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Student Creative Story Contest Full Rules
- Entries for the
February Story contest must be made by 11:59 pm eastern time on
February 28, 2013. The contest begins at noon eastern time on
February 1, 2013 and ends at the end of the school day on February
28, 2013. Teachers have until 11:59 pm eastern on February 28, 2013
to pay the entry fee and submit the stories. Stories may only be submitted
between noon February 2 and the end of the school day on February
28.
- Teachers may enter
any number of student stories from any level, with a minimum of 5.
We can only accept entries in multiples of 5. Entry fee is $1 per
story. Each student may enter as many stories as they want, but each
story requires a $1 entry fee. Students must be 18 years old or younger.
- There is only
one category of entries for this contest at this time. This contest
is for students who fit into the "regular" or "outside
experience" categories of the National Spanish Exam. See this
link if you are unsure of your student's category: http://www.nationalspanishexam.org/index.php/exam-administration/exam-categories
(We will have a future contest for the bilingual students.) All levels
may compete in this. Entries will be judged on creativity and flow
of story. Minor grammatical or spelling errors will not be a factor
as long as they don't affect the understanding of the story. However,
if there are two entries we like equally well, the one that has the
least amount of grammatical or spelling errors will be chosen. It's
in the best interest of the students to use language they know how
to use well instead of adding in new structures they have not yet
mastered.
- On February 1,
2013, three structures will be announced at noon eastern time. They
will be posted on the Chalkboard
Productions website as well as sent out in an e-mail
to interested teachers. Teachers are responsible for disseminating
the information to their students.
- Stories must use
a form of each of the given structures, and each structure must be
an important part of the story. By "form" we mean the appropriate
forms that go with different subjects or as needed in the context
of the story. (Example: If the structure is "to go" then
any of these forms might be used: he goes, he is going, he will go,
he went, he had to go, he wanted to go, he would go, he can go, he
could go, I go, I am going, I will go, I went, we went, they went,
they are going, etc. Any subject may be used.) If the story doesn't
use all of given structures or if they are not an important part of
the story, the story will be disqualified.
- The story must
have a title, a beginning (an introduction of the main character and
the situation), a middle (where the character tries to solve his problem
or fix his situation) and an end (a final resolution to the character's
situation). If the story is lacking any of these parts, it will be
disqualified.
- The story must
be completely in Spanish. No English words or words from any other
language are allowed. If there are any English words or words from
other languages, the story will be disqualified.
- The story cannot
exceed 300 words. Most word processing programs have a word count
feature. We will use the word count feature in MS Word 2010 as the
official count. If the story is over, it will be disqualified. The
title does not count in that word count. Only the actual story. Although
stories of 50 words or less are allowed, it's difficult to tell a
good story in those few words. Most stories are between 100-200 words.
- The story must
be an original idea of the student's. It cannot be a retelling of
a TV show, a book, or any other work. Actual people's names should
not be used (unless they are famous…example: Joey Brown from
your class cannot be used, but Eli Manning can be). The story can
be a retelling of a story from the student's class created together,
but only one retelling of a particular class story can be submitted
from any teacher. In other words, please don't send us 5 retellings
of the exact same story. Students from the same teacher will need
to choose different stories to retell or change the details to make
them different.
- Teachers and parents
are not allowed to give corrections to students. We want to see the
students' work. Other students may do peer reviews to help the student
check their work. Students are not allowed to use online translators.
- Stories can only
be received between noon eastern time on February 2 and 11:59 pm eastern
time on February 28. Any early stories or late stories will be disqualified.
It's wise to send the story at least a couple of hours before the
deadline because some mail servers can delay mail (Yahoo often does
this!). It doesn't matter when you sent it. It matters when we receive
it. Please submit it early so there is no problem with this.
- Submission formatting:
VERY IMPORTANT! Entries that aren't submitted in this format
will be disqualified. The entries must be submitted as follows.
a. Only teachers can submit stories. (Homeschooling parents may be considered teachers for this contest, but must submit the minimum number of entries.)
b. Schools can combine stories from different classes and teachers to make the minimum of 5. Schools can designate one teacher to submit all entries. Schools may also allow individual teachers to each submit their own students' entries as long as the school they are registered under is the same.
c. Combine all entries from one teacher's classes into one document.
d. Title the document with the teacher's name and school. No spaces. (Example: Deb-Read-ChalkboardHS.doc or DebReadChalkboardHS.doc)
e. The document MUST be in one of the following formats: .doc, .docx, .pdf or .rtf. When you save the document, use the SAVE AS function and check to make sure it's in one of these formats. The .doc is from older versions of MS Word 97-2003, .docx is from MS Word 2010. No Open Office formats will be accepted (but remember, if you use Open Office, you can use the SAVE AS and then change the extension to one of the accepted ones).
f. Each student story should appear on a separate page in the document. Please insert a page break between stories. Stories should be single-spaced. Any normal font is acceptable but should be 12 point. (Arial, Times New Roman, or Cambria are preferred, but not required.) Please include the student's name on the page with their story.
g. The one document containing all the student stories from the submitting teacher must be ATTACHED to an e-mail and sent to Chalkboard Productions. The subject line should say: FEBRUARY CONTEST. This way we can easily retrieve entries if they happen to be stopped by our spam filter.
h. In the body of the e-mail, teachers need to include their names, their school's name, city and state. We will also be happy to send a press release to your local paper if your student wins. Please include the e-mail of your local newspaper for us to do that for you. Otherwise we can just send the press release to you and you can forward it to the media yourself.
- If a story is
disqualified (for any reason stated above), the entrance fee will
not be refunded. Please make sure stories fit the criteria before
they are entered. We can't refund unused story entry fees, sorry.
- Teachers are responsible
for securing all permissions for participating in this contest. If
your school requires an administrator's authorization or parental
consent, the teacher must obtain this. Chalkboard Productions assumes
that all entries have been cleared by your district to participate
in this contest.
- The top 10 winning
entries must agree to be posted on the Chalkboard Productions' website
for the public to read. Winners' names will be listed as their first
name and last initial and then their teacher's name, school, city
and state. No last names will be posted to protect students (unless
we have parental permission). The teacher may decide how they want
their own name listed.
- The decision of
the judges is final.
Now registering for the Spanish February 2013 Contest!
Entry
deadline is:
11:59 pm Eastern Time
February 28, 2013
Contest
begins:
Noon Eastern Time
February 1, 2013
If we receive more than 300 stories, the cash prizes will double!