Apply Here

All applicants must be valid members of ITBE. To become a new member or to renew a membership, go to https://www.itbe.org/membership.php. Check your membership status by using your member log-in on the ITBE website or by emailing us at membership@itbe.org.  (Lodging not included) Two students will be selected.

Due Date: February 14, 2025 

Eligibility Requirements:

You are eligible for the Illinois TESOL-BE $500 Undergraduate Scholarship if you are:

• an undergraduate student presently enrolled full or part-time in an accredited college or university program in TESOL or bilingual education OR a practicing professional or paraprofessional in TESOL or BE with concrete plans to enroll in relevant undergraduate coursework
• an excellent student
• an individual in need of financial assistance 
• a current member of Illinois TESOL-BE 

To become a member of TESOL-BE or to renew membership, go to www.itbe.org. Check your membership status by using your member log-in on the ITBE web site or by e-mailing us at membership@itbe.org.

How to Apply for a Scholarship Award:

To apply for the Illinois TESOL-BE $500 Undergraduate Scholarship, you must submit

1. A statement in which you:

   • Describe your involvement to date in the field of ESL/BE. Include work as a teacher, program administrator, social worker, community organizer, etc.

   • Explain your professional goals and how your program of study will help you meet those goals.

   • Give a brief statement regarding your financial need

   • An application form with your personal information

   • Two letters of recommendation from academic and/or professional references. Individuals providing references should log into the online system (see below) and answer two short questions on the faculty reference form.

   • An unofficial transcript of academic work (scanned paper transcript or a webpage submitted as PDF are all acceptable).

   • A letter of acceptance for those not currently enrolled in an academic program.

ALL MATERIALS MUST BE SUBMITTED THROUGH THE ONLINE SYSTEM. INCOMPLETE APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.

Start your application by following this link: Online Application for Undergraduate Scholarship

Submit a reference by following this link: Online Faculty Reference Form

Alternatively, you can download the reference form and send it to awards@itbe.org. 

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DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: Friday, December 20

Please note: The online submission system closes at 11:59pm on Friday, December 20, 2024. You will not be able to submit any documents after this time.

Questions? Email the Awards Committee at awards@itbe.org

Eligibility Requirements:

You are eligible for the Illinois TESOL-BE $500.00 Graduate Scholarship if you are

• a graduate student presently enrolled full or part-time in an accredited college or university program in TESOL or bilingual education or a practicing ESL/bilingual education professional with concrete plans to enroll in relevant graduate coursework; 
• an excellent student; 
• an individual in need of financial assistance; 
• a current member of Illinois TESOL-BE

How to Apply for a Scholarship Award:

To apply for the $500.00 Graduate Scholarship you must submit:
A statement in which you:

• Describe your involvement to date in the field of ESL/BE. Include work as a teacher, program administrator, social worker, community organizer, etc.
• Explain your professional goals and how your program of study will help you meet those goals.
• Give a brief statement regarding your financial need.
• An application form with your personal information 
• Two letters of recommendation from academic and/or professional references. Individuals providing references should log into the online system (see below) and answer two short questions on the faculty reference form.
• An unofficial transcript of academic work (scanned paper transcript or a web page submitted as PDF are all acceptable).
• A letter of acceptance for those not currently enrolled in an academic program.

ALL MATERIALS MUST BE SUBMITTED THROUGH THE ONLINE SYSTEM. INCOMPLETE APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.

Start your application by following this link: Online Application Form

Submit a reference by following this link: Online Faculty Reference Form 

Alternatively, you can download the reference form and send it to awards@itbe.org.

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DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: Friday, December 20

Please note: The online submission system closes at 11:59pm on Friday, December 20, 2024. You will not be able to submit any documents after this time.

Questions? Email the Awards Committee at awards@itbe.org

Purpose:

Whereas, throughout his extraordinary career, Elliot Judd exemplified the characteristics of an exceptional educator and demonstrated outstanding commitment to the field of TESOL, ITBE has established a memorial award in his honor.

