KARIN DE VARENNES: It's that time of year to write a strong nomination for that deserving student in your life. What are the three tips for writing it? Stay tuned. My name is Karin De Varennes. I'm a project specialist at OTAN ready to take you through those three tips. 

Here's the outcome for this little video, is that you'll be able to write a strong nomination because of these three tips. And you'll see the honorees below-- picture below from 2023. 

Three tips. Go to our web page. Read the honorees stories. Number two, compare stories with the rubric. And three elaborate, elaborate, elaborate with anecdotes about your adult learner. 

Tip one, just read a few student stories on the CAESS web page. What do you notice? What do you know about the writer when they draw the person in? What information would you tell the writer about, hey, I didn't get enough information about the person's journey. Or of the ones you read, which ones stand out for you? 

Number two, compare stories to the rubric. Our scores always grade each nomination with the rubric. And so, they don't know your student, and you want to make sure that they do know it-- know that person through your words that you write. So compare those stories with the rubric, and you'll have a heads up. 

A tip-- that same tip is sometimes, a lot of nominations will say something like-- example one here, like many adult learners, she has overcome a lot to come to our adult school. That's a-- wah-- because what did they overcome? Scores have no idea. 

So if you can, go back to example two where the example shows that that student overcame a lot of life circumstances. They weren't able to go to school, they didn't-- weren't able to read to their children, so the person made stories up. This is showing that that person overcame a ton of obstacles. 

And last but not least, elaborate with details about the nominee. Make sure that you show the reader those three scores, enough information about your nominee. Like in this example where the person learned quickly but struggled to be understood by her classmates, and by English speakers in the community and her place of work, causing both anguish and determination. That tells us so much about this person. 

Just to recap, read honorary stories, compare stories with the rubric, and elaborate with anecdotes about the adult learner. Looking forward to seeing your nomination soon. Take good care.