2010 ACTR National Post-Secondary Essay Contest

[Patricia Zody]

Dear Colleagues, 

I invite you and your students to participate in the Eleventh Annual ACTR
National Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest.  We achieved our goal last
year with 1,024 students from 65 universities and colleges writing essays.
We hope that you will join us this year so that we can continue to highlight
the growth in Russian language study across the United States. We would also
like to see an increase in the number of participants competing in levels
three and four of the contest, not to mention the heritage-learner levels.

Participation in the National Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest is an
excellent way

-to have your students compete nationwide with their peers
-to raise the visibility of your Russian program
-to compete in a fun, field-wide event.

The contest is for students at all levels of Russian (1st through 5th-year),
and there are categories for heritage learners.

If you should have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.  The
deadline for registering your students is January 29, 2010.

Sincerely,

Patricia Zody
NPSREC Chairperson
American Council of Teachers of Russian
***********************************************************************
11th ANNUAL ACTR NATIONAL POST-SECONDARY RUSSIAN ESSAY CONTEST

Students taking Russian in accredited colleges and universities are invited
to participate in the eleventh annual National Post-Secondary Russian Essay
Contest sponsored by the American Council of Teachers of Russian.

All students must pay a registration fee according to the following
schedule:
Students whose teacher is an ACTR member - $5.00 per registration
Students whose teacher is not an ACTR member - $7.50 per registration
Students may not register themselves, but can only be registered by a
teacher.
To register your students, please send a registration form (below) and one
check made out to "ACTR" to Patricia Zody, Center for Language Studies,
Beloit College, 700 College Street, Beloit, WI 53511. All registrations must
be received by January 29, 2010. Registrations received after the deadline
will not be accepted.

When registering your students, please consult the criteria below to select
the appropriate level.

Teachers whose students are participating in the contest will receive
directions and the essay topic in late January 2010. Students will write
their essays between Feb. 1 and Feb. 15, 2010 at a time selected by the
instructor at each institution. Students should not receive the essay topic
until the time scheduled to write the essay. Judges will review the essays
in March 2010 and winners will be announced by April 15, 2010.

Please note that students cannot use any books or notes and may not work
together. Essays must be written legibly in blue or black ink. The time
limit for writing the essays will be one hour. The essays must be written in
blue or black ink on lined paper provided by teachers. Pencil is not
acceptable (as it won't photocopy). After the students write the essay,
teachers will make four photocopies of each essay as per the directions and
then send the originals and three photocopies to Patricia Zody within 48
hours of the test date. All essays will be evaluated anonymously: no essay
will be identifiable by the name or institution of the student who wrote it.
Gold, silver, bronze and honorable mention ribbon awards (certificates) will
be presented for the best essays at each level.

Here are sample essay topics from previous contests:

“What Is Your Dream?”
“An Important or Funny Thing Happened When”
“A Person (Real or Fictional) Who Is Important to Me and Why?”
“My Life Changed When”
“My Favorite Place”
“When I Relax”
“Write a letter to a figure from Russian history or a hero (heroine) from
Russian literature./ Napishite pis'mo istoricheskomu litsu ili geroiu
russkoi literatury.”
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own
way.” (Все счастливые семьи похожи друг на друга, каждая несчастливая семья
несчастлива по-своему.), Anna Karenina, Lev Tolstoy
“Write about your favorite person or place (real or fictional)”

Teachers may not substitute students for those registered by the deadline.
No refunds are available for students who don't show up for the essay
contest.

Essays will be ranked according to levels as follows:

Category 1: Non-Heritage Learners (those learners who do not and did not
ever speak Russian in the home. Please take the time to calculate the number
of hours that your students have studied Russian to place them in the proper
category.)

Level One: students who at the time of the essay contest will have had fewer
than 100 contact hours of instruction in Russian (whether in college alone
or in college and high school). (Please note that heritage learners of any
Slavic language, including Russian, are not allowed to participate in this
level and category of the contest.)

Level Two: students who at the time of the essay contest will have had more
than 100 contact hours, but fewer than 250 contact hours of instruction.
(This is mostly students in second-year Russian.)

Level Three: students who will have had more than 250 contact hours, but
fewer than 400 contact hours of instruction. (This is mostly students in
third or fourth-year Russian.)

Level Four: students who will have had more than 400 contact hours of
instruction. (This is mostly students in fourth-year or fifth-year Russian.)

Category 2: Heritage Learners

Heritage Learners (1) - students who speak Russian with their families and
who have NOT attended school in Russia or the former Soviet Union and have
to learn reading and writing skills after emigration.

Heritage Learners (2): students who speak Russian with their families and
who have attended school for fewer than 5 years in Russia or the former
Soviet Union and may have had to relearn reading and writing skills after
emigration.

Heritage Learners (3): students who speak Russian with their families and
who have attended school for 5 or more years in Russia or the former Soviet
Union and have not had to relearn reading and writing skills after
emigration.

Judges will evaluate essays according to content (the ability to express
ideas in Russian and communicate information about the topic) and length,
lexicon, syntax, structure (grammatical and orthographic accuracy), and
originality or creativity.

Awards will be announced in the ACTR Letter and Web site, and the AATSEEL
Web site. The best gold ribbon essays will be published in the ACTR Letter.

Teachers with questions about the essay contest should contact:
Patricia L. Zody
Director, Center for Language Studies
Beloit College
700 College Street
Beloit, WI 53511
(608)363-2277
cls at beloit.edu

REGISTRATION FORM
ACTR NATIONAL POST-SECONDARY RUSSIAN ESSAY CONTEST
Name of Institution:
Name of Instructor:
Address:
City/State/Zip:
E-Mail Address:
Telephone:
Fax:
List of Participants: 1) Name, 2) Category, and 3) Level

Send to Patricia Zody, Center for Language Studies, Beloit College, 700
College Street, Beloit, WI 53511 before January 29, 2010.

Official registration forms can also be found in the Winter 2009 ACTR
Letter.  If you would like to receive a registration form by mail or
electronically, please contact me at zodyp at beloit.edu.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------