teachers may use memoir writing to help their students explore the idea of trust through their memories. These are only suggestions and any interpretations of the idea of trust are welcome.

In this annual contest, we ask that students’ writings be typed or neatly written in dark ink, up to 1000 words in length, and mostly error-free. We ask that stories be accompanied by letters from the student writers addressed “Dear Judges,” that (1) will explain how the students know what they do about the object of their trust and (2) give the judges an idea of the history, data, scientific principle, etc. written about (this may be a website, a picture, or anything else that will help the judges connect to the writing).

Submissions are to be mailed to the KMWP:

Leslie Walker Writer of Promise Contest

Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project

Kennesaw State University

1000 Chastain Rd., MC 2701

Kennesaw, GA 30144

or, emailed to KMWP@kennesaw.edu as an attachment, with

subject line LW  Writers Submission

Research Questions