To:
DELAWARE COUNTY READING COUNCIL
Chartered 1964
“Dedicated to promoting literacy in our schools and in our community”
Dr. Annemarie Jay, President, Delaware County Reading Council
DELAWARE COUNTY INTERMEDIATE UNIT
200 Yale Avenue, Morton, PA 19070 www.dciu.org/dcrc
Public and Non-Public Elementary, Middle, and Junior High School
Principals/Contact Persons (who responded to letter of December, 2013) and
Delaware County Reading Council Members
Re: GUIDELINES and PROCEDURES for the Dr. Nicholas Spennato Young Authors’
Project (2013-2014)
Thank you for your response to the Dr. Nicholas Spennato Young Authors’ Project, which is being sponsored by the Delaware County Reading Council and the Delaware County Intermediate Unit. This information is provided for those who have already registered on-line by the February 28th deadline.
GUIDELINES AND PROCEDURES
Participants: All pupils, grades 1 – 8, including special education, gifted, and English language learners (ELL) pupils
Guidelines:

Pupils may select for entry any pieces which they have written from the beginning of the
current school year. Only one entry per student is allowed. The entries may not have been part of another contest. All writing is to be completed in school . Pieces should not go home for any reason.

Writing of compositions is to end March 7, 2014 .

Teachers may suggest topics appropriate to interest/age levels of their pupils.

Modes: Writing entries should be PROSE ONLY: narrative, informational, or persuasive.
(Poetry will not be read by the judges.) Entries must be original efforts that are written at school by the pupils who submit papers.

Editing: Teachers should edit the papers for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.
Because of this, the domain of conventions will not be scored.

Revising: No one should assist a pupil with the revision of the paper with regard to focus, content, style, or organization. The work should be the student’s work only.

Formatting; All papers must be typed (a traditional 12-point font is required) and double spaced . Papers will be rejected if they are (1) not double spaced, (2) hand written, (3) contain pictures, or (4) are printed front to back.

Length: Not more than three (3) pages, double-spaced with a one inch left margin. Papers longer than three (3) pages will not be judged

Dictated Stories: Because the council deems them too difficult to judge fairly, dictated entries
WILL NOT be accepted, except in the case of physically handicapped pupils. If the papers are dictated, DICTATED should be printed at the top of the entry form.

Rubric: The Domain Scoring Rubric will be used to score the writing pieces. Using this rubric, the final entries will be judged on (1) Focus; (2) Content; (3) Organization; (4) Style.
The teacher may wish to review with the students the criteria in each category that is used in scoring the papers.

Submissions that do not follow guidelines will be discarded.
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Procedures:

Include the appropriate identifying information in the upper right hand corner of the student’s entry: Student’s Name
Grade
School Name

Place the title of the piece in the center of the page just below the identifying information.

Use only the DCRC entry form (included with these guidelines). The form should be attached to each submission. Do not create another form. This form is the only place where the category of the writer (Regular Education, Special Education, Gifted, or ELL) should be identified.

PLEASE BE CERTAIN YOUR ENTRIES CAN BE REPRODUCED CLEARLY.

Final entries will not be returned. Make copies of the final entries before submitting them.

Submit the correct number of entries per grade level and category:
Regular Education: Grades 1 – 8 Submit 2 entries per grade per building
Special Education: Grades 1-8 Submit 2 entries per grade per building
English Language Learners: Grades 1-8 Submit 2 entries per grade per building
Gifted: Grades 1 - 8 Submit 2 entries per grade per building

Mailing the school’s entries: Papers of school winners for each grade are to be submitted by
March 15, 2014 to: Dr. Nicholas Spennato Young Authors’ Project
c/o Rosemary Fowler
122 Longview Drive
Springfield, PA 19064
 The school’s contact person for the Young Authors’ Project must submit the Check List for
Final Entries on the next page.
The awards will be presented at the Dr. Nicholas Spennato Young Authors’ Conference in the spring.
Details about the conference will follow.
Should you have any questions, please contact Sheila Bell by email (sheilambell@yahoo.com) or call Dr.
Spennato, 610-353-9636.
Revised 11/7/11
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Dr. Nicholas A. Spennato Young Authors’ Project
Checklist for 2013-2014 Final Entries:
School:__________________________________ District: _______________________
Contact Person: __________________________ Telephone: _____________________
1. ______
2. ______
All entries are typed and double-spaced.
All entries have the correct identifying information in the upper right corner of the piece:
Student’s Name
Grade
3. _____
School Name
The title of each piece is centered just below the identifying information.
4. _____ The DCRC entry form is attached to each piece of writing being submitted.
5. _____
6. _____
7. _____
8. _____
9. _____
Categories appear only on the DCRC entry form and not on the writing piece itself.
Each piece has been edited by the classroom teachers of the participating children.
The typed product is of good quality for duplication.
I have/the school has made copies of these entries.
The correct number of submissions has been made for each grade level and/or category:
Number of Entries
Regular Education: Grades 1 – 8 Submit 2 entries per grade per
Special Education: Grades 1-8
English Language Learners:
Grades 1-8
Gifted: Grades 1 - 8 building
Submit 2 entries per grade per building
Submit 2 entries per grade per building
Submit 2 entries per grade per building
Total Number of Entries Submitted: _______________
10. _____ The school’s entries are collected and ready to be mailed by February 22, 2014 to:
Dr. Nicholas A. Spennato Young Authors’ Project
c/o Rosemary Fowler
122 Longview Drive
Springfield, PA 19064
Return this required checklist as the top page when you mail the entries. Thank you.
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Student’s Name:
Grade: School:
Category (check one) :
 Regular Ed  Special Ed  Gifted  ELL
Student’s Name:
Grade:
Category (check one) :
School:
 Regular Ed  Special Ed  Gifted  ELL
Student’s Name:
Grade:
Category (check one) :
School:
 Regular Ed  Special Ed  Gifted  ELL
Student’s Name:
Grade:
Category (check one) :
School:
 Regular Ed  Special Ed  Gifted  ELL
Student’s Name:
Grade:
Category (check one) :
School:
 Regular Ed  Special Ed  Gifted  ELL
Student’s Name:
Grade:
Category (check one) :
School:
 Regular Ed  Special Ed  Gifted  ELL
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