{"id":8960,"date":"2015-06-08T03:00:51","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T10:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/?p=8960"},"modified":"2015-06-05T17:49:16","modified_gmt":"2015-06-06T00:49:16","slug":"the-sixth-annual-new-york-times-summer-reading-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/the-sixth-annual-new-york-times-summer-reading-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sixth Annual New York Times Summer Reading Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year since 2010 The New York Times Learning Network (an Educator Innovator<\/em> partner) has invited teenagers to add The New York Times to their summer reading lists, and every year more and more have taken up the offer.<\/p>\n

This year, we\u2019re running the contest with an all-new, and much-improved, commenting system<\/a> that we hope will make the logistics easier for students and teachers alike.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how the contest works:<\/p>\n

Every Friday from June 12 through Aug. 14<\/strong> we\u2019ll pose the same question: What interested you most in The Times this week?<\/p>\n

Anyone 13 to 19 years old from anywhere in the world can post an answer, and contestants can choose from any Times article, essay, video, interactive or photograph published in 2015, on any topic they like.<\/p>\n

Every Tuesday starting June 30 we will announce winners from a previous week and publish them on the blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Scroll down to find more details and tips, as well as a PDF of the rules to share schoolwide.<\/p>\n

Q. \u00a0What kinds of responses are you looking for?\u00a0\"NYTLN<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/strong> We don\u2019t care what you choose or whether you loved or hated it; what we care about is what you have to say about why you picked it.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t believe us, scroll through five years\u2019 worth of winners<\/a>. They have written on serious topics like patriotism<\/a>, Internet surveillance<\/a> and 21st century concentration camps<\/a>, but they have also written on Disney shows<\/a>, subway acrobats<\/a> and a video about \u201cthe art of cabbage walking<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever the topic, you\u2019ll see that the best pieces year after year make both personal connections to the news and go beyond the personal to discuss broader questions and ideas that an issue raises.<\/p>\n

So whether you were moved by an article<\/a>, enlightened by an essay<\/a>, bowled over by a photo<\/a>, irked by an editorial<\/a> or inspired by a feature<\/a>, find something in The Times that genuinely interests you and tell us why, as honestly and originally as you can.<\/p>\n

Q. What are the rules?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.\u00a0<\/strong>First, here is a PDF of all the rules and details in this post. Please share.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 We will post the same Student Opinion<\/a> question every Friday, starting June 12. Each will ask, \u201cWhat interested you most in The Times this week?\u201d That is where you should post your picks (and reasons) any time until the next Friday. Then we will close that post to comments and open a new one with the same question.<\/p>\n

As soon as the contest starts, we will keep an up-to-date link to that week\u2019s question at the top of this page.<\/p>\n

\u2014 You can choose from anything published in the print paper or on NYTimes.com<\/a> in 2015, including videos<\/a>, graphics, slide shows and podcasts<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Feel free to participate every week, but we allow only one submission per person per week.<\/p>\n

\u2014 The contest is open to teenagers only<\/em> \u2014 anyone from 13 to 19 years old, from anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Our new commenting system<\/a> allows responses up to 1,500 characters, which is somewhere between 250 and 300 words.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Make sure to provide us with the full URL or headline (for example, \u201cTo Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This,\u201d<\/a> or http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/01\/11\/fashion\/modern-love-to-fall-in-love-with-anyone-do-this.html).<\/p>\n

\u2014 New for 2015<\/strong>: Before you can post a comment on our blog now, you must register with NYTimes.com. The system is fairly simple, but if you need more directions, they are here<\/a>. Please make sure that your user name does not include a last name. (If you win, you can have your last name published later by following these guidelines<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u2014 Teachers:<\/strong> If you want all the students in a particular class to write in, just give them a code of some kind to affix to their user names. Last year, for instance, we received many with PRHSlions2014 appended.<\/p>\n

\"summer<\/a>

Ruth Fremson\/The New York Times<\/p><\/div>\n

Q.\u00a0<\/strong>Who will be judging my work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.\u00a0<\/strong>This year, The Learning Network is keeping judging in-house as we adjust to our new commenting system.<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0<\/strong>When should I check to see whether my submission won?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.\u00a0<\/strong>Every Tuesday from June 30 to Sept. 1, we will publish a previous week\u2019s winner or winners in a separate post. We will also celebrate the winners on Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0<\/strong>How do I participate in this contest if I don\u2019t have a digital subscription?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.\u00a0<\/strong>NYTimes.com has a digital subscription system<\/a> in which readers have free access to 10 articles each month. If you exceed that limit, you will be asked to become a digital subscriber.<\/p>\n

One thing you should know, however, is that The Learning Network and all its posts, as well as all Times articles linked from them, are accessible without a digital subscription. <\/a>That means that if you use any of the articles we have linked to on this blog for summer reading, they will not count as part of the 10-article limit. And you can use anything published in 2015.<\/p>\n

Update, May 11 | The NYT Now app for iPhones<\/a> is now free and offers daily articles and multimedia.<\/p>\n

And if just paging, or clicking, through the paper doesn\u2019t yield what you want, here are 10 new digital tools<\/a> for finding interesting things in The Times.<\/p>\n

Q. How do I prove to my teacher that I participated?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.\u00a0<\/strong>Our new commenting system makes that much easier than in the past. Now you can check a box that asks you if you would like to be emailed when your comment is published:<\/p>\n

\"Commenting3LN-blog480\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you do so, the system will send you a link to your comment, which you can use to show your teacher, your parents, your friends or anyone else you\u2019d like to impress.<\/p>\n

\"BookStackLN-articleInline\"<\/a>

Tony Cenicola\/The New York Times<\/p><\/div>\n

Q. How can teachers, librarians and parents use this challenge?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.\u00a0<\/strong>Over the years, adults have told us over and over that participating in this contest has made their students both more aware of and more interested in what’s going on in the world.<\/p>\n

If that\u2019s not enough of a reason to assign it, our contest is also an easy way to add more nonfiction to your students\u2019 reading lists \u2014 and to encourage teenagers to make their own choices<\/a> about what to read, as anything published in The Times in 2015 is fair game.<\/p>\n

With our new commenting system, we also hope the September hassle we\u2019ve previously put you through is eliminated: Every student who posts can now check a box asking to receive an email when his or her comment is published. With that email in hand, it should be much easier for your students to show you they\u2019ve \u201cdone the assignment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thank you for making this contest a hit year after year, and please spread the word that it\u2019s back (and better than ever) for 2015.<\/p>\n

\n

Good luck. Please post any questions in the comments on the Learning Network<\/a> and we\u2019ll answer you there.<\/p>\n

By Katherine Schulten
\nOriginal Post\/ The New York Times Learning Network<\/a>
\nPhoto (top)\/ Ruth Fremson\/The New York Times<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year since 2010 The New York Times Learning Network (an Educator Innovator partner) has invited teenagers to add The New York Times to their summer reading lists, and every year more and more have taken up the offer. This year, we\u2019re running the contest with an all-new, and much-improved, commenting system that we hope […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":9029,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[42],"tags":[347],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8960"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8960"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9027,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8960\/revisions\/9027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}