Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project
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
