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Internal/External Timeline Examples - Grade 10 Labsite

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Internal/External Timeline Examples - Grade 10 Labsite

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Inferring Practice Slides - Grade 7 Minilesson

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Inferring Practice Slides - Grade 7 Minilesson

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by Matt de la Peña

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How to Transform an Everyday Hoop Court de la Pena

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small group chart

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small group chart

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If there are things you are hoping for across the week, feel free to list them, as well as questions, here. I'll answer and provide as much as I can!

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Padlet from Spring 2022 Virtual Workshops

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Padlet from Spring 2022 Virtual Workshops

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by Adam Bagdasarian

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Weekly Workshop Planner (Small Groups & Conferences)

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EKC Visit --> Classroom Goals and Support

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I would like graphic organizers that support the intervention strategies ready to use

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I would like graphic organizers that support the intervention strategies ready to use

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I would love some photo ideas of tools you have built up in your own readers/writers notebook!!

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Discussion Sentence Starters - Google Docs

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Building Classroom Culture through Workshop Practices - ASFM Onsite

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Structures and Tools to Support Engagement and Accountability 

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Structures and Tools to Support Engagement and Accountability 

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Building Classroom Culture through Workshop Practices - ASFM Onsite (1)

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Great opportunity for authentic publishing!

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We invite teenagers to tell a true story about a meaningful life experience in just 100 words. Contest dates: Sept. 14 to Oct. 12.

Send any friend a story
As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.

Illustrations for Modern Love's Tiny Love Stories series Credit... Brian Rea

As we have since 2019, we're inviting students to write a short, powerful story about a meaningful experience from their lives, but this year there's a twist: They must do it in 100 words or fewer.

If that sounds hard, the Style section's Tiny Love Stories series can show you how. Though our version of this challenge allows students to write about any life experience, not just relationships, we'll be looking for stories of the same quality as you can find in that collection.

We're not asking you to write to a particular theme or to use a specific structure or style, but we are looking for short, powerful stories about a particular moment or event in your life. We want to hear your story, told in your unique voice, and we hope you'll experiment with style and form to tell a tale that matters to you, in a way you enjoy telling it.

To help, we have a step-by-step guide full of advice that is grounded in 25 excellent 100-word mentor texts. Written to students, they can follow it alone or as a class. We also have a forum where they can practice ahead of submission in which we ask, " What Story From Your Life Can You Tell in 100 Words? " We hope students will use the space to experiment and encourage each other.

Take a look at the full guidelines and related resources below. Please post any questions you have in the comments and we'll answer you there, or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com. And, consider hanging this PDF one-page announcement on your class bulletin board.

Here's what you need to know:

Please read these rules carefully before submitting an entry. You can find more details in the Frequently Asked Questions section below.

Your tiny memoir should be a short, powerful, true story about a meaningful experience from your own life.

It must be 100 words or fewer, not including the title.

You must be a student ages 13 to 19 in middle school or high school to participate, and all students must have parent or guardian permission to enter. Please see the F.A.Q. section for additional eligibility details.

Your essay must be your own work and original for this contest. That means it should not have been published anywhere else at the time of submission, such as in a school newspaper.

Keep your audience in mind. You're writing for a family newspaper, so, for example, no curse words, please.

Submit only one entry per student.

While many of our contests allow students to work in teams, for this one you must work alone.

All entries must be submitted by Oct. 12, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time using the contest form above.

Illustrations for Tiny Love Stories Credit... Brian Rea

Use these resources to help you write your mini memoir:

A step-by-step guide for writing a 100-word narrative: This guide walks you through six steps, from reading examples of tiny memoirs, to brainstorming your own meaningful life moments, to writing and editing your final piece.

Writing prompts: Our step-by-step guide has a related PDF full of prompts to help students brainstorm "meaningful moments" from their lives. If those aren't enough, you can find many more questions to inspire you in our new list of 445 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.

A "rehearsal space" for teenagers to experiment: We have posted a student forum asking, " What Story From Your Life Can You Tell in 100 Words? " In it, we lead students through a few questions, and provide a few examples, to show them how. We hope that as they search for topics and try out techniques, they'll post their drafts here for others to read and comment on.

Two lesson plans inspired by Times columns that tell tiny stories: Our main inspiration for this contest is Tiny Love Stories, a series from the Modern Love column that invites readers to submit 100-word stories about relationships. Here is a lesson plan that can help you teach and learn with this column. You can also find short memoirs in the Metropolitan Diary column, where readers submit tales about New York City. Here is a lesson plan and a writing prompt you can use to teach and learn with that feature.

A personal narrative writing unit: This unit includes mentor texts, writing prompts, lesson plans, videos and on-demand webinars that teach the skills essential for any kind of narrative writing. (Yes, they were developed for our original narrative contest, but the tips for making your writing shine apply to this format too.)

Our contest rubric: These are the criteria we will use to judge this contest. Keep them handy to make sure your piece meets all of the qualifications before entering.

Illustrations for Tiny Love Stories Credit... Brian Rea

Below are answers to your questions about writing, judging, the rules and teaching with this contest. Please read these thoroughly and, if you still can't find what you're looking for, post your query in the comments or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.

QUESTIONS ABOUT WRITING
What is a personal narrative?
For this contest, we're defining a personal narrative as a short, powerful, true story about a specific experience, event or incident from your real life.

