DELAWARECOUNTY READING COUNCIL

Chartered 1964

“Dedicated to promoting literacy in our schools and in our community”

Dr. Annemarie Jay, President, DelawareCounty Reading Council

DELAWARECOUNTY INTERMEDIATE UNIT

200 Yale Avenue, Morton, PA19070

To:Public and Non-Public Elementary, Middle, and Junior High School

Principals/Contact Persons (who responded to letter of November 2010) and

DelawareCounty Reading Council Members

Re:GUIDELINES and PROCEDURES forthe Dr. Nicholas Spennato Young Authors’

Project (2010-2011)

Thank you for your response to the Dr. Nicholas Spennato Young Authors’ Project, which is being sponsored by the Delaware County Reading Council and the Delaware County Intermediate Unit. This information is provided for those who have already registered on-line by the January 26thdeadline.

GUIDELINES AND PROCEDURES

Participants: All pupils, grades 1 – 8, including special education, gifted, and English language learners (ELL) pupils

Guidelines:

  • Pupils may select for entry any pieces which they have written from the beginning of the

current school year. Only one entry per student is allowed. The entries may not have been part of another contest. All writing is to be completed in school. Pieces should not go home for any reason.

  • Writing of compositions is to end February 15, 2011.
  • Teachers may suggest topics appropriate to interest/age levels of their pupils.
  • Modes: Writing entries should be PROSE ONLY: narrative, informational, or persuasive. (Poetry will not be read by the judges.) Entries must be original efforts that are written at school by the pupils who submit papers.
  • Editing: Teachers should edit the papers for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. Because of this, the domain of conventions will not be scored.
  • Revising: No one should assist a pupil with the revision of the paper with regard to focus, content, style, or organization. The work should be the student’s work only.
  • Formatting; All papers must be typed (a traditional 12-point font is required) and double spaced. Papers will be rejected if they are (1) not double spaced, (2) hand written, (3) contain pictures, or (4) are printed front to back.
  • Length: Not more than three (3) pages, double-spaced with a one inch left margin. Papers longer than three (3) pages will not be judged
  • Dictated Stories: Because the council deems them too difficult to judge fairly, dictated entries WILL NOT be accepted, except in the case of physically handicapped pupils. If the papers are dictated, DICTATED should be printed at the top of the entry form.
  • Rubric: The Domain Scoring Rubric will be used to score the writing pieces. Using this rubric, the final entries will be judged on (1) Focus; (2) Content; (3) Organization; (4) Style. The teacher may wish to review with the students the criteria in each category that is used in scoring the papers.
  • Submissions that do not follow guidelines will be discarded.

Procedures:

  • Include the appropriate identifying information in the upper right hand corner of the student’s entry: Student’s Name

Grade

School Name

  • Place the title of the piece in the center of the page just below the identifying information.
  • Use only the DCRC entry form (included here with this information). The form should be attached to each submission. Do not create another form. This form is the only place where the category of the writer (Regular Education, Special Education, Gifted, or ELL) should be identified.
  • PLEASE BE CERTAIN YOUR ENTRIES CAN BE REPRODUCED CLEARLY.
  • Final entries will not be returned. Make copies of the final entries before submitting them.
  • Submit the correct number of entries per grade level and category:

Regular Education: Grades 1 – 8 / Submit 2 entries per grade per building
Special Education: Grades 1-8 / Submit 2 entries per grade per building
English Language Learners: Grades 1-8 / Submit 2 entries per grade per building
Gifted: Grades 1 - 8 / Submit 2 entries per grade per building
  • Mailing the school’s entries: Papers of school winners for each grade are to be submitted by February 25, 2011to: Dr. Nicholas Spennato Young Authors’ Project

c/o Rosemary Fowler

122 Longview Drive

Springfield, PA19064

  • The school’s contact person for the Young Authors’ Project must submitthe Check List for Final Entries on the next page.

The awards will be presented at the Dr. Nicholas Spennato Young Authors’ Conference in the spring. Details about the conference will follow.

Should you have any questions, please contact Sheila Bell by email () or call Dr. Spennato, 610-353-9636.

Revised 11/11/10

Student’s Name:
Grade: / School:
Category (check one):
 Regular Ed  Special Ed  Gifted  ELL
Student’s Name:
Grade: / School:
Category (check one):
 Regular Ed  Special Ed  Gifted  ELL
Student’s Name:
Grade: / School:
Category (check one):
 Regular Ed  Special Ed  Gifted  ELL
Student’s Name:
Grade: / School:
Category (check one):
 Regular Ed  Special Ed  Gifted  ELL
Student’s Name:
Grade: / School:
Category (check one):
 Regular Ed  Special Ed  Gifted  ELL
Student’s Name:
Grade: / School:
Category (check one):
 Regular Ed  Special Ed  Gifted  ELL

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