Awards

NCTE Donald H. Graves Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Writing

 

2020 Award Winners:  Mukkaramah Smith and Kaitlin Jones

Mukkaramah Smith is a 1st Grade teacher in South Carolina at A.J. Lewis Greenview Elementary School in Richland School District One. She has worked as an educator for 25 years as a classroom teacher, lead literacy facilitator, departmental chair, coaching teacher for pre-service teachers, and mentor. Mukkaramah is a board member of Professional Dyads of Culturally Relevant Teaching (PDCRT). She is also a member of NCTE and serves on NCTE’s Elementary Section Nominating Committee.

Mukkaramah has continued to strengthen and deepen her understanding of culturally relevant pedagogies in Early Childhood literacy. Her teaching and advocacy are intertwined by disrupting racist curriculum, instruction, and school policies. In recent years as a first grade teacher, Mukkaramah’s classroom planning and instruction is centered around meeting students where they are as learners by implementing student-based projects that humanize Blackness and empower students through their heritage to be their authentic selves.

Mukkaramah is passionate about centering Black joy in her teaching and strives for her students to love themselves; their history, culture, brilliance, and African American Language.

Kaitlin Jones is a 1st Grade teacher in South Carolina at Rice Creek Elementary School in Richland School District Two. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of South Carolina with a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education with a focus on Urban Education. Throughout her time at the University of South Carolina she participated in the Early Childhood Education’s Urban Cohort, where she gained in-depth knowledge on teaching through a focus on issues of race, ethnicity, language diversity, and socioeconomic status while building a deep and profound appreciation for marginalized communities, whose histories, and heritage are often distorted and omitted from curricula. Through the Urban Cohort, she connected with Mukkaramah Smith during her student teaching internship during the 2019-2020 school year, where they collaborated and developed culturally responsive and sustaining instruction. She will begin her first year teaching during the 2020 – 2021 school year, where she will continue to work with students, families, teachers, and communities to develop collaborative and culturally relevant experiences rooted in social justice.

Kaitlin is deeply committed to affirming the humanity of Black children through culturally relevant and anti-racist teaching.

 

Award Details

Nomination Deadline: July 1, 2021

Purpose: Annually recognize teachers in grades K-6 who, through the teaching of writing, demonstrate an understanding of student improvement in writing.

Award Criteria: Applicants should submit the following:

• Reflective Essay: An introductory essay of 1,500–2,000 words addressing your thoughts about writing and teaching writing, as well as discussing what you see as significant improvements in the children’s texts and insight into the reasons for those improvements.
• Two portfolios of student writing each of which contain three to five selections showing change from earlier to later in the year. Take care that each required item in the application is included and clearly labeled. Papers are to be dated, the names of the children removed, and each coded as child A and B. The two students’ work should represent a range of ability.
  For each student, include a commentary (200-word maximum) on the specific growth you see in this student’s work over time, predictions of where this student might go from here as a writer, and what further instruction you could provide.
  OR
  Writing samples from three students for the same assignment. For each sample, explain the strengths and needs of each student based on the writing, and what your next steps would be (200-word maximum).
• Information Sheet including contact information (home/school address, phone numbers, email, etc.)

Application Review Criteria:

Reflective Essay. As we read your essay we will be looking for your thoughts and philosophy about writing and the teaching of writing, a view into your writing classroom and how this corresponds to your thoughts/philosophy on writing, specific information on how you assess students, and strategies you use to address students’ individual needs.

We will consider your own writing in this application, looking for a sense of your voice and an awareness of the audience who might want to read this essay—teachers and others who would want to know about what you believe about writing and how you go about supporting student growth in writing.

Student Samples and Commentary. We want to look across multiple students of varying writing abilities. Commentary should address students’ strengths and needs based on each writing sample, and how you will support each student as they move forward as writers.

Deadline:
For full consideration all materials must be received by July 1 and sent to jwallner-connell@ncte.org or by postal mail to NCTE Graves Writing Award, 340 N. Neil Street, #104, Champaign, IL 61820.

Judging:
The NCTE Elementary Section Steering Committee selects an award recipient from the essays and materials submitted during the year. If the Committee feels that no significant portfolios or essays have been submitted, the award may be postponed until the next year.

Award Specifics:
The award recipient is presented a certificate and a $2,000 honorarium at the Elementary Section Get-Together during the NCTE Annual Convention.

This award was established in 2001 by Donald H. Graves (1930-2010), professor emeritus in the early childhood program at the University of New Hampshire and renowned educator, researcher, and author on writing.

Read about the influence of Donald H. Graves in the School Talk issue “A Tribute to Donald H. Graves: Teacher, Writer, Friend” and the Language Arts article “Don Graves Remembered,” with a podcast from the authors Tom Romano and Penny Kittle.