Rhode Island students in grades 4 – 12 are invited to enter the Letters About Literature National Contest sponsored by the Library of Congress and the Rhode Island center for the Book. State winners receive a cash prize of $100 and advance to the national level judging. National Winners (one national winner at each level) receive $1,000 cash award, and one National Honor winner per level wins a $200 cash award.
The deadline is coming right up:
- December 15, 2014 for Level 3 (Grades 9 – 12);
- January 15, 2015 for Levels 2 (grades 7 & 8) and Level 1 (Grades 4 -6)
To enter Letters About Literature, young readers write a personal letter to a favorite author, describing the impact of the author’s book on his or her life or explaining how that book helped them see an aspect of the world—large or small—through new eyes. Encouraging reader response and reflective writing, LAL builds two key aspects of literacy, reading and writing, on a personal and very meaningful level.
Attached are the Guidelines and Entry Form for teachers and librarians or the form can downloaded from the Rhode Island Center for the Book web site, www.ribook.org. Letters About Literature supports national standards for teaching language arts & reading as recommended by the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association. A Teachers’ Guide with lesson plans, sample letters and links to the Common Core State Standards is also posted on the RI Center for the Book’s website. You may also access the same information at the Library of Congress web site.
For more information about the contest and RI’s involvement, please call or email Louise Moulton, (401-455-8134; lmoulton@provlib.org) or Kate Lentz at the RI Center for the Book (401-273-2250; kate@ribook.org ).
