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American History Essay Changes

By janet westbrook posted 05-12-2023 11:31 am.

During an exciting first year of the Wright Administration, the American History Committee has looked for ways to improve the essay contests.   The biggest change is that essays will now be submitted electronically at each level beginning with the Chapter and so on all the way to National . Changes have been made to all essay contests forms and will be updated by July 1. The American History Essay Contest for grades 5 – 8 will now have a submission form as the title page, a new judging rubric, and a list of resources replacing the more formal bibliography. Completing the submission form will ensure no student will be disqualified based on the former title page. Students will also be able to submit an entry directly to a DAR chapter if their class or school is not participating. Chapters are encouraged to reach out beyond the schools to include their community libraries, YMCA, and other youth organizations. Our hope is this will increase chapter and student participation.

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American history essay and patriots of the american revolution essay contest winners.

Christy Hiatt Hiatt 07-07-2023 03:23 PM

Do we have any updates for the History Contest yet? We are a newer chapter hosting our fist contest and I'm having a hard time finding informaton, guidelines, judging criteria, etc. The pamphlet I found said to reach out to the chapter for more details so I appreciate anything that this Community can share.

Janet Calabrese 06-16-2023 07:24 AM

Hi Stephanie,

Hopefully they will be announcing all of the changes at Continental Congress. The new forms and process will not be available online until afterwards.

Stephanie Keaty 06-15-2023 08:34 PM

hi Janet - Will these changes be announced at Continental Congress? 

Janet Calabrese 06-15-2023 08:40 AM

I like the idea of being able to submit electronically. However, I am holding off on the whole rubric thing until I see what it is. Last year National used a rubric judging sheet for Good Citizens which was an absolute nightmare. My judges hated it. If the rubric for America History is anything like the one used for Good Citizens we are going to have a difficult time finding judges for either.

Karen Kreitzberger Polett 06-07-2023 08:58 AM

How will our Chapters guard against AI generated essays? 

Karen Bradley 05-13-2023 04:59 AM

This is fabulous…a wonderful change! I am a former national vice chair in charge of the contest and former national chair and know how many essays get caught for these types of things. Hopefully, this will make it simpler and will encourage more students to enter. 

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DAR Essay Contest 2020-21

DAR Topic 2020-21

Frances Bland Randolph Chapter NSDAR

“The Boston Massacre”

March 5, 2020, marked the 250th anniversary of the Boston Massacre, considered to be a pivotal event that paved the way to the American Revolution.

Imagine that you are living in boston and, after witnessing the events of march 5, describe your family’s discussion about the boston massacre and what role it played in organizing the colonists against the british king and parliament..

Final Due Date: Monday October 12, 2020

Research sites for information to get you going:

Virtual American Revolution

http://virtualamericanrevolution.com/bmassacre.html

American Heroes - Video

https://www.youvisit.com/tour/videos/student23/115537?id=860661

History.com Boston Massacre and the Aftermath

https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/boston-massacre

https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/boston-massacre-helps-spark-the-american-revolution-video

Khan Academy article

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/road-to-revolution/the-american-revolution/a/the-boston-massacre

US History.org

https://www.ushistory.org/declaration/related/massacre.html

Constitution Center

https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/on-this-day-the-boston-massacre-lights-the-fuse-of-revolution

Open-ended Social Studies

https://openendedsocialstudies.org/tag/boston-massacre/

I encourage you to consider asking yourself a few questions for preplanning your story:

• Who are you? Man/woman/child? Age? (your feelings/experiences may be different depending on who you are)
• Who is in your "family" that is expressing their feelings in your story?
• What class of people is your family? (wealthy? servants? merchants?)
• What political feelings do you have about the King and Parliament?
• What are the feelings of the colonists in Boston in 1770?
• The prompt says you witnessed The Boston Massacre... what did you witness? (you need to know what happened at the Boston Massacre)
• How did the colonists feel after the Boston Massacre?

Writing the Bibliography can be tricky... students need to retain information from the resources they use to take notes. Then, they can format their bibliographies.

http://www.aresearchguide.com/12biblio.html

http://qofp.com/links_bio.htm

http://www.factmonster.com/homework/t8biblio.html

There are a lot more pages out there to help with Bibliographies, but these should get you started and keep you on track.

Here are some Bibliography Generators - put your information into it and they will generate your format:

http://www.citationmachine.net/mla/cite-a-book

http://www.bibme.org/

http://www.easybib.com/

Plagiarism Scavenger Hunt

http://edtech2.boisestate.edu/jenniferharris2/502/scavenger.html

Check for Plagiarism: (this is a paid site, but you can search Google for another option)

  https://www.grammarly.com/plagiarism?q=plagiarism&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Search&utm_term=plagiarism&matchtype=p

Sample for Title Page:

“TThe Boston Massacre”

Hopewell, VA 23860

Carter G. Woodson Middle School

Frances Bland Randolph Chapter of NSDAR

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rubric for DAR Essay

All Essays 600-1000 words

Times New Roman font 12-14, or handwritten in black ink

ELA Brave and True by Marilyn Yung

DAR Patriots of the American Revolution Essay Contest

High school essay contest

Looking for a high school writing contest this fall? Look no further than the Daughters of the American Revolution’s (DAR) Patriots of the American Revolution Essay Contest. In my previous teaching position, a few of my high school students participated in this contest as part of our Writer’s Workshop routine. Entering the contest was one of the options they could choose for their portfolios.

