Wednesday, February 26, 2003
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Wednesday, February 26, 2003 |
A near-sweep for Peeples in recitation festivalFive of the best poetry reciters in Fayette can be found at Peeples Elementary School. Last month students at the school nearly swept the annual Fayette County Elementary Recitation Festival with five of them being selected to advance to the Literacy Days Festival in Griffin Feb. 3-4. Those who represented Fayette at the festival were Annika Stauss (first grade), Andrew Vogeley (second grade), Paul Scarbrough (third grade), Dillion Roseen (fourth grade) and Sara Beth Beatty (fifth grade). The kindergarten winner who represented the county was Hallie Coburn from Cleveland Elementary. Students who earned placements at the Literacy Days Festival were Paul, first place, Dillion, first place and Sara Beth, third place. Being selected to advance to the Griffin festival is no easy feat. Students begin preparing early in the school year for recitation competitions at their individual schools. They are rated on numerous aspects of their performance including memorization, expression/gestures and verbal delivery. A winner from each classroom is selected to participate in a school-wide competition from which one winner is chosen for each grade level. Those winners then advance to the county festival where one student per grade is selected to represent the county at the annual Griffin festival. "Once you get your piece memorized, it all falls into place after that," said Annika, who also participated in the Literacy Days Festival last year as a kindergarten student. Although she has only been participating in recitation festivals for two years now, she has a piece of advice for future competitors. "Although you need to put expression into your piece, you have to be careful not to put too much because it comes across as fake and staged," she warned. Peeples Principal Sondra Watson says she is extremely proud of her students' achievements. She says their success is due in part from their love of poetry and recitation as well as their parents' involvement in helping them choose their pieces and perfect their performances. "Our students perform so well because they love doing it and they have supportive parents who work with them and help them develop their skills. This combination is why our students are so successful," said Watson.
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