Brief Explanation:

In February of 2000, over 1,800 San Diego Unified School District students entered the third Citywide Student Essay Contest sponsored by the Friends of the San Diego Public Library, the San Diego Public Library, and the San Diego Unified School District Library Media Teachers. In March of 2000, 300 students were honored at ceremonies at their public library branches. In addition, on April 12, 2000, eleven grand-prizewinners were honored at a gala presentation at Sea World of San Diego.

The contest has been so successful that the sponsors decided to organize a fourth Citywide Essay Contest. The objective of this contest is to support the San Diego Unified School District literacy standards and portfolio assessment, as well as to foster students’ love of libraries and the collaboration between San Diego Unified School District and the San Diego Public Library. To emphasize support of the portfolio assessment concept, students in grades 4, 8, and 10 are invited to participate.

In the 2000-2001 school year, this popular contest will begin during the fall semester to enable teachers time to collect portfolio samples. Entries will be accepted by your school’s contest coordinator between January 5, 2001, and February 23, 2001.

A panel of classroom teachers, library media teachers, and community members chose the essay topics. The topics were designed to support the content and performance standards. For example, if students choose to read materials in order to write about "Will the Internet Replace Books?," their essays would address the Reading Accomplishment in Information Materials content and performance standard. The Reading Accomplishment in Literature content and performance standard would be addressed if the student chooses to write about "A Book That Has Influenced My Life."

The following topics were chosen to give classroom teachers and students the latitude to write about something of interest to students and to assist them in meeting the district’s standards and assessment criteria.

• A BOOK THAT HAS INFLUENCED YOUR LIFE
• HARRY POTTER FOR PRESIDENT
• THE BOOK I WOULD GIVE AS A GIFT
• DEAR MAYOR, MY LIBRARY IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE….
• WILL THE INTERNET REPLACE BOOKS?

This year, three winners from each school will be honored and awarded prizes at their local San Diego Public Library in a special community ceremony. Grand-prizewinners, selected from the local honorees, will receive additional recognition and awards. All students who enter the contest will receive certificates of participation.

The contest is voluntary for sites and teachers. However, to avoid confusion at sites that wish to participate, we ask that you name a contact person and return the intent to participate form. The contact person or your secondary library media teacher (for participating sites) will receive additional contest information and will collect the essays and turn them over to the Friends of the San Diego Public Library, which will do the judging.

We invite you to ask your teachers to support this contest. We believe that this contest will help students meet reading and writing standards and give positive community visibility to your school. Included in this packet is a copy of the contest rules and an entry form. Please distribute additional copies to the appropriate grade-level teachers. If you have any questions, please call Wendy Gay, library media teacher, Lewis Middle School, at (619) 583-3233. Thank you for your support.