Power of the Pen this year
Mar 15, 2008 Writing
I got to be a judge at Power of the Pen again this year, which is a nice way to spend a rainy, dreary Saturday. There were fewer judges this time around because the date was moved due to last week’s blizzard so there were two of us judging each grade. That meant that each team read around 50 pieces across three prompts. This is how it works: The kids get a prompt and forty minutes to write to it. Within each group, judges choose the top one or two and send them on to us. There are seventeen groups so we get 17 to 34 stories to judge and we choose the best one. (It’s more complicated than that but that’s the gist of it.)
There are lots of awards I don’t understand but the award we judge is kind of a best in show. Those essays go on to compete, I believe, at the state level. The kids are all part of school teams so there are team awards and individual awards.
Reading the essays is a lot of fun although it can be a little tiring. By the end of the day, we were all pretty punchy. The best part is handing out the awards because there’s a lot of screaming and cheering and jumping up and down. I can’t help but get choked up and my face hurts from smiling so hard. When it comes to being a writing middle schooler, a little recognition goes a long way.
I want to see about starting a homeschool team only I’m not sure if I have time to lead it. It’d be fun though.
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