PitchIt! Colorado Student Essay Contest

Educators! Give your students the opportunity to write about some of the most important topics of our time and explore how they can help combat misinformation and work to protect the freedom of the press.

Deadlines:

Nov. 28-Feb. 13: Early essay submission period

Feb. 14-March 13: Regular essay submission period

March 14-April 16: Extended entry submission period

April 17: Absolute deadline

Student voice is a catalyst for positive change in schools and communities. For this reason, the Colorado Language Arts Society and The Colorado Sun, in partnership with the News Literacy Project, are hosting a writing contest to empower Colorado students to be civically informed and engaged.

TEACHING GOALS

• Teachers have an authentic and engaging writing assignment that amplifies student voices and explores issues aligned to district curricula, standards and required topics, such as the First Amendment.
• Students analyze different types of misinformation and show the ability to think critically about what is and is not verifiable information.
• Students apply their news and media literacy skills to solve the misinformation problem.
• This project challenges students to develop their 21^st century civics and media literacy skills as outlined in the Colorado Department of Education’s Academic Standards resource (see our Google Drive documents for the Colorado English and Social Studies academic contexts and connections).

AWARDS

The PitchIt! Colorado State Finals Event will be a hybrid (in person and Zoom) format. Students will present live for the chance at claiming the title PitchIt! Colorado State News Literacy Champion. An awards ceremony will be held and first-, second- and third-place trophies will be provided for both middle school and high school competitors, along with a school banner for display.

OVERVIEW

Participating teachers may choose to adapt the competition curriculum for individual classes or hold a schoolwide event. Each participating school may submit up to five entries per grade band.

Educators are provided with free resources, planning and organizational support for instructional purposes in the PitchIt! Student Essay Contest folder on NLP’s Google Drive.

For this project, middle and high school students will write a 500- to 1,000-word essay in response to one of the news literacy writing prompts. Submitted essays will be judged by NLP ambassadors. Selected first- through third-place essay contest finalists (three from middle school and three from high school) will earn the opportunity to compete at the PitchIt! Colorado State Finals Event, where they will receive real-time feedback from journalists.

At state finals, each student will “pitch” their essay (via their slide presentation) to a select panel of professional journalists and state legislators. The winner of the PitchIt! Colorado State Finals will earn the title of PitchIt! Colorado State Champion.

ELIGIBILITY

This contest is open to middle and high school students in Colorado who participate with the support from a teacher and/or school. Participating teachers may choose to adapt the competition curriculum for individual classes or hold a schoolwide event. Each participating school may submit up to five entries per grade band (6-12).

Winners of the essay component must be able to attend the PitchIt! Colorado State Finals event either in person or virtually. The event will take place in the Denver Metro area in May of 2023 (location, date and time TBD).

LEARNING TASK AND CHOOSING THE ESSAY TOPIC

News literacy is the ability to determine the credibility of news and other content to identify different types of information and to use the standards of fact-based journalism to determine what to trust, share and act on. Being news literate also means recognizing the critical role of the First Amendment and a free press in a democracy and interacting with news and information in ways that promote engaged participation in civic life.

Objective

Students will be able to develop critical thinking and news literacy skills to find reliable information to make decisions, take action and responsibly share news through social media.

Task

Students compose an essay in response to one of the news literacy writing prompts below, discussing how it relates to a local, national or international news article of their choice. They should form a thesis based on their chosen prompt and aim to convince their audience that the thesis is accurate and valid.

Audience

Educators, professional journalists, and state legislators.

Summative Assessment

Students will be evaluated using the PitchIt! Rubric found among the PitchIt! Student Essay Contest documents in Google Drive. Teachers should provide students with a written copy of the rubric and relevant supporting materials.

PROCESS

Step 1. Teacher introduces the writing assignment to their class, the rubric* and the process by which the top essays will advance. News literacy topics are explored with students as they relate to the curriculum. Teachers can explore the free educator resources on NewsLitNation® or the Checkology® virtual classroom on topics like the First Amendment.

Step 2. Students work with their teacher to select a news article/topic of their choice and to select one of the prompts below to follow in writing the essay. Encourage students to use the essay planning document* as an outline before submitting a final draft.

Step 3. Teachers select up to five student essay finalists per grade, per school, and submit them to [email protected].

Step 4. NLP’s educator panel selects six essays (three from middle school and three from high school) to advance to the Colorado State Finals.

Step 5: Panel notifies the teacher at the end of April. The selected students then begin creating a visual presentation of their essay (PowerPoint or Google Slides), to compete in the final phase of the contest.

