Grade seven and eight students at Gordon F. Kells High School received exciting news recently regarding a poetry competition hosted by Polar Expressions Publishing, the 11th annual national student poetry competition for students in grades six to eight.
Students at G.F.K. entered the cross-Canada competition in November. Recently eight students discovered they had been chosen as finalists in the competition: Jeanne Alvarez (Gr. 7), Trystan Barta (Gr. 7), Autumn Reed (Gr. 7), Colby Cyr (Gr. 8), Kyla Fischer (Gr. 8), Carley Goudy (Gr. 8), Morgan Robertson (Gr. 8), and Ashton Valentine (Gr. 8). All finalists’ poems will be included in the Canadian student poetry collection, “The Pilot.”
English teacher, Morgan Wasylyk, said, “It was an ELA class idea one of our consultants said that if they were still in the classroom they would add publishing opportunities into the course to make writing more purposeful and to add a sense of community to the classroom. I found different opportunities to enter contests that were open to the kids, gave them entry forms, and they had the choice of whether they wanted to submit their poems or stories.”
The students added that they entered free verse poems and decided to simply enter the competition; some explained they had an affinity for English class, while others said they just decided to go for it.
