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Celebrating Poetry in Many Languages
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Nine Ledyard High School students traveled to New Haven on April 7 to
perform poems in the 28th Annual World Poetry Recitation Contest. Each
student had memorized a poem in French or Spanish, and presented it with
well-practiced diction, accent, pronunciation, and emotion. Students
were judged in comparison with others that had completed the same number
of years of study. There were also categories for native speakers.
Ledyard students came home with two medals! They were won by Ron Tardiff
and Sarah Heikkinen. All 9 have reason to be proud of what they’ve
done—learning and practicing their poems on their own time, finding time
to meet with language teachers for critique. Those participating were
Melissa Buriak, Rahul Chandrasekaran, Tiraa Edwards, Sarah Heikkinen,
Britta Johnson, Erika Johnson, Bronwynne Nagle, Erin Strickland and
Ronald Tardiff.
Sixteen languages were represented in the contest, each at various
levels: ancient Greek, Arabic, Chinese, English for Speakers of Other
Languages, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, modern
Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Ninety-one schools from
all over Connecticut sent students.
There were 1033 students there reciting poetry. It was an inspiring day!
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