After weeks of practicing their oratorical and writing skills, Fayette County’s middle school students took to the stage to wow audiences and judges during the school system’s annual Poetry Recitation and Ready Writing Competition.
Each middle school sent the top winners from their recitation and writing competitions to participate in the county event. The first place winners from each grade level will now represent Fayette County in the Griffin RESA Regional Literacy Days Festival for grades sixth through eighth on February 14 in Griffin, Georgia.
Poetry reciters advancing to the regional competition are Katie Rausch, sixth grade, Rising Starr Middle; Bryce Bennett, seventh grade, Whitewater Middle; and Lydia Jenkins, eighth grade, Flat Rock Middle.
Ready writers who will compete at the regional event are Ava Newell, sixth grade, Rising Starr Middle; Tito Alofe, seventh grade, Rising Starr Middle; and West Clayton, eighth grade, Whitewater Middle.
“This was the best recitation for far,” says Dr. Portia Rhodes, coordinator of English and world languages. “The selection of poems was phenomenal, and the students were strong in their recitals.”
Students are given a seven-minute time limit to recite their poems. They are judged on the difficulty of the piece, vocabulary, theme, and length, as well as use of their upper body (head, eyes, arms, and hands) for emphasis.
Ready writers have 60 minutes to compose an essay based on a prompt they are given on the spot. Essays are judged on ideas, organization (style, tone/voice, sentence variety, and style), and conventions (sentence formation, usage, and mechanics).