If you’re not familiar with the DAR, here’s a brief intro from the organization’s website: “The DAR, founded in 1890 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a non-profit, non-political volunteer women’s service organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history, and securing America’s future through better education for children.”

My students have had great success with the  DAR Patriots of the American Revolution Essay Contest.  Within the last three years, two of my students have written essays that won at both the local and state level, where monetary prizes were awarded. Needless to say, I’m very proud of those students!

This year’s 2022-2023 contest guidelines sheet details the topic, length (800-1,200 for 6-8 grades), format, and bibliography details. (Note: Each DAR chapter designates their own individual due dates. Check with your local chapter by locating it here on the  national DAR website’s chapter locater. )

Here’s the high school essay prompt:

“Select a figure from the era of the American Revolution (1773-1783). Discuss how he or she influenced the course of the American Revolution, who he or she was and his/her contribution to the founding of a new nation. Your figure may be any person, whether a well-known figure or an everyday man, woman or child who supported the American Revolution in ways large or small.”

With that prompt in mind, here’s my advice to your students:

Choose a lesser known patriot. Go beyond the founding fathers to find and write about a patriot whom the judges won’t be as familiar with. My student who won at state last year, for example, wrote about the patriot Nancy Hart.

Download the contest guidelines by clicking the button below:

And here’s my last tip:.

Tell your students to get creative and go beyond the traditional informative essay. Blend genres, combining, for example, a journal entry with a biographical piece.

I encourage you to try the DAR Patriots of the American Revolution High School Contest with your high school students. It was a mainstay in my classes.

Thanks for reading!

Have you ever tried a DAR contest? Leave a comment below or send me a message via my  Contact Page.  If you need more info, please ask. I’ll be glad to help you however I can.

I thoroughly believe that  writing contests  can infuse ELA with relevance and a dash of project-based learning. Whenever students know their words will enter “the real world” and be reviewed by real people, it makes them take the work more seriously.

Need a new poetry idea?

Enter your email below and I’ll send you this PDF file that will teach your students to write Treasured Object Poems , one of my favorite poem activities. I know your students will enjoy it!

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with me (the site owner) and Mailchimp to receive occasional emails. Obviously, you can use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Looking for something specific?

Book Bentos: My First Attempt

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DAR announces American History Essay Contest

Students enrolled in fifth through eighth grades are invited to enter the 2023-2024 American History Essay Contest sponsored by the Barrington-based Signal Hill Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR). The contest reflects the organization's values of historic preservation, education, and patriotism by inviting students to think and write creatively about historic U.S. events, specifically those related to the American Revolution.

This year's essay topic is as follows:

On May 14, 1897, John Phillip Sousa played his new march, "The Stars and Stripes Forever." This song would become the national march of the United States on Dec. 11, 1987. Imagine it is 1897, and you are a newspaper reporter for The Philadelphia Times. Your newspaper editor has asked you to write an article about the song being performed that day. Your article needs to tell us about Sousa's life and the story behind the song. It is the first performance of the song, so make sure your article includes your thoughts about the music and how the audience reacts to what is seen and heard that day.

Depending on the student's age group, essays may be 300 to 1,000 words. All grade five, six, seven and eight students in a public, private or parochial school, or those who are home schooled, are eligible to participate. One essay at each grade level will be selected as the Signal Hill Chapter winner. All winners will be recognized at a DAR Youth Awards event, hosted by the Signal Hill Chapter in early 2024. Winners will go forward in competition with the potential for a national award. Essays must be submitted by Friday, Nov. 10, 2023.

For information about the essay contest and its requirements, contact Signal Hill Historian Kat Nosal, via email at [email protected].

The Signal Hill Chapter, NSDAR, was chartered 50 years ago in Barrington, in 1972. NSDAR is a volunteer women's service organization headquartered in Washington, D.C.

Due to fund-raising efforts throughout the year, the chapter contributes financially to several 501 (c) (3) organizations whose missions support that of NSDAR.

NSDAR provides more than $1.5 million in scholarships annually. It is the largest group of participants in support of Wreaths Across America. Through its various programs and initiatives, NSDAR strives to increase the awareness of men and women who achieved American independence, including those of diverse backgrounds.

Since its founding in 1890, over one million women have joined both nationally and around the world. Membership in NSDAR is open to any woman, aged 18 and over, who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution.

For information about the Barrington-based chapter, visit: signalhilldar.com .

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