Burlington Area Reading Council

Tracey Burgus, President

Vicki Wood, Secretary

Ruth Wittenmeyer, Membership

Cindy Streeter, Treasurer

Sharon Sommerfelt, Past President/Writing Contest Chairperson

Program Schedule 2008-2009

Date	Location	Program Title
October 21, 2008	First Christian Church	The Writing/Publishing Process Cindy Buck, Guest Speaker
November 11, 2008	The Burlington Hawkeye	Using Periodicals in the Classroom to Enhance Student Learning and Achievement
January 13, 2008	Burlington Public Library	Sharing Session of New and Innovative Ideas that Work
February 12, 2008	Grimes Elementary School	Integration of Cultural Background in the Literacy-Rich Classroom
March 3, 2008	Sunnyside Elementary School	The Evolving Process of Writing Gary Metivier- Guest Speaker

Creative Writing Contest Information

•Entries must be submitted to Sharon Sommerfelt, Writing Contest Chairperson, at Notre Dame Elementary School, 700 S. Roosevelt, Burlington, Iowa by Dec. 19, 2008.

•Manuscripts must be written in prose (story form). They must be typed double-spaced with no illustrations.

•Three typed copies must be submitted with a label glued to the final page of each copy of the manuscript.

•Labels may be printed from this link. Please type or print all information on labels. All information must be completed on the label for the manuscript to be considered.

•Length guidelines

Kindergarten-Gr. 3 500 words or less

Grade 4-Grade 8 750 words or less

Grade 9-Grade 12 1,000 words or less

•Students and teachers are encouraged to collaborate on the draft in order to produce a finished product.

•Student in Kindergarten and Grade 1 can dictate their stories to someone else to write. Students in Grades 2-12 should write their own stories, unless they are unable without help.

•Manuscripts will be judged according to : creativity, originality, organization, and mechanics. Please proofread entries and have spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors corrected before producing the final manuscript for submission.

Poetry Contest Information

• Entries must be submitted to Sharon Sommerfelt, Writing Contest Chairperson, at Notre Dame Elementary School by Dec. 19, 2008.

• Three typed (unless using an unusual format) copies must be submitted with a label glued to the final page of each copy of the poem. Labels are available by clicking here

•All information must be printed or typed on label for poem to be considered as an entry.

•One poem per student.

•No illustrations

•Poems will be judged according to: interest stimulated, creativity and originality, conciseness of vocabulary creating an image, rhythm, spelling - unless for effect and appearance.

•There will be thirteen entry categories as follows:

Kindergarten and First Grade- students may dictate poems for someone else to write if the student's writing skills are still being developed

Second-Twelfth Grades- These students write their own poems unless unable to do so.