Poetry can be a linguistic art form that baffles even the most accomplished authors, but students at The Villages Elementary School have shown that age does not assess talent when it comes to writing.
Shari Stafford, an elementary school talented education teacher, submited several poems from each of her students in the National Schools Project contest, a nationwide poetry competition across the U.S for students. After being referred to it by a colleague, Stafford has been nominating students for this award for the past three years. Entries will be judged and selected for publication in this year’s issue of The Young American Poetry Digest.
Stafford was taken aback when she discovered that not only a handful, but all 43 of her students who entered had at least one poem chosen for publication.
A replica of the digest will be provided to the school library so that prospective students can study and take inspiration from it. Those who win this year will also have the opportunity to buy the book.
Stafford teaches gifted education to fourth and fifth graders at the Villages Charter School, which is a specialised method of enrichment. Students that meet the requirements are taught in an immersive environment that emphasises project-based learning, innovative thinking and problem solving.
Nayari Rodriguez, a fifth-grader, took advantage of the opportunity to write something that is very close to her heart. Nayari said that she aspires to be an author, among other targets, and that she was pleased to be published, despite attempting to write longer stories.
“I was delighted,” Nayari said. “It’s like a launching pad on the way to my achievement.”
Other participants, such as Nayari’s classmate Maeve Cheshire, were just as proud of their achievements. Maeve expressed her delight at having been published twice.
“It feels great; I didn’t expect to be published in either year,” Maeve said.
Claire Wegmann, who had her own difficulties with the haikus this year but was released in consecutive years, expressed Maeve’s surprise.
“Counting out the syllables will take a while,” Claire said.
Students had two submission deadlines and prompts: one on Veterans Day for fourth-graders to finish an acrostic poem, and another near the winter holidays for fifth-graders to compose a haiku about the season.
In addition, students in both grade levels wrote a second haiku for an animal research project that they showed to their classmates.
– Attributed Source, The Villages Daily Sun