Instructions for Teachers
Important Downloads:
Due Dates for 2010 Festival
November 2 – November 17, 2009: ONLINE registration of schools.
November 4, 2009: Optional new contact person orientation, 4:00 PM, English Department Conference Room.
November 12 – 18, 2009: 2:30 – 5:30 PM DeBartolo Hall Hall, Second Floor: Payment/Pick-up
Bring your check made payable to YSU (NOT the English Festival) and your invoice printed from the online registration. If you are registering more than five students, bring a large, sturdy bag to carry the Festival Information booklets, Festival of Writing Books, bookmarks, and forms that you will receive at that time. Do NOT try to pick up materials on the same day that you register or without registering online.February 26, 2010: Deadlines for all of the following due at the YSU English Department: ALL contest entries (Candace Gay Essays, Barbara Brothers Essays, Art and Music Contest Entries), final judge and monitor counts, and forms submitted ONLINE.
April 21 or 22, 2010: Festival Judges and Monitors Training Sessions, Kilcawley, 4:00 – 6:00 PM.
April 28, 29, 30, 2010: YSU English Festival.
Here are some general instructions for teachers to follow to prepare for the English Festival:
- Please invite all your students, not only your best students, to attend the English Festival since it is designed to encourage reading among all students as well as to reward superior reading, writing, and thinking.
- Please give preference to those who have never attended the Festival and to those who have never won a major Festival prize. We would like as many students as possible to have the opportunity to participate in the Festival.
- When you share the Festival book list with your students, explain that the books are selected with an emphasis on readability and breadth of interest.
- Do not prepare your students for the Festival by teaching the literary qualities
of the books. Coaching undermines the purpose and effectiveness of the
Festival and suggests to the students that winning is more important than
their reading and writing abilities.
You may, however, encourage students by talking to them and arranging for them to talk to noe another about the impact the books have had on them and on the significance of this literature to their lives. - Encourage your students to submit entries to the Candace Gay Memorial Essay Contest by the deadline. Do not help them write or revise the essay, and do not grade it.
Do not make the writing of the Candace Gay Essay Contest a class assignment or a requirement for Festival attendance. As you know, the best way to help students prepare for Festival competitions is to give them regular writing assignments. The more students write, the more proficient they become at writing and the more at ease they feel when called upon to write. - Consider entering the Barbara Brothers Writing Award for Teachers competition so that you can tell your students that you, too, are writing.
- Explain that the success and benefits of the Festival depend on the cooperation and enthusiasm of those attending. Tell them that each year many students who wish to participate are turned away because all places have been filled.
- Ensure that your students attend the sessions for which they are scheduled. Names of those who fail to attend their scheduled sessions will be reported to your principal.