The purpose of the award is to honor an ITBE member who demonstrates the qualities exemplified by Elliot Judd: outstanding teaching, dedication to the professional field of TESOL, as well as a commitment to the professional development of colleagues.

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About Elliot Judd:

Elliot Judd joined the Linguistics Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1979, after receiving his BA, MA and PhD from New York University.  He developed the master’s program in TESOL at UIC and was its popular director for almost 30 years.

Perhaps Elliot’s greatest legacy is his insistence on the professional status of TESOL as a field, with knowledge, standards, authority, and influence.  When he began his career, TESOL had little professional status and there were few opportunities for career development.  Children with limited or no English proficiency were often thrown into classes with other children to sink or swim. Non-native speaking adults might find a night class taught by a well-meaning, but usually untrained individual at a community center.  Gradually, through the efforts of dedicated professionals like Elliot, the field began to develop a knowledge base and high quality preparation programs. His tireless and passionate promotion of the field, and the teachers and the learners in it, was a life-long commitment. 

Elliot was an influential member of international TESOL, acting as its president from 2005-2006, as a member of the Executive Board, as Chair of the Annual Convention, and as Director of the Summer Institute.  He was a member of ITBE since its early days, serving the association in many capacities and encouraging countless new teachers to join and become active in their state professional association. 

Elliot was the founding editor of the TESOL Journal, a publication dedicated to the interests of classroom teachers.  He co-edited several books, and wrote numerous articles and book chapters.  Much in demand as a speaker, he gave plenary presentations, papers, and workshops on every continent.  His academic work focused on the socio-political factors that have shaped American language policy, both past and present, especially in the teaching English to immigrants. He frequently wrote and spoke out against English-only policies that abrogate the rights of non-English speakers and was a champion of the linguistics rights for speakers of all languages. 

For all his dedication to the institution of TESOL, Elliot was, at heart, a teacher, utterly devoted to his students. At UIC alone, he mentored close to a thousand students. He instilled in these new teachers a respect for that knowledge, authority, and influence which has come to characterize the profession.  And they, in turn, have passed on what they learned from him to thousands of their students.  Many Illinois ESL and Bilingual educators were fortunate to have been taught by Elliot Judd.

Elliot passed away on December 9, 2008, after a three-year battle with cancer. Soon after his death, the ITBE Executive Board established the Elliot Judd Outstanding Teacher Award in his honor.

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Know an Amazing ESL or Bilingual Ed. Educator? 

Illinois TOESL-Bilingual Education

Grades 6-12 Writing Contest

2024-2025

Writing is an enduring form of expression and communication.  The ITBE Writing Competition is an opportunity for your students to inform us about various aspects of their culture.  As you plan your curriculum for the upcoming school year, provide opportunities for your ELLs to write about their personal bicultural and bilingual experience in the United States. 

At the beginning of the school year, advise your students of the contest. Read the rules with your class.  As your students are exposed to different types of writing in class, encourage them to practice what they have learned by writing an essay for the writing competition.  While teachers may not edit their students’ writings for the contest, it is acceptable to brainstorm with them in terms of their “life events” which might make an interesting essay.   Help your students choose the correct style for their story—narrative, descriptive, expository, or persuasive.  Use the ITBE 6-12 Writing Contest as the proverbial “carrot” that keeps your students interested in writing. 

Sponsoring teachers, winning students, and students’ families are welcome to attend the ESL Writing Contest Special Recognition Awards Ceremony on Friday, February 21, 2025, at the Illinois TESOL/BE Annual State Convention.  This event includes the reading of the award-winning essays and the presentation of certificates and monetary awards to winning students. 

Prizes for Students:

Category A: Grades 6-8		Category B: Grades 9-12
First Place: $100 Second Place: $75 Third Place: $50 Honorable Mention: $25		First Place: $100 Second Place: $75 Third Place: $50 Honorable Mention: $25

Eligibility:

Contestant must be a full-time student in grades 6-12 in the state of Illinois and a non-native speaker of English, enrolled in a TBE/TPI program. There are two divisions:  Grades 6-8 and Grades 9-12.  Monetary prizes will be awarded for 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd  and Honorable Mention.

