Instructions for Teachers
Important Downloads:
2009 Informational Booklet (coming soon)
Due Dates for 2009 Festival
October: Schools receive book list and School Registration forms.
November 3 - 18: Schools register online.
November 12 - 19: After registering, schools make payments, receive Information booklets, Festival of Writing books, and directions for completing the online judge/monitor forms.
February 2: Deadline for submitting entries for Festival Art Competition, Jeremy Salvner Memorial Music Contest, Candace Gay Memorial Award, Barbara Brothers Writing Award for Teachers, judge/monitor forms, and final count forms.
March 25 or 26: Judges and monitors attend one of two training sessions (required).
April 1, 2 or 3: English Festival 2009
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.