Young poets embark on lyrical journey

BYRAM — Mrs. Ginette Garrity’s fifth grade language arts classes at the Byram Intermediate School recently started an extensive poetry unit. Throughout the upcoming months, students will be exposed to many types of poetry and will begin to create their own original poems in class. A variety of poetry forms will be used to inspire them. Each class will learn how to create a haiku, an acrostic poem, a diamante, a rhyming couplet, a limerick and a free verse poem. Students will then imitate each particular style to compose original poems of their own. The classroom will be transformed into a poetry reading forum each month. As part of the unit children will also explore figurative language, which will help the students express themselves clearly and vividly as well as enhance their writing techniques. Students will keep poetry portfolios and at the end of the unit select their favorite poem which will be entered into a contest for the chance to become a published poet. The contest is facilitated by Creative Communications, which runs a competition that publishes high merit poems covering a variety of topics such as the fears, hopes and dreams of today’s students. For over ten years, Creative Communications has recognized young poets for their outstanding achievements in writing. The judges are poets, writers and educators in elementary, secondary and higher education. Poems will be selected on their literary merit, creativity or social significance. Students will receive notices informing them if their poem was chosen for publication in the spring. Mrs. Garrity said all of the children are extremely excited to enter this contest. “This contest shows the children the power of writing,” said Mrs. Garrity, who also said all of her students are winners whether they are published or not. “The hard work, determination, and enthusiasm for writing my students display during our poetry unit make them all winners in my mind."