Topic:

The ITBE Writing Competition is an opportunity to inform the audience of an aspect of your culture as it relates to your life in the United States. Your writing should reflect your own personal bicultural and bilingual experience. Your writing should not be simply facts about holidays, customs, or routines in your country; but instead, your writing should be about an experience from your life in your native country or an experience in the United States. You may choose one of the following types of writing:

• Narrative Writing:   Write a short story about an event in your life that taught you something important. Give plenty of details that make the story interesting for the reader.
• Descriptive Writing:  Write a description of something or someone special in your life.  Use words to describe the smells, sights, and sounds that will give the reader a clear picture.
• Expository Writing:  Write about a cultural aspect of your life in your native country that you think Americans would like to know about.  Explain the cultural aspect as it relates to your life experiences.
• Persuasive Writing:  Write about an issue or a cause within your native country or in the United States that relates to you.  State your position and provide facts, opinions, and reasons to support your position.

Conditions:

Failure to abide by any of these rules and conditions will result in the disqualification of the student’s essay from the competition.

• Failure to abide by any of these rules and conditions will result in the disqualification of the student’s essay from the competition.
• Each student may submit only one entry.
• All essays become the property of Illinois TESOL/BE.
• All essays must be the ORIGINAL MATERIAL OF THE AUTHOR.
• The essays must be based on prior knowledge.  This is not a research essay.
• Teachers may not edit the student’s writing.
• Students are not to use any form of AI or computer editing. 

IF A STUDENT HAS PLAGIARIZED ANY PART OF THE ESSAY, IT WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE DISQUALIFICATION.

Form - Essays are to be:

• 500-1000 words (2-3 typed pages)
• Font 12 New Roman
• Double spaced

Submission Directions and Requirements:

• Entries must be submitted with a complete cover sheet, which must include the type of essay, student’s name, home country, name of the sponsoring teacher, name of the school, school address, and school phone number. Cover Sheet Template
• THERE SHOULD BE NO IDENTIFYING INFORMATION ON ANY PAGES OF THE ESSAY.  THIS INCLUDES ANY MENTION OF THE CONTESTANT’S NAME OR SCHOOL.
• DEADLINE-ALL ENTRIES MUST BE POSTMARKED NO LATER THAN FRIDAY, January 10, 2025

• Mail all entries to:

  Lila Birchfield

  9N971 Muirhead Lane

  Elgin, Illinois   60124

Judging:

Entries will be judged based upon content, organization, vocabulary, language use and mechanics.  Criteria for judging will be creativity, writing style, and adherence to form, rules, forms and condition.

Thank you for your participation in the twenty-ninth year of the Illinois TOESL-Bingual Education writing competition.

AY 2025 Grades 2-5 Annual Elementary Poetry Contest

Illinois TESOL-BE is sponsoring its Annual Elementary Poetry Contest. This is a great opportunity for your students to let their creativity shine, communicate powerfully in the English language, and express the importance of their own culture/cultural experiences. Through poetry, elementary students are exposed to literary elements in a meaningful and creative way. Teachers of students learning English can use poetry across the curriculum as an assessment to demonstrate topic knowledge, use of language that describes and use of sentence frames to write poetry.  

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Elementary Poetry Contest Awards for Students:

Poetry categories are:

Bio-Poem

Haiku

Diamante

Acrostic

We thank Viva Los Libros for sponsoring this year's Poetry Contest!

AY2025 Awards

• First and second place winners from each grade level and category will receive a Participation certificate and a book
• One Best of the Best winner will be chosen per Grade Level and will receive a $25 gift certificate and a book 
• One New Comer award will be chosen per Grade Level and will receive a certificate and a book
• Sponsoring teachers of the award winners will also receive a participation certificate.
• Three - One Year ITBE Memberships will be raffled among the sponsoring teachers

AY2025 POETRY CONTEST CEREMONY:

The awards ceremony will be held on Friday, February 21, 2024 at the convention.  Winning sponsoring teachers, winning students, and family members are welcome to attend the award ceremony.  

