{"id":210957,"date":"2024-03-20T07:30:01","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T11:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=210957"},"modified":"2024-03-15T15:13:58","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T19:13:58","slug":"connecticuts-2024-letters-about-literature-contest-winners-named","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2024\/03\/connecticuts-2024-letters-about-literature-contest-winners-named\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecticut\u2019s 2024 Letters About Literature Contest Winners Named"},"content":{"rendered":"

UConn’s Neag School of Education<\/a>, Department of English<\/a>, and Connecticut Writing Project (CWP)<\/a>, co-sponsors of the 31st annual Letters About Literature<\/a> contest, are proud to announce Connecticut\u2019s winners for the 2023-24 academic year.<\/p>\n

Each year, students in grades four through 12 are invited to read a text, broadly defined, and write a letter to the author (living or dead) about how the text affected them personally. Submissions are grouped according to grade level (grades four to six; grades seven and eight; and grades nine to 12).<\/p>\n

All submissions were read and scored by Neag School alumni teacher-volunteers. Of the 878 submissions from Connecticut students this year, there were 526 students who received honorable mentions. Each Letters About Literature semi-finalist and honorable mention recipient received a letter of recognition.<\/p>\n

A second set of judges, all pre-service teachers, then read and scored the 91 semi-finalists<\/a> \u2014 twice for each submission \u2014 and selected a total of nine winners, three per grade level. Then one student per grade level was named Top Prize. Each of the nine winners will receive a gift card: the three Top Prize winners get $200 each and the six others get $100 each. The winning recipients will be recognized at a ceremony later in the spring.<\/p>\n

Neag School associate professor Doug Kaufman<\/a>, CWP director Jason Courtmanche<\/a>, and Department of English Ph.D. candidate Margaret McFarlane served as the contest\u2019s representatives for the state of Connecticut.<\/p>\n

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Letters About Literature Finalists for the State of Connecticut<\/h2>\n

The following are the contest finalists, listed with their respective school\u2019s and teacher\u2019s names, as well as the work of literature that is the focus of their essay, with access to their winning submissions in PDF format.<\/p>\n

Level I (Grades 4-6)<\/h3>\n