The College of Education and Health Professions Clinic for Literacy has partnered with the Pea Ridge National Military Park for a fourth-grade essay contest ahead of Women's History Month next month.

The writing contest is open to all fourth-grade students in Arkansas who attend private, public, charter or home schools. The submission deadline is March 21. The essay contest not only provides opportunities for fourth-graders but also gives U of A Childhood Education teacher candidates the opportunity to gain real-world experience in creating resources and assessing student writing.

Designed by Pea Ridge National Military Park education staff and U of A Department of Curriculum and Instruction faculty, the contest allows elementary students to showcase their writing skills at a statewide level.

Arkansas state education standards for fourth-grade social studies and writing and the National Park Service's Every Kid Outdoors initiative created a natural bond between the U of A Literacy Clinic and the Pea Ridge military park. Park educational staff selected the contest's inspirational theme and a primary source. U of A teacher education faculty used the theme and source to design the writing contest to serve the learning goals of Arkansas students, teachers and teacher candidates.

University students in Alexandra Vasile's fall 2024 Integrated Social Studies for the K-6 Classroom class gathered and created teaching resources for Arkansas educators to use along with the competition packet.

"One of the goals in our Teaching Social Studies methods course is to have candidates think critically about the resources teachers select," literacy clinic programming coordinator Kristi Mascher said. "Candidates were able to participate in this process by selecting, analyzing and annotating a resource's effectiveness based on topic and developmental appropriateness for young learners."

Following the contest deadline, Childhood Education teacher candidates in the spring 2025 Instruction and Assessment of Writing class, taught by teacher education faculty member Karmen Bell, will assist in judging the entries, allowing them to practice assessing student writing.

"Whenever there is an opportunity for teacher candidates to learn through authentic practice, we know their preparation will be stronger," Mascher said. "Writing is a challenging subject to teach and assess, so having meaningful practice with the support of knowledgeable faculty will create more confident first-year teachers."

Sponsors of fourth-grade students can begin the process of submitting entries by using the registration form and promotional packet. Entries must be no longer than one page, front and back, and must be typed. Sponsors can use the submission form to turn in  packets.

Using the context and primary source provided, students must respond to one of these three prompts:

1. How do Mrs. Sutton's words celebrate the fortitude, inventiveness and courage of women during the Civil War and throughout history?
2. How have Mrs. Sutton's words helped expand the roles of women over time?
3. Why is it important that we know the story Mrs. Sutton provides us about life for women during the Civil War?

Students are given the context that during the Civil War, men were called away to serve in the military. This left behind Southern women to take on all of the homefront duties, often enduring hardships alone and in dangerous territories. Below is a portion of writing composed by Mrs. F.L. Sutton of Fayetteville.

"Were there crops to be made, women made them. They raised houses, rolled logs, went to mill…...It was women who killed hogs and beeves, and in the absence of these brutes, women shouldered the guns and went hunting or fishing. In the absence of physicians (and there was a dearth of them for a long period), women practiced without leave or license, sometimes with greater success than some college men with diplomas to recommend them…..it sometimes fell to woman's part not only to offer the final prayer in behalf of the dying and close the sightless eyes, but with her own hands, aided by other women to dig the grave, make the rude pine coffin, and after reading the burial service to fill the grave, mark the place with a simple board, then leave his body to nature and his soul to God." — Confederate Women of Arkansas in the Civil War, Memorial Reminiscences (m&m Press, 1993 / reprint).

Essay contest winners will be announced via email and on the literacy clinic website by April 4. The top three entries will be honored at Pea Ridge National Battlefield in a ceremony on April 19.