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 Poetry Contest Guidelines and Resources 

Who can submit entries? Who can enter the contest?

1. The contest is open to any teacher that works in the state of Illinois.  The sponsoring teacher does NOT need to be a member of ITBE.
2. As in previous years, the student must be receiving ELL or bilingual services during the 2024-2025 school year.  The sponsoring teacher is the person who provides the child’s services.
3. Teachers will be given a rubric, score sheet, &, for some poems, worksheets.
4. Teachers will be expected to pick their top 5 poems for each genre of poetry.
5. If a teacher teaches more than one grade then he/she can submit poems for each grade she teaches.  (For example, Mrs. Remigio teaches 2nd & 3rd graders.  She can submit 10 Acrostic poems (5 for 2nd grade & 5 poems for 3rd grade.  Mrs. Remigio may also submit 10 Bio poems, 10 Diamante poems, 10 Haiku poems, & 10 Acrostic poems.

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Format: 

 Form: Students are to write an original Acrostic, Bio, Diamante, Haiku poem. 

Type of Poem:  Students are to write an original Acrostic, Bio, Diamante, Haiku poem. 

• Acrostic Poem– Write one acrostic poem using one or 2 words as the title. The content of the poem must be about an aspect of the student’s culture or his/her perspective of American culture. 
• Bio Poem– Students will write a poem using the prompts provided on the forms. 
• Diamante Poem – Write one Diamante poem that compares an aspect of American culture to the student’s culture. 
• Haiku Poem –Write one Haiku poem in which the content of the poem describes nature within the student’s first country or his or her perspective of nature in the United States. 

• the student's first and last name
• grade level
• home language
• type of poem
• title of the poem
• the name of the sponsoring teacher
• the name of the school and school address
• phone number

(The only identifying information that may be allowed on the poem is the contestant’s FIRST name –if the student includes this as part of the poem title). 

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Conditions

Failure to abide by any of these rules and conditions will result in the disqualification of the student's poem from the competition. 

• Each student may submit only one poem
• The sponsoring teacher does NOT need to be a current member of Illinois TESOL-BE
• All poems become the property of Illinois TESOL-BE
• All poems must be original material of the author
• The poem is based on prior knowledge or experiences
• No teacher editing
• Computer editing (grammar check) will not be allowed, except for spell check
• Sponsoring teacher must be the teacher that works with the student in a TBE/TPI program
• Teacher may submit 5 entries per poetry genre, per grade level

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Judging

• Each category of poetry will have an assessment rubric & scoring sheet the sponsoring teachers will pick their top 5 poems (per genre, per grade level) that will represent their class in the contest. (For example, Mrs. Gigous teaches 2nd & 3rd graders. She can submit 10 Acrostic poems (5 for 2nd grade & 5 poems for 3rd grade. Mrs. Gigous may also submit 10 Bio poems, 10 Diamante poems, 10 Haiku poems.) 
• Entries will be judged based on the criteria listed for each category. See the rubrics for details.
• Teachers will be asked to pick their top 5 entries (per genre, per grade level) for each category and then submit them to ITBE. Teachers do not need to submit the scoring sheet. This tool is available to help rank the students and select the top five of each poetry category. 
• One poetry cover sheet must accompany each entry. Please be sure to write the title of the poem on the cover sheet. This will help to identify the poem and avoid confusion. If the current cover sheet is not provided then ITBE has the right to disqualify the student entry. 

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Resources:

Coversheet, worksheets, rubrics and scoring sheets that you can use to support your students in writing and submitting their poetry.

Coversheet PDF    Acrostic Poem PDF    Bio Poem PDF    Diamante Poem PDF    Haiku Poem PDF

WIDA Performance Indicators to use with Haiku

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If you have any question, please contact ITBE Poetry Contest coordinator: Angie Remigio at aremigio@itbe.org

Entries must be electronically postmarked by Friday, January 10, 2025

Please send all entries to: aremigio@itbe.org 

Please note - only email entries will be accepted.