Because you're telling a story about a particular moment rather than, say, summarizing your whole life or reflecting on your feelings about a topic, there should be a clear narrative arc - a beginning, middle and end - that is driven by a conflict of some kind that is eventually resolved or spurs an attempt at an ongoing life change. Yes, this can be done even in 100 words, and our step-by-step guide can show you how.

Keep in mind, however, that any story can work. It doesn't have to be the most dramatic thing that ever happened to you; it can, instead, be about baking brownies with your brother, or a conversation you had on Tuesday's bus ride to school. It's all in how you tell it.

And a good personal narrative not only tells a story but supplies a reason for telling it, so that readers come away with a sense of some larger meaning or universal message they can relate to. The best essays often do this subtly and leave room for the reader's own interpretation.
How can I make my 100-word narrative stand out?
In addition to following the basic elements of good storytelling explained above, we suggest writing your story in your real voice - with the words and phrases you use in your everyday life and your unique sense of humor and emotion - to make your personality come across on the page.

You might also experiment with technique, such as dropping your reader into a scene, using details to show instead of tell, playing with dialogue or maybe even approaching your story as you would a poem to make sure every word (and punctuation mark) counts.

I don't know what to write about. Where should I start?
Everyone has a story to tell. Start with our writing prompt " What Story From Your Life Can You Tell in 100 Words? " and this PDF of prompts taken from our step-by-step guide.

For more inspiration, scroll through our list of 445 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing that includes questions about childhood memories, friendship, travel, social media, food, sports, school and more. Try responding to a few questions or categories that interest you. You might choose one that you enjoyed writing about to turn into your piece.
Can I have someone else check my work?
You are welcome to get suggestions for revising and editing your narrative, of course, but the work you submit should be fundamentally your own.
Where can I find examples of personal narratives in The Times?
Start with our main inspiration for this contest: Tiny Love Stories, a series from the Modern Love column that invites readers to submit 100-word stories about relationships.

But you can write about any meaningful life experience, not just relationships. For ideas, you can take a look at the winning essays from our Student Personal Narrative Contest from 2019, 2020 and 2021. Or check out these columns that have run in The Times over the years, all of which feature personal narratives:

Lives: Powerful stories about meaningful life experiences in 800 words.

Metropolitan Diary: Short reader tales from New York City.

Rites of Passage: Essays that explore notable life transitions and events, big, small and absurd.

On Campus: Dispatches from college students, professors and administrators on higher education and university life.

Disability: Essays, art and opinion exploring the lives of people living with disabilities.

Menagerie: Essays that explore the strange and diverse ways the human and animal worlds intersect.

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QUESTIONS ABOUT JUDGING
How will my 100-word narrative be judged?
Your work will be read by New York Times journalists as well as by Learning Network staff members and educators from around the United States. We will use this rubric to judge entries.
What's the prize?
Having your work published on The Learning Network and being eligible to be chosen to have your work published in the print editions of The New York Times.

When will the winners be announced?
About two months after the contest has closed.
My essay wasn't selected as a winner. Can you tell me why?

We typically receive thousands of entries for our contests, so unfortunately, our team does not have the capacity to provide individual feedback on each student's essay.
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QUESTIONS ABOUT THE RULES
Who is eligible to participate in this contest?
This contest is open to students ages 13 to 19 who are in middle school or high school around the world. College students cannot submit an entry. However, high school students (including high school postgraduate students) who are taking one or more college classes can participate. Students attending their first year of a two-year CEGEP in Quebec Province can also participate. In addition, students age 19 or under who have completed high school but are taking a gap year or are otherwise not enrolled in college can participate.

The children and stepchildren of New York Times employees are not eligible to enter this contest. Nor are students who live in the same household as those employees.
My piece was published in my school newspaper. Can I submit it to this contest?
No. We ask that your 100-word narrative be original for this contest. Please don't submit anything you have already had published at the time of submission, whether in a school newspaper, for another contest or anywhere else.
Whom can I contact if I have questions about this contest or am having issues submitting my entry?
Leave a comment on this post or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.
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QUESTIONS ABOUT TEACHING WITH THIS CONTEST
I'm a teacher. What resources do you have to help me teach with this contest?
Start with our step-by-step guide for entering this contest.

We also have a full unit plan for personal narrative writing. It includes writing prompts, mentor texts, lesson plans and on-demand webinars that teach the narrative writing skills essential for this contest.

Do my students need a New York Times subscription to access these resources?
No.

Students can get free access to Times pieces through The Learning Network. All the activities for students on our site, including mentor texts and writing prompts, plus the Times articles they link to, are free. Students can search for articles using the search tool on our home page.

However, if you are interested in learning more about school subscriptions, visit this page.
Use the submission form below to submit your entry. Only one entry per student is allowed. Please note: All students must have a parent or guardian complete the Parent/Guardian Permission section before submitting. Students 13 to 19 years old are invited to enter. Students who are 13 and older in the U.S. or the U.K., or 16 and older elsewhere in the world, can submit their own entries. Those who are 13 to 15 and live outside the U.S. or the U.K. must have an adult submit on their behalf.

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Tiny Memoir Contest for Students: Write a 100-Word Personal Narrative

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We invite teenagers to tell a true story about a meaningful life experience in just 100 words. Contest dates: Sept. 14 to Oct. 12. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.