Have you always wanted to help judge a national writing contest? Here’s your chance. You can be the lucky teacher along with this years celebrity judges Marion Ross - probably best known for her 11-year portrayal of the iconic mother, “Mrs. C” on the hit ABC series Happy Days and Robert L. Forbes the author of three books of poetry for children to help select the grand prize winner of Mrs. P’s 6th annual K-4 Be a Famous Writer Contest.
What qualities does a judge need to possess? The ability to spot:
- Originality
- Creativity
- Compelling narrative
- Humor
- Development of a theme or point of view
And also be able to think about which stories would be entertaining to hear Mrs. P read aloud and harder-to-define stuff, such as which stories seemed to "stick" with you. In a way, the hard-to-define stuff is the most important: technical proficiency is great, but if a story doesn’t move you, make you laugh or give you insight into another person's life, it didn't make it as a finalist in our contest. You can see past winners at my playlist to see what I’m talking about.
I know as teachers you have plenty on your plates already, so we narrow down the entries and all you have to do is rank our top 5 stories. It’s very rewarding (just check out how excited last years winning class from NC was) and we give you ample time to read them during the month of December.
We thought it would be fun for you to create your own 140 character masterpieces on Twitter using this writing prompt "What children's book character would you most like to have lunch with and a very short why?" Be sure to use the hashtag #teacherjudge so I can find your entry. And my twitter handle is @MrsPStorytime in case you haven’t followed me yet.
The contest runs from August 18th to August 22nd. I’ll announce the winner on August 25th!
You’ll win a $25 gift card to Powell’s Books so you can add to your classroom’s library this year and also have your name and bio posted on our judges page!
Plus your efforts will help the winning classroom be filled with books in every format from our amazing sponsors.
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