Grades 6-12 Writing Contest

Illinois TOESL-Bilingual Education

Grades  6-12 Writing Contest

2024-2025

Writing is an enduring form of expression and communication.  The ITBE Writing Competition is an opportunity for your students to inform us about various aspects of their culture.  As you plan your curriculum for the upcoming school year, provide opportunities for your ELLs to write about their personal bicultural and bilingual experience in the United States. 

At the beginning of the school year, advise your students of the contest. Read the rules with your class.  As your students are exposed to different types of writing in class, encourage them to practice what they have learned by writing an essay for the writing competition.  While teachers may not edit their students’ writings for the contest, it is acceptable to brainstorm with them in terms of their “life events” which might make an interesting essay.   Help your students choose the correct style for their story—narrative, descriptive, expository, or persuasive.  Use the ITBE 6-12 Writing Contest as the proverbial “carrot” that keeps your students interested in writing. 

Sponsoring teachers, winning students, and students’ families are welcome to attend the ESL Writing Contest Special Recognition Awards Ceremony on Friday, February 21, 2025, at the Illinois TESOL/BE Annual State Convention.  This event includes the reading of the award-winning essays and the presentation of certificates and monetary awards to winning students. 

Prizes for the Students

Category A:  Grades 6-8

First place:  $100

Second place:  $75

Third place:  $50

Honorable Mention: $25

Category B:  Grades 9-12

First place:  $100

Second place:  $75

Third place:  $50

Honorable Mention: $25

Eligibility:

Contestant must be a full-time student in grades 6-12 in the state of Illinois and a non-native speaker of English, enrolled in a TBE/TPI program. There are two divisions:  Grades 6-8 and Grades 9-12.  Monetary prizes will be awarded for 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd  and Honorable Mention.

Topic:

The ITBE Writing Competition is an opportunity to inform the audience of an aspect of your culture as it relates to your life in the United States. Your writing should reflect your own personal bicultural and bilingual experience. Your writing should not be simply facts about holidays, customs, or routines in your country; but instead, your writing should be about an experience from your life in your native country or an experience in the United States. You may choose one of the following types of writing:

• Narrative Writing:   Write a short story about an event in your life that taught you something important. Give plenty of details that make the story interesting for the reader.
• Descriptive Writing:  Write a description of something or someone special in your life.  Use words to describe the smells, sights, and sounds that will give the reader a clear picture.
• Expository Writing:  Write about a cultural aspect of your life in your native country that you think Americans would like to know about.  Explain the cultural aspect as it relates to your life experiences.
• Persuasive Writing:  Write about an issue or a cause within your native country or in the United States that relates to you.  State your position and provide facts, opinions, and reasons to support your position.

Conditions:

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

• Failure to abide by any of these rules and conditions will result in the disqualification of the student’s essay from the competition.
• Each student may submit only one entry.
• All essays become the property of Illinois TESOL/BE.
• All essays must be the ORIGINAL MATERIAL OF THE AUTHOR.
• The essays must be based on prior knowledge.  This is not a research essay.
• Teachers may not edit the student’s writing.
• Students are not to use any form of AI or computer editing. 

IF A STUDENT HAS PLAGIARIZED ANY PART OF THE ESSAY, IT WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE DISQUALIFICATION.

Form - Essays are to be:

• 500 – 1000 words (2 -3 typed pages)

• Font 12 New Roman 

• Double spaced

Entries must be submitted with a complete cover sheet, which must include the type of essay, student’s name, home country, name of the sponsoring teacher, name of the school, school address, and school phone number.  

Cover Sheet Template - Click Here

THERE SHOULD BE NO IDENTIFYING INFORMATION ON ANY PAGES OF THE ESSAY.  THIS INCLUDES ANY MENTION OF THE CONTESTANT’S NAME OR SCHOOL.

Judging:

Entries will be judged based upon content, organization, vocabulary, language use and mechanics.  Criteria for judging will be creativity, writing style, and adherence to form, rules, forms and condition.

DEADLINE-ALL ENTRIES MUST BE POSTMARKED NO LATER THAN

FRIDAY, January 10, 2025

Mail all entries to:

Lila Birchfield

9N971 Muirhead Lane

Elgin, Illinois   60124

Thank you for your participation in the twenty-ninth year of the Illinois TOESL-Bingual Education writing competition.