AY 2025 Grades 2-5 Annual Elementary Poetry Contest

Illinois TESOL-BE is sponsoring its Annual Elementary Poetry Contest. This is a great opportunity for your students to let their creativity shine, communicate powerfully in the English language, and express the importance of their own culture/cultural experiences. Through poetry, elementary students are exposed to literary elements in a meaningful and creative way. Teachers of students learning English can use poetry across the curriculum as an assessment to demonstrate topic knowledge, use of language that describes and use of sentence frames to write poetry.  

Starting now, let your students and families know about this opportunity, the rules and deadlines. At ITBE we can’t wait to read all the wonderful poems this academic year (AY2025) will bring! We encourage you to have as many of your students as possible participate. Sponsoring teachers do NOT need to be a member of ITBE.

Entries must be electronically postmarked by Friday, January 10, 2025

Please send all entries to: aremigio@itbe.org 

Please note - only email entries will be accepted. 

Elementary Poetry Contest Awards for Students:

Poetry categories are:

Bio-Poem

Haiku

Diamante

Acrostic

AY2025 Awards

• First and second place winners from each grade level and category will receive a Participation certificate and a book

• One Best of the Best winner will be chosen per Grade Level and will receive a $25 gift certificate and a book 

• One New Comer award will be chosen per Grade Level and will receive a certificate and a book

• Sponsoring teachers of the award winners will also receive a participation certificate.

• Three - One Year ITBE Memberships will be raffled among the sponsoring teachers

ALL SPONSORING TEACHERS WILL BE NOTIFIED OF THE RESULTS
APPROXIMATELY 3  WEEKS BEFORE THE CONVENTION 

AY2025 POETRY CONTEST CEREMONY:

The awards ceremony will be held on Friday, February 21, 2024 at the convention.  Winning sponsoring teachers, winning students, and family members are welcome to attend the award ceremony.  Time of the event to be determined.

 Poetry Contest Guidelines and Resources 

Who can submit entries? Who can enter the contest? 

1. The contest is open to any teacher that works in the state of Illinois.  The sponsoring teacher does NOT need to be a member of ITBE.

2. As in previous years, the student must be receiving ELL or bilingual services during the 2024-2025 school year.  The sponsoring teacher is the person who provides the child’s services.

3. Teachers will be given a rubric, score sheet, &, for some poems, worksheets.

4. Teachers will be expected to pick their top 5 poems for each genre of poetry.

5. If a teacher teaches more than one grade then he/she can submit poems for each grade she teaches.  (For example, Mrs. Remigio teaches 2nd & 3rd graders.  She can submit 10 Acrostic poems (5 for 2nd grade & 5 poems for 3rd grade.  Mrs. Remigio may also submit 10 Bio poems, 10 Diamante poems, 10 Haiku poems, & 10 Acrostic poems.)

Eligibility:

• Contestant must be a student who is: A full-time student enrolled in grades 2–5 in the state of Illinois. A non-native speaker of English currently enrolled in a TBE/TPI program. The contest is open to all teachers that work in an Illinois school.

FORMAT: All entries must be electronically submitted/time-stamped NO LATER THAN January 10, 2025.

 Form: Students are to write an original Acrostic, Bio, Diamante, Haiku poem. 

• the student’s first and last name
• grade level
• home language
• type of poem
• title of the poem
• the name of the sponsoring teacher
• the name of the school, school address
• phone number

• Acrostic Poem– Write one acrostic poem using one or 2 words as the title. The content of the poem must be about an aspect of the student’s culture or his/her perspective of American culture. 
• Bio Poem– Students will write a poem using the prompts provided on the forms. 
• Diamante Poem – Write one Diamante poem that compares an aspect of American culture to the student’s culture. 
• Haiku Poem –Write one Haiku poem in which the content of the poem describes nature within the student’s first country or his or her perspective of nature in the United States. 

Conditions: Failure to abide by any of these rules and conditions will result in the disqualification of the student’s poem from the competition. 

• Each student may submit only one poem. 
• The sponsoring teacher does NOT need to be a current member of Illinois TESOLBE. 
• All poems become the property of Illinois TESOLBE. 
• All poems must be original material of the author. 
• The poem is based on prior knowledge or experiences. 
• No teacher editing. 
• Computer editing (grammar check) will not be allowed, except for spell check. 
• Sponsoring teacher must be the teacher that works with the student in a TBE/TPI program. 
• Teacher may submit 5 entries per poetry genre, per grade level.

1. Each category of poetry will have an assessment rubric & scoring sheet the sponsoring teachers will pick their top 5 poems (per genre, per grade level) that will represent their class in the contest. (For example, Mrs. Gigous teaches 2nd & 3rd graders. She can submit 10 Acrostic poems (5 for 2nd grade & 5 poems for 3rd grade. Mrs. Gigous may also submit 10 Bio poems, 10 Diamante poems, 10 Haiku poems.) 
2. Entries will be judged based on the criteria listed for each category. See the rubrics for details.
3. Teachers will be asked to pick their top 5 entries (per genre, per grade level) for each category and then submit them to ITBE. Teachers do not need to submit the scoring sheet. This tool is available to help rank the students and select the top five of each poetry category. 
4. One poetry cover sheet must accompany each entry. Please be sure to write the title of the poem on the cover sheet. This will help to identify the poem and avoid confusion. If the current cover sheet is not provided then ITBE has the right to disqualify the student entry. 
5. Deadline: All entries must be TIME STAMPED NO LATER THAN January 10, 2025.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
Below you can find the coversheet, worksheets, rubrics and scoring sheets that you can use to support your students in writing and submitting their poetry.

Coversheet PDF    Acrostic Poem PDF    Bio Poem PDF    Diamante Poem PDF    Haiku Poem PDF

WIDA Performance Indicators to use with Haiku