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Before Your School Contest
Planning your school contest doesn't need to be too complicated. Here is a detailed checklist that walks you through the planning process.
- Set a date and reserve facilities: You can hold your contest in the gymnasium during school hours, have an evening event for friends and family. Asses what works best for you and your students, and set that date early.
- Arrange for prizes: Prizes are optional, of course, but you may want to consider printing participation certificates for each student at the least. You can also give office supplies, like glue and construction paper for the exhibit category, DVD-roms for documentaries, etc. Whatever you choose to do, make it fun!
- Recruit judges: This is one of the most important aspects of running a History Day contest. You will need two or three judges per category. If your contest is small (only a few classrooms), the same people can judge the individual and group divisions in a category. You can find judges in a number of places; other teachers in the school, principals, administrators, and librarians make great judges. If you have museums or universities in the area, staff members from those institutions are also a place to appeal for judges. You can use this Sample Judges Invitation. Once someone has agreed to judge, send him or her a confirmation letter like this one: Sample Judges Confirmation It is helpful to send photocopies of the judging instructions with the letters so judges can look over the materials prior to the contest.
- Schedule your contest: Even if you are having a contest just for one classroom, make it formal so students have good practice. Exhibit, web site, and paper entries are usually scheduled at 15 minute intervals, and have 10 minutes for their interview. Performance and documentary entries are scheduled at 20 minute intervals. They should have 5 minutes to set up, 10 minutes to perform or show their project, and 5 minutes for tear-down and questioning. You can use this handy Sample Schedule Sheet. to assist with this.
- Publicize your contest: You may also want to alert the local media for the opportunity to promote the work that your students produce. You can customise this Sample Press Release for easy and free way to get some attention for your school's program. Also, consider inviting your local politicians. Teachers at Sand Creek Middle School in South Colonie had great success by sending handmade antiqued scroll invitations to their local politicians.
- Gather and distribute contest materials: Make sure you have enough evaluation sheets, judging instructions, and other contest materials at the ready. Papers and web sites need to be given to the judges about a week in advance. They must read the papers and review the web sites prior to the contest so they can ask students clarifying questions during their contest interview.
Click here for the next page, The Contest Day |
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