Download Flyer

Download Flyer

Interested in attending the conference? Here’s what to do next:

• Register for the conference – coming soon – check back!
• Register for your hotel room
• Propose a presentation for the conference

We welcome all proposals and give each serious consideration. Please note the conference theme and ensure that your proposal addresses the theme. You are encouraged to submit your proposal early. As a professional, nonprofit organization, VATE cannot reimburse program participants for travel, hotel, or other conference expenses. All presenters must register for the conference.

Proposals are due by July 31st, 2012.

Download Conference Proposal Form

Download Conference Proposal Form

The Needle’s Eye, the VATE newsletter, is published quarterly and contains information about the group’s current work. If you are interested in submitting an article or a notice, contact the editor.

Deadlines

Deadline for Fall publication: October 31

Deadline for Winter publication: December 31

Deadline for Spring publication: March 31

Deadline for Summer publication: August 31

Needle’s Eye Editor: Tori Otstot

For the technologically savvy, we’ve moved from a hand-coded website that has won our retired webmaster, Linda MacCleave, numerous awards and valuable recognition, to a more streamlined engine with WordPress. For the non-technologically savvy… well, I’ll stick with “the website has changed.”

It will take a few days to get all of the content moved to the new site, but don’t despair if you aren’t able to comb through past issues of The Needle’s Eye (now VATE Voices) or pictures from conferences of years past. Those things will appear back on the site very soon. Along with those things, it is also my hope to help use the VATE website to spotlight some of our profession’s notable members across the Commonwealth, to help share ideas and thoughts. In many ways, we hope to see the new design blossom into something that helps our members come together more often than our annual conference allows and find a similar experience of refreshing ideas, debates, stories, and excitement.

For now, however, there is some dust. Please excuse it. If something doesn’t quite work properly, please let me know – but do so gently, please. Linda leaves behind some awfully big shoes to fill. As the above picture of me from this year’s conference shows, I’m a bit intimidated by it – my confidence feels up to it, but my ego isn’t quite certain.

- Rafe Telsch
(webmaster@vate.org)

Competition Information

• The Virginia Literacy Explosion is a statewide competition for students in grades K-12. 
• Participants receive awards for outstanding products in six categories related to language arts.
• The competition will be held at Landstown High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia on Saturday, March 17, 2012.

How to Enter Your Student(s)

• Registration forms may be downloaded and printed from www.vate.org.
• School Registration Form (due January 30)
• Student Registration Form (due February 15th)

• There is a $5 per student OR a $30 per school entry fee (whichever is less), payable to: Virginia Association of Teachers of English.
• Mail your school registration and fee by January 30 or  your student registrations by February 15 to:

Event Schedule

• Check-in:  8:30-9:15
• Set  up:  9:15-9:45
• Judges Meeting:  9:15-9:45
• Explosion Showcase and Judging:   9:45-11:45
• Break/Snacks:   11:45-12:20
• Award Winning Showcase and Presentation of Awards:  12:20-1:15

Awards

1. First, second and third place medals will be awarded in each category.
2. The school with the most students entered will receive a Highest Participation Award.

Contest Categories

• Click on the description of each event to view a copy of the scoring rubric.
• Each entry will be scored using the project scoring rubric and the participant’s interview.
• Students may submit entries individually or as part of a collaborative team.

*Both fiction and nonfiction texts may be used to create the products.  Texts may include, but are not limited to narratives, plays, poems, essays, informational texts, and students’ original writing.

 INTERVIEWS:  For each category, entrants will participate in an interview (view sample questions)

1.     BOOK COVERS

Entrants will design a book cover for a text of his/her choice with the intent to entice readers or market the text. The cover must be created using desktop publishing.  (View Scoring Rubric)

2.     BOOK TRAILER

Entrants will prepare a video trailer of his/her chosen text. The trailer should be at least two minutes in length, but no more than four minutes long. The trailer must be a positive presentation of the subject. The trailer’s purpose is to persuade the audience to read the text.  The trailer must contain original footage and should not contain music from a motion picture soundtrack, if applicable.  (View Scoring Rubric)

3.     PHOTO ESSAY

Photo essays will depict themes/main ideas or scenes/essential details from a text.  Essays should have a minimum of six original photographs and may include quotes or phrases taken from the represented text.  (View Scoring Rubric)

4.     GLOG IT!

Entrants must use Glogster to depict essential components, including but not limited to theme/main idea, organizational structure, text features, viewpoint, and writer’s craft. (View Scoring Rubric)

5.     PODCAST

Entrants create a podcast that creatively interprets the text.  Ideas include, but are not limited to having a radio interview of the author or a debate about an idea that is presented in the text.  (View Scoring Rubric)

6.     SCENE IT 

Entrants will pick a pivotal scene from a text to dramatize.  Record the scene using digital technology.  Props, musical instruments, prerecorded music, costumes, or any other objects of any kind may be used.  Performances may be no longer than five minutes. (View Scoring Rubric)

Click to Download the Literacy Explosion Flyer!

UPDATE: The election ended on December 16th, 2011. Voting is now closed.

Highlights included:

• Luncheon Speaker: Carol Jago
• Dinner Speaker: Rena Berlin
• Brunch Speaker: Sharyn McCrumb

In addition, attendees had the opportunity to visit the Frontier Culture Museum, meet two of the members of the Norfolk 17, and attend a Blackfriars Theater performance of Henry V.

See moments from the 2011 Conference in our gallery below: