Timeline, Guidelines & Judgi

Timeline:

November:       Packets mailed to teachers

December 15:    Teacher commitment for participation due

February 2:       Student writings due

May 14:            Student recognition dinner (The Mile High Station)

Guidelines:

To enter the contest, students are required to submit an essay, short story or poem, addressing each of the following three questions:

How has youth violence affected your life?

What are the causes of youth violence?

What can I do about youth violence?

• Entries should be approximately 500 to 1000 words in length.  Written forms of expression such as poetry that by nature may be shorter, may contain fewer than 500 words.
• Entries must be typed or written legibly in black ink on 8 1/2" x 11" paper.  Only one side of the paper may be used and the pages should be numbered.
• Entries must be in English

Youth violence is broadly defined to include both physical violence as well as verbal violence (i.e. bullying), and we know from the tragic events at Columbine, Montbello, and other schools across the nation that all youth are effected by this issue in one way or the other.  Thus, written responses to these questions have typically followed a brief classroom discussion about the problem of youth violence, and  very often students create their original writings as part of an established English or Social Studies curriculum.

Teachers are to submit the original student writings before they are checked for grammar, spelling and sentence structure.  Teachers often make a copy of the writings and use the copy to review with students.

• Do NOT include the student's name on the essay.  Instead, please attach the student release form, which will bear the student's name, to the front of the student writing.

Judging:

 

All submissions are reviewed and scored by volunteer judges selected by the Colorado  DtWT Challenge Committee.  Ultimately, the volunteer judges narrow the submissions down to one boy and one girl semi-finalist from each participating school.  Ultimately, one boy and one girl are chosen as the Colorado finalists to attend the National Recognition Ceremony in Washington, D.C. with one parent/guardian and their sponsoring teacher.

All participants in the program will be awarded certificates recognizing their personal commitments to end youth violence.  Additionally, each school's semi-finalists, their parents, and their sponsoring teachers are invited to attend a recognition dinner made possible by sponsoring organizations.

At the dinner, in addition to individually recognizing the student semi-finalists and each participating teacher, the Colorado DtWT Challenge Committee will announce the Colorado boy and girl finalists who will attend the National Recognition Ceremony in the summer of 2006.