Step 6: Essay finalists make their presentation (the “pitch”) to a panel of journalists and state legislators during the PitchIt! Colorado State Finals Event. Panelists choose the first-, second- and third-place state champion titles for middle school competitors and high school competitors, who will be awarded during the event.

*Click here for the Google Drive folder with PitchIt! educator resources.

PROMPTS

Prompt #1: Explain how the First Amendment protects freedom of the press. Use a recent local, national or international news story to illustrate the importance of freedom of the press and how other freedoms are required to protect it.

Prompt #2: What steps should someone take to fact-check statements by a public figure? Consider a recent event in the news to analyze the ways in which the press can hold public figures accountable for what they say and share publicly.

Prompt #3: People have civic responsibilities, things they should do but are not required by law. Explain which news literacy skills are essential to responsible civic participation by example of a recent event in the news.

Prompt #4: Social media platforms are under increased public pressure to fact-check online content generated and shared by users. Which news literacy standards should social media platforms adopt to evaluate fact from fiction? Support your answer with real-world examples in the media.

Prompt #5: What is the role of the media in our society, and how can we become responsible consumers and producers of news and information in the digital age? Support your answer with real-world examples in the news.

Prompt #6: How do confirmation bias, stereotyping and other cognitive biases impact how we interpret events, news and information? What are potential consequences of not verifying the accuracy of such information? Analyze a current news event with these multiple issues in mind for your essay.

CRITERIA

• Essays must be the original, unpublished work of one student.
• Essays must be 500-1,000 words, clearly addressing one of the prompts.
• Essays must be typed in 12-point, Times New Roman, double-spaced with 1” margins and numbered pages
• All essays must have a title.
• Students must include at least three credible sources to support their thesis.
• Essays must use MLA formatting, complete with in-text citations and a Works Cited page (not included in the word count). See Purdue Owl MLA Guide.
• Organization: students must include an introduction with a thesis statement, multiple body paragraphs and a conclusion. See Purdue Owl Argumentative Essays.
• Essays must be proofread and should follow the rules for standard English (grammar, punctuation, mechanics) in writing. See Purdue Owl Grammar.
• Plagiarism: any submission that is in part or wholly plagiarized will be disqualified from the PitchIt! competition. See Purdue Owl Plagiarism.
• A cover page MUST be included with the following information: title of essay, student name, grade level, student’s complete mailing address, student’s email address, school’s name, principal’s name, teacher’s name, and best phone number and email address for the teacher.
• Only five essays from each grade may be submitted per school.

Contest Deadline: April 17, 2023, 11:59 p.m. MT.

Schools/teachers should submit their top five winning essays per grade band with cover letter via email to the Colorado News Literacy Ambassador: [email protected]

FAQ:

Is there a submission fee? No fees! Better yet, there is no catch. All our educator resources are free, including Checkology!

What does “teacher support” mean? Successful writers are made through direct instruction. Teachers are encouraged to support students in both content and the writing process. The teacher’s name and contact information must also be indicated in the cover letter as the primary point of contact regarding the entry.

How are the essays judged? Essays will be reviewed by news literacy ambassadors using the PitchIt! rubric. Successful essays are about a local, national or international story that would have benefited from news literacy skills being applied to stop the spread of misinformation. For example, consider the impact a story had, and whether false claims about it could be debunked using reputable and verifiable sources of information.

How is the “pitch” judged?

The first-, second- and third-place essay winners advance to the PitchIt! Colorado State Finals phase of the contest. To prepare, they must create a visual presentation based on their essay theme (PowerPoint or Google Slides). During the event they will each have three minutes to “pitch” their essay idea to a panel of journalists and state legislators, and will receive real-time feedback from the panel. Student presentations will be judged for creativity, delivery, impact and accuracy during the event at the end of May 2023.

Who can participate? The PitchIt! contest is open to all Colorado students in middle and high school.

What document formats are accepted? Please submit the essay as a Google doc or a Word document.

How are the finalists announced? Email notification will be sent to the teacher by the end of April.

I live too far from Denver to attend the State Finals event in person. May I still participate? Yes! We plan to offer a way to participate via Zoom, so you can still attend and your student can still present their pitch to our panel of journalists.

I have more questions! Do you have contacts? Questions about NLP resources can be directed to Kim Bowman, senior associate of user success, [email protected]. Questions about rules can be directed to Miriam Romais, director of NewsLitNation, [email protected], and questions about entries can be directed to our Colorado news literacy ambassador, Amanda Escheman, at [email protected].