Wednesday, May 30, 2001
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Wednesday, May 30, 2001 |
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Rising Starr students cited for writing prowess Only nine students from Georgia have been recognized as the nation's eighth-grade Most Promising Young Writers and two of them are from Rising Starr Middle School. Each year the National Council of Teachers of English sponsors the annual Most Promising Young Writers program for eighth-grade students. At the state level, teachers are asked to nominate students from their school for participation. This year Rising Starr nominated five students: Mandee Kulaga, Annie Cowan, Sammar Rajjoub, Kelli McCalla and Jessi Fawley. A total of 895 students from across the nation and Canada were selected to advance to the national level. Of that number, 634 received certificates of participation and 257 received certificates of recognition. Two of the students receiving recognition as the nation's Most Promising Young Writers were Rising Starr's own Kulaga and Fawley. "We were shocked when we found out we won," said Kulaga. In addition to receiving certificates of recognition, Kulaga and Fawley also had their names published in a special booklet honoring all students who were named the Most Promising Young Writers for 2001. The program required students to submit the best essay they had written in class plus an impromptu essay. The impromptu portion was conducted under the supervision of a teacher and limited to 75 minutes. Students did not know the topic ahead of time. Each essay was judged on content, purpose, audience, tone, word choice, organization, development and style. Language arts teacher Kathy Nix said teachers at Rising Starr carefully watched their students' writing performance from August to October to determine who would be good candidates for the program. "Not only were we looking for strong writers, but we also needed students who could perform well under pressure," Nix added. The Promising Young Writers Program was established to stimulate and recognize students' writing talents and to emphasize the importance of writing skills among eighth grade students. It is open to students attending schools in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Canada as well as American schools abroad.
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