Several students and a teacher at Rising Starr Middle are generating state and national attention for their essays, articles, poetry and prose.

Four eighth grade students have earned awards from the 2007 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Promising Young Writers Program. Elana Burton, Jacob Kumro, Thomas Martin and Briana O’Sullivan are among the 224 winners chosen nationwide out of 656 students who were nominated for the award. Only six students from Georgia were selected as winners.

The school-based writing program was established in 1985 to stimulate and recognize students’ writing talents and to emphasize the importance of writing skills among eighth grade students. Schools nominate students who have demonstrated evidence of effective writing.

Each student is required to submit two written compositions: a best writing sample that is either prose and/or verse and an impromptu writing piece on a topic developed by the Promising Young Writers Advisory Committee. Students are given 75 minutes to write the impromptu essay. This year’s topic was “If you could go back to another time for one day, whom would you like to meet?” Students had to explain why they would like to meet this individual and discuss what they would tell her/him about life in the present and why.

Entries were judged on content, purpose, audience, tone, word choice, organization, development and style.

April Martin and Birana O’Sullivan, both eighth graders, will have their poetry published in the magazine, “Mindscapes,” a publication of the Georgia Council of Teachers of English (GCTE) that is due out late May or early June. Their pieces were chosen as winners in the 2007 GCTE Student Writing Awards.

Entries for the competition were poetry or prose with a maximum length of 1,200 words. Pieces were read and judged by a panel of three judges who were grade level specialists.

In addition to the students, eighth grade English teacher Suzanne Carey has written an article titled “In Search of Students’ Voices” that will be published in the May issue of the GCTE journal, “Connections.” The biyearly publication contains information on various aspects of language arts instruction for grades pre-kindergarten through college graduate level. The journal focuses on articles devoted to practical teaching strategies and classroom research.

Carey’s article looks at classroom strategies that encourage students to write with passion and conviction instead of merely regurgitating information in the essay format given by the teacher.

“I believe that students often follow the rubrics we give them, but I don’t hear their own voice in the writing they submit. I suggested we should teach students lessons from great writers who let their voices be heard, and I talk with my students about what great authors have to say about voice in particular,” says Carey.

GCTE issues a biannual call for manuscripts to its membership. Submissions are read and reviewed by selected members of the “Connections” review board or editorial